Barefoot Walking the Camino de Santiago Portuguese Coastal Route

Happy Birthday Ken Bob!

Today I am 69 years old-ish! I think I’ll go for a long barefoot walk on the beach… Starting in Portugal and finishing in Spain, in September.

Today, though, I’m just walking some trails near my home.

Just another Long Walk on the Beach…

I’m not the first person to attempt, let alone complete the Camino de Santiago path barefoot (links below). I won’t even be doing any of the more difficult paths. I plan to walk barefoot on the Portuguese Coastal Route during September which should provide (hopefully) near ideal weather. I’m essentially lazy and like to be comfortable… that is the reason I walked and ran barefoot much of my life and still do walk barefoot. For me, shoes are often not comfortable, especially over long distances and periods of times. And, in case I haven’t made it clear, I like to be comfortable!

My sister, Adreah informed our family that she plans to walk the Camino de Santiago Portuguese Coastal Route in 2024 May… with her friend Cheryl. Adreah’s husband will be her (our) chauffeur driving us to the start point from our accommodations each morning, and from our end point back to our accommodations each afternoon/evening.

I invited myself to join her on the walk. This won’t be our first “road trip” together. In 2003, I invited Adreah to carpool with me from Michigan to Connecticut, I even let her use her own car (mine was in California). We have even crossed water together a few times on ferries. But, it will be our first time flying together, though I did not pay for preferred seating, so there’s a good chance we won’t be sitting together on the plane.

Cheryl was not able to take that much time off work in May, so the trip was put on hold… Finally, she was able to get 18 days off work in September. It’s certainly nice being retired, I only need to check with my wife, our dog, and our cat. The cat, being the oldest (in cat-years) was naturally a bit worried about babysitting with the dog and my wife. We now have plane tickets, and Adreah has reserved rental properties to stay along the way. Because we have a chauffeur, we won’t need to stay very close to our start/stop points along the way. In fact we can stay at some places for several days. Kind of modeled this idea after Rae’s (mostly barefoot) Run Across America (except much, much shorter and instead of volunteers driving and hosting us, we have our own chauffeur to drive, and rental properties to sleep and eat).

Still, it’s nearly 180 miles in 15-ish days, and that is more distance than I have ever put on my feet in that amount of time… Sure, occasionally I ran some 80+ miles in one week back when I was 43 years young. But I would relax the following week, and do almost no running at all (told you, I’m naturally lazy). It has been decades since I’ve done close (like half-ish maybe) to 180 miles in a few weeks, but I’m ramping up. And it is walking, not running. And it isn’t over a mountain range, like some of the routes. I think I can, I think I can…

I’ve had some pains in my feet and/or ankles that come and go, seem to go away after long walks (and follow the suggestions in my own book, Barefoot Running Step by Step), but came back again when I ran a bit of the Surf City 4th of July 5K. I suspect arthritis (which showed on an X-ray in 2014 when I broke a metatarsal along with a heel spur). So now, after a week or so of recovery, I’m sticking with walking and no hard running (except occasionally short “sprints” crossing the highway with our dog). Rule number one for my list of things not to do when practicing for an event: “Do not injure yourself!” An injury will jeopardize your ability to complete any event you’re training for, so much more than almost anything else. It would be better to be undertrained, at least then you might be able to complete the event without needing a hospital! And, this isn’t an intense event, we’re not going to be running, or power walking, or carrying tons of baggage. I will be carrying some camera equipment and batteries and water, but other than the water, these items are much smaller and lighter and better than decades ago. The only intense aspect of this walk is the distance and short time. Otherwise, I’m looking at this as a “nice long walk on the beach” (well, not always on the beach, but at least mostly near the coast).

Join Us?

If you don’t mind walking with an arthritic old man who doesn’t care to wear shoes, his older sister, and Cheryl. Contact me if you’re might be in the area and want to walk with us or meet up – some where between Porto, Portugal and Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, some day between 2024 September 14 and 2024 September 29 (or 30th?). You will need to provide your own transportation, or use mass transit, ride-sharing, etc. to get there.

My sister’s has a schedule, but we may be slightly flexible, maybe going longer or shorter than planned each day. I do hope to be able to let folks know, at least by the evening before, where we will start in the morning the following day – it should be the same place we stopped the afternoon-evening of that day.

FREE! copies of Barefoot Running Step by Step

I plan to give away FREE copies of my book, Barefoot Running Step by Step (English language version). Probably only 1-3 copies each day (they do get heavy in the backpack, and I like being comfortable), so first come first serve (though I can reload each morning before starting the next day’s walk). Also, depends how many copies customs lets me bring into Portugal. I won’t be selling any books, so I hope that will simplify the process? You can also buy copies of Barefoot Running Step by Step at Amazon, maybe bookstores – but it has been out of print for a few years, so good luck. There are also French and Japanese Language editions. I’m pre-foot-printing the FREE copies I bring with me, because the foot-printing is the more time-consuming aspect of auto-foot-print-graphing. I will personalize the autograph with your name(s), friend’s name, or who or whatever you like – within limits – I don’t want to write another book inside the front cover. Oh, and you can still get digital copies of Barefoot Running Step by Step but, I don’t believe you’ll want me to auto-foot-print-graph your device.

Others have walked “The Way” barefoot:

By no means is this intended to be a complete list of everyone who has walked part or all of any of the paths barefoot. These are just what I found with a quick search – look, how many times do I have to repeat, “I am lazy”. If you know of others, feel free to post in the comments. Also, the history of the Camino de Santiago is very long, and in olden days, probably many folks walked it barefoot (a bit more than 1000 years ago, shoes were a luxury many people could not afford). While I’m in no way religious, I will end this intro with a quote from the bible (also the Quran, and many other religious texts), “Draw not nigh hither. Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.” – EXODUS 3:5

Barefoot Training – Camino Questions

Christian Pinon – The Barefoot Pilgrim on the Camino de Santiago

Barefoot Sue walked many different routes of the Camino de Santiago, often barefoot

Machi walked barefoot along “The French Road” about 750Km (465 miles) 

Pastor Stefan Fillauer has walked the Camino de Santiago 5 times barefoot (as of 2022 June 15)

Contact Barefoot Ken Bob

Contact Me if you want to walk part of the way with me/us.