El Gouna Resident Completes 780km El Camino Walk


Popular Gouna resident Ahmed Farid has recently returned to Gouna after completing the Camino walk on foot. He was approached by Gouna News to tell his story. This is what he told us:


'I had never heard of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela before. In 2015, a friend, Jill, convinced a bunch of my favorite girls to join her on her 5th Camino in June of that year. The group of five went and as planned did a truncated version from Ponferrada to Santiago some 200km in 10 days of hot weather. For some reason their journey touched something within me, even though they were quite silent about how it affected them; now I understand why.


I silently but resolutely decided to do the whole Camino in 2016. Of course hardly anyone believed me. I was doing this for entirely personal reasons. I needed to get out of my own comfort zone, meet the physical and logistical challenge and be on my own in solitude…to reflect on whatever my mind wanders to.


Of some initial comfort, my friend Jill was also going on her sixth Camino starting May 1 so I decided to start the same time to give me some focus in planning. Her presence was mostly on Whatsapp because we were like the hare and the turtle, particularly on the first day crossing the Pyrenees: she would effortlessly disappear into the clouds while I was huffing and puffing. On that first day, I arrived some 40km later at the planned destination Roncesvalles completely worn out and contemplating whether to continue on this adventure only to find Jill sitting on the terrace of a bar sipping wine and looking like a million (of whatever currency)! That was almost the last time we bumped into each other. She finished the Camino in 20 days!


My very first major physical challenge ever…and it had to be up the Pyrenees (1400m) and down! The down was the most difficult and challenging to life and limb (mine of course) because of conditions on the ground: accumulated snow and ice, rain and snow flurries, melting snow turning the path to streams, very slippery wet mud, rocks etc.. Given the condition of my knees where one wrong move would aggravate a few ligaments (and scuttle my trip), I was extremely careful in every step taken. Despite that, I slipped and fell twice. One of them was again like a turtle on its back with my backpack in snow; a passing couple had to pull me back up.


The Camino, which began as a Christian pilgrimage hundreds of years ago, is a voyage to reach the place where St James the Apostle is purportedly buried. The traditional and most popular route taken is the Camino Frances, from St Jean Pied de Port in France across the Pyrenees moving west to the city of Santiago de Compostella some 780km away. 


All the hamlets, villages, towns and cities the Camino passes through are memorable and ingrained in my mind :St Jean,  Pamplona, Puente La Reina, Santo Domingo, Burgos, Astorga, Ponferrrada, Sarria, Portomarin…to name but a few. The landscape I passed through varied from mountain to lush plains to woods…a variety of colours and weather from cold, to rain to moderately hot…from boring straight paths to tough uphills to magical walks through lush woods. Through all that you learn to trust the Camino signs: a yellow arrow or a seashell.


Frankly, I was quite open-minded when I did my little pre-planning for the trip: I had no qualms in quitting after one day, one week or two. If I couldn’t continue, I would simply take some transport to the final destination of Santiago to catch my flight back home. The very first day through the Pyrenees, I took off at 7.30 am and reached Roncesvalles at 5 pm completely worn out, feet frozen (shoes turned out not to be waterproof), some toes were not doing so well and felt like they needed amputation, legs aching all over. I seriously thought of quitting. But you think: hey I just completed the worst day, let me try the second day…and so it goes one day at a time. Even though a good night’s sleep helps, every day is a struggle for at least the first two weeks. Why am I really doing this?!


At times you’re amongst other pilgrims (as we were called) at other times you’re completely alone which rattled me at the beginning, concerned I may have lost my way. Later you start trusting the sign! I preferred the solitude in being alone. Sometimes you can’t shake off a pilgrim walking next to you or a group behind you chatting endlessly (mostly French or Italian). So sometimes you need to interact beyond the greeting ‘Buen Camino’. I did so with one Spaniard who turned out to be from an ancient originally Christian family which divided between Christian and Muslim. His Christian name is Oriole and his Muslim name is Mostafa. He’s trying to build on this co-existence within his family by promoting co-existence and peace through a commune he started near Barcelona. On another occasion I met an American: what’s your name he asked…do you know the U tube video with the ventriloquist and the terrorist dummy, well my name is Achmed ‘without the ‘terrorist’. Again, another American: where are you from…I’m Egyptian…wow I’ve never seen an Egyptian before!


Another funny realization is when it took me a whole day to reach the peak of Cebreiro 1200m. However because I couldn't find lodging up there, I had to find a room at its foothills down there...so I took a taxi to my hostel which took 5 minutes! A whole day of walking reduced to 5 minutes in a taxi!


Twenty-five days later I was walking the last 14km to Santiago and its cathedral which is the ultimate destination where lies the tomb of St James (St Jacques in French). By then I didn’t want my journey to end.

I felt I wanted to Keep Walking as some of my funny friends suggested.

Buen Camino to all… in whatever journey you’re on or decide to do.