After working as a financial planner for 30 years, Oyster Bay’s Brian McBain decided he wanted to pursue a totally unplanned life.
“I retired in March last year and I wanted to get out of what I called the three-D life - dates, demands and deadlines that for the past 30 years had ruled our life,” Brian, 59, said.
So Brian and wife, Sue decided to walk the famous Camino de Santiago, or Way of St James, a large network of ancient pilgrim routes stretching across Europe and coming together at the tomb of St James in Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain.
The experience was so memorable that they have just returned from completing their second pilgrimage in 12 months along the Camino and are now planning their third.
“The Camino has attracted pilgrims from Medieval times and we thought what a good thing it would be follow it and to live from day to day without any planning,” Brian said
“We wanted to do something that didn’t compel to follow a regimented path.”
“There are about nine of these pilgrimages. We decided to do the French Way, a 900km pilgrim walk across Spain, starting in the village of St Jean Pied de Port in the French Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostela.
“After a few days in Santiago, we continued walking to Fisterra, meaning Lands’ End, situated on the west coast of Spain, and in Roman times considered to be the end of the world, and then on to Muxia, a Celtic village on the Atlantic Coast.
“The maximum we did for 20 to 23 km a day because we just wanted to have time to explore the villages along the way.
“After a regimented life, it was a release.”
After completing the the trek in August last year they decided to return in April this year and do the Portuguese section of the Camino.
This was a six week walk from the Portuguese capital of Lisbon, heading north 615km to Santiago.
“Our first trek was from June to August in summer across the Meseta area in the middle of Spain where temperatures got up to 42 degrees Celsius,” Brian said.
“So we went back in March for the cooler weather and commenced from Lisbon and walked up through Portugal to Porto and then into Spain.
“A lot of people do the walk for different reasons. Religion was not necessarily the reason for us but you get a little caught up in the significance of it all anyway.
“It wasn’t a spiritual thing. It didn’t prove to us why we are or change us except to prove to ourselves that we could do it.
“Tour companies can book accommodation for you every night and plan your whole trip. This wasn’t for us. “We were getting away from dates, demands and deadlines.
“We just booked one day in advance on our Ipad. We never had a problem with accommodation.
“Basically, after living a planned life, we learned to live from day-to-day.
“We also learned to live without material things, getting rid of the paraphernalia we put up with every day in the western world.
“When you are on the road all you have is what in in your backpack.
“Living with just clothing, food and shelter is the basis of what we need as humans and that became our focus every day.
“And we didn’t know what was ahead.’’
Brian and Sue have come to love the unplanned life so much that they have decided to do their third Camino walk.
Next March they will walk from the village of Le Puy en Velay in south-central France to St Jean Pied de Port, a village situated at the foothills of the Pyrenees in south-western France, a distance of approximately 736kms.
They recommend the walk to anyone. “You have to be reasonable fit but it is not expensive and people of all ages do the Camino,” Brian said.
“It offers the personal challenge from the physical, mental and spiritual aspect, being exposed to the fact people have walked that trail for many centuries and many more will walk it in the future.”