It's the world's most famous pilgrim route - but are you ever too old to walk it?

The Advertiser

3 days ago

Camino de Santiago. Picture: Getty Images
By Susan Gough Henly
Updated August 1 2025 - 2:35pm, first published 2:00pm
Just an hour or so into my journey along the Camino de Santiago, I pass a radiant woman walking slowly on crutches, the fleeting image of her smile stays with me still. Subscribe now for unlimited access.
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"You're an inspiration," she tells me and I demure saying it's she who's the inspiration.
I'm among a group of 14 travellers on a guided walk specifically for seniors. But it turns out we are far from alone in being of a certain age. Pilgrims of all ages, shapes and sizes have been walking the Camino de Santiago for a thousand years and in 2025 it is no different. In fact, this bucket-list pilgrimage is more popular than ever.
These days there are nine pilgrimage routes of differing lengths but all end at the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, the capital of Galicia in north-western Spain, where many believe the remains of the apostle St James are buried.
City of Santiago de Compostela and its cathedral in Galicia, Spain. Picture: Getty Images
The most popular route, the 771-kilometre French Way from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in south-western France, involves a commitment of at least five weeks walking. You do not have to carry a backpack with all your gear as you can arrange for a luggage transfer service. However, you can walk the last 115 kilometres and still qualify for the Compostela, which is the official document in Latin certifying that you have completed "The Way". In 2024, almost 500,000 pilgrims received their Compostela - a 90 per cent increase in the decade since 2015.
Australian walking specialist UTracks is offering one of the first guided Camino walks for senior travellers. Ranging between nine and 18 kilometres a day, you cover those 115 kilometres in a leisurely nine days. And you stay in atmospheric inns with comfy beds and ensuites, enjoy delicious local foods and get your luggage transferred daily. All you carry is your day pack and your joie de vivre.
Our group is primarily from Australia, as well as two Americans and one Brit. We gather in late May on the sunny deck of a hotel in Sarria for a pre-walk briefing with our enthusiastic young Galician guide Pedro. He explains that we can walk at our own pace and he'll arrange meeting spots along the route. We sign up to a WhatsApp group for ease of communication. At a glance, I put most people in their 60s, with a couple in their 50s. I later learn that at least five people are in their 70s but, as the saying goes, 70 is the new 50 and most people look fit and raring to go.
A group of UTracks walkers, including the writer at left. Picture: Maria Lara
Bright and fresh, we begin walking together through the old town of Sarria and into the countryside, where the path turns to dirt beside a rushing stream and an old man sells hand-carved walking sticks for a mere 10 euros.
We climb a hill through a forest of oak and chestnut trees and stop to get our first Camino passport stamp from a local who's offering fresh fruit for a donation. I chat with Susanne from New York and Susana from Wollongong in our group. Both tell me that the Camino has been on their bucket list for ages.
Out into the sunshine, walking past just-ploughed fields framed with apple blossoms, I smile at three teenage girls in short shorts walking with linked arms. A priest in black prays with his rosary as a farmer forks hay. Blond Galician cows chew green grass. A spring gurgles beneath a stone wall. Middle-aged women in groups of two and three, chat animatedly as they pass a slender woman (who looks like she's struggling with cancer), hand in hand with her partner, both wearing red pants. Galicia's ever-present horreos (granaries) perched on toadstool-like stone stilts, witness it all.
A marker on the route. Picture: Getty Images
A couple of young families from America, including a toddler in an all-terrain stroller, are bird-watching and the dad suggests we look out for goldfinches and robins, blue tits and skylarks, and soaring red kites cruising for prey.
I fall into pace with Sol in our group from Chicago, who's on her fifth Camino. She tells me., "Everyone always has something to share if you take the time to ask."
I'm blown away by the gobsmacking diversity of pilgrims ... from Spain, of course, but also Italy, Japan, Mexico, Wales and so many other places. And this is just my first day. There's a pervasive generosity of spirit among the walkers. It's unlike any hike I've done around the world, where you might say a quick hello to people but rarely connect. Here, the path feels communal.
A traditional horreo grain silo has been converted into a hotel for pilgrims. Picture: Susan Gough Henly
On our second day, Queen's Don't Stop Me Now is blaring from a loudspeaker at a gift shop called A Paso de Tortuga (the Turtle's Pace). I love the humour. We stop anyway to buy scallop shells for our day packs. These might be the world's first souvenirs. Pilgrims in the Middle Ages picked them up from the beach in Fisterra (where, after Santiago, many walkers end their pilgrimage by the Atlantic Ocean) to prove they'd walked the Camino. Now the shells are ubiquitous.
We pass the 100-kilometre way-marker to Santiago; rest on a stone seat under a soaring oak tree; stop at bars and chapels to stamp our pilgrim passports; marvel at ancient standing stones incorporated into shale walls where wildflowers and ivy grow through the cracks; and walk through pine and eucalypt plantations.
It turns out that Rosendo Salvado, a Galician Benedictine monk, who was the first abbot in New Norcia in Western Australia, is responsible for sending eucalyptus seeds back to Spain in the mid 1850s, thereby establishing an invasive species in these parts. On the Camino, we're alerted to the environmental hazards of a proposed eucalyptus pulp mill nearby and are asked to sign a petition to stop it.
Guide Pedro points out the spires of the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. Picture: Susan Gough Henly
The next day, we pause at a 250-year-old chapel in Saint Nicolao hamlet, mesmerised by the resonant tones of three men singing in Latin to the shrine inside. Later I explore, alone and in the sunshine, the ruins of the Castro de Castromaior, a remarkable Celtic Iron Age fort. Sometimes we're shrouded in forests with just the sunshine at the end of a tunnel of green drawing us forward. We pass an old woman planting her vegetable garden. A troupe of Argentinian cyclists in pale blue and white-striped jerseys flashes past. A young man dressed in a Saint James cape stamps our pilgrim passports. Beside a Knights Templar stone chapel that began life as a pilgrim hospital, we drink cold beers and eat lunch at a restaurant, with sheep and chickens grazing out the back door.
Go on a guided trip geared for seniors with shorter daily kilometres, comfortable hotels with ensuites, and luggage transfer. Give yourself an accurate self-assessment of your overall fitness but don't let age define you. Build up your walking endurance over several months before you start. Pace yourself. Walking the Camino is not a race. There are dozens of places to stop for a rest and a reviving snack and drink.
Blessed with morning mists that clear into balmy bright blue skies, our days develop a comforting rhythm. We're up early, fuel up on hearty breakfasts and are on the road by 8.30am. Walking dirt paths beside newly planted fields, we pass through hamlets jumbled with stone houses, chapels and barns then tackle asphalt roads beside busy highways, truck drivers often honking support as they roar past. A woman sells foot cream made from local plants. Dread-locked hippies in a combi van display their handmade jewellery. Sunhat-wearing nuns stamp pilgrim passports in the blinding sunshine. A Brazilian offers strawberries and cream beside a medieval bridge.
The iconic walk in Galicia, Spain. Picture: Getty Images
Our accommodations are varied and comfortable, with standouts being the modern two-star Hotel Vistalegre in Portomarin, with a sundeck and hot tub that can be reserved to soothe aching muscles, and Pazo Santa Maria, a beautifully restored 18th century stone manor house surrounded by gardens on the outskirts of Arzua. Along the way, we savour specialties like boiled octopus with paprika, Galician steak, grilled scallops, Galician broth made with vegetables, beans and pork, and tarta de Santiago almond cake.
Bring Vaseline to prevent blisters, Moleskine to put on sore spots before they become blisters and Compeed Second Skin once blisters start. Also bring antiseptic ointment, gauze and scissors. Invest in good-quality seamless, moisture-wicking socks to help prevent sweaty feet, which can be a primary cause for blisters. Wear good-quality, comfortable hiking shoes that have been broken in and are waterproofed. Take off your hiking shoes and wear sandals once your hiking for the day is finished so your feet can air out. Dress in layers. Carry waterproof gear. Wear a hat and sunscreen, and drink plenty of water. Stretch before, during and after each day's walk.
To the metronome of our footsteps, my fellow travellers and I toggle between grunt and glory, discussing the mundane (blisters and aches) then sharing intimate reflections about our lives. There's a refreshing lack of small talk. When we stop at one of the many Camino bars, I notice a Canadian who has passed his pilgrim staff to a German asking her what is singing in her heart at that moment. Okay, maybe this is veering a little too close to schmaltz, but everyone is genuinely more openhearted, precisely because they've committed to this journey, which feels like a collaborative endeavour. Indeed, it seems that even if people are walking solo (as many are), there's no sense that they're walking alone since there are so many opportunities to connect with others.
My new friend Sol tells me that one of the things she's learned from her Camino pilgrimages is that it's okay not to be perfect. I think she's leaning into what it means to be human. From my research about Saint James, whose story is fuzzy at best, it appears that, despite his best efforts, he was not a very successful missionary in Spain. Perhaps he's the ideal role model for all of us walking the Camino.
Posing with a statue of Saint James. Picture: Susan Gough Henly
As we get closer to Santiago, I find myself savouring walking meditations on my own. I marvel at purple foxgloves and white calla lilies; pass shrines to saints and sinners, that is, ordinary people; smile at advertisements for the Gloria tattoo parlour in Santiago; and take a freeway underpass where a giant, spray-painted yellow-and-black butterfly wishes me a Buen Camino.
On the penultimate day with the most kilometres to walk (18), I come to the sudden and surprising realisation that, despite my blisters and sore muscles, I don't want the Camino to end. Maybe it's the adrenaline. Maybe it's the endorphins. Or maybe it's just the elimination of the inessentials of everyday life and putting one foot in front of the other to just keep on going?
I ask 79-year-old Yvonne, the oldest and - dare I say - one of the fittest people in our group, "Are you ever too old to walk the Camino?"
A stamp provider along the Camino dresses as Saint James. Picture: Susan Gough Henly
"That's a tricky question," she tells me. "Before booking the trip last year, I thought, 'I must do this before I get too old. I hope I can manage it.' However now that I've walked it, my mind has changed. I now think I could walk it easily enough next year, the year after next, even the year after that. We're all travellers on our journey through time."
A friend sent me pilgrim blessings written by a nun at the Church of St Stephen on the Camino. Three of them really resonated.
"Blessed are you pilgrim, if you discover that the Camino opens your eyes to what is not seen.
Blessed are you pilgrim, if what concerns you most is not to arrive, as to arrive with others.
Blessed are you pilgrim, because you have discovered that the authentic Camino begins when it is completed."
So, are you ever too old to walk the Camino? Are you ever too old for connection, community and comradeship? The question answers itself.
Getting there: Qatar Airways flies via Doha and Barcelona, to Santiago de Compostela, for around $3200. You can take a taxi or bus from the airport to the Santiago train station, and then take the train to Sarria, the UTrack hike's starting point.
Doing the hike: The 12-day UTracks Guided Camino Walk for Senior Travellers, which includes all accommodation, 11 breakfasts, 10 dinners and luggage transfer, is $3851 per person, twin share.
Explore more: utracks.com
The writer was a guest of UTracks