How do you tackle a journey of 500 miles? For Anne Starr, the answer is simple really.
“Take one step at a time and you’ll get there,” responds Anne, who walked the Camino de Santiago in Spain, solo in 2017 at the age of 56, having decided that she needed to make a change in her life.
One of 12 children raised on a dairy farm near Nenagh, Co Tipperary, Anne (now 57) spent most of her career working with Bank of Ireland in Dublin, Cork and finally London, as a project manager. In 2011, however, the economic downturn saw her being made redundant.
“So that was the beginning of ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’, because I had to get out of that comfort zone of a 32-year career in one place; but it turned out to be very good,” reflects Anne, who continued to use her skills as a contractor, usually spending six months on a project, before moving on to the next challenge.
But while she loved her work, the fast pace of life also took a toll and in 2017 she knew she needed a change. Just what, she wasn’t sure.
“I went away to Corfu and I reflected on things and I was just going ‘I’m knackered!’” she recalls. “I just kind of went: ‘Something has to change, but I don’t know how to change it’.”
In her spare time, Anne had always enjoyed going on the occasional hill walk, mostly to escape London city and reconnect with nature. She had, however, heard about the Camino de Santiago and seen the Martin Sheen film The Way, and began to wonder if she might find the answer she was looking for on ‘the road’.
“I thought this is a place for really long-term reflection,” explains Anne of her decision to tackle the 800km/500 mile journey along the Camino Francés (the French Way).
“I had the luxury in so far as I was able to take time out… but that’s where the luxury ends.”
Anne Starr pictured on day four of the Camino.
One step at a time
Indeed, as Anne was on a strict budget, rather than go through a tour operator she decided to plan her own solo trip, budgeting a maximum spend of €35 a day for hostel accommodation and meals.
She also knew she would have to travel light, investing in a 40-litre backpack and carefully adhering to the “packing list recommended in John Brierley’s A Pilgrim’s Guide To The Camino, which included everything from a head torch and spare bootlaces to nappy pins and a sewing kit, as well as two sets of clothes to wear and wash en route.
Not all of her preparations went to plan, however, with a minor leg injury and post-virus fatigue throwing her training off course, so it was with more than a little trepidation that she boarded the flight to Biarritz to make her way to the start of the route at St Jean Pied de Porte in September 2017.
“It was fear and excitement,” recalls Anne, who had taken the precaution of booking her accommodation for the first two nights for “peace of mind”, as well as using a service called JACOTRANS, which would transfer her main luggage for €5 to her next destination, while she carried her water, lunch and essentials for the day.
As she embarked on the first leg up through the Pyrenees, she admits that she feared that she might not be fit or fast enough for the journey ahead; but a chance meeting gave her the encouragement she needed that she was on the right path – in every sense.
“This old man in his 80s flew past me and he said: ‘And where are you off to?’ and I said: ‘I’m going to Santiago’. He said: ‘How are you getting there?’ and I said: ‘One step at a time’ and he just laughed and said: ‘That’s the attitude. Don’t think of it as a 500-mile journey. Look at what you’re doing right now and just take each step as it comes and for every step you take forward, you’re getting closer’,” explains Anne, who typically covered an average of 13 miles a day, with shorter distances if the terrain was more challenging.
“On tough days sometimes I’d go: ‘Oh gosh, this is hard’, but then I’d say: ‘I’m getting closer: I’m further away than where I started and I’m getting closer to where I’m going’.”
Anne Starr pictured on day 17 on the Camino.
Spiritual journey
While the prospect of travelling alone had been slightly daunting for Anne, it did not take long to meet other travellers over the communal ‘pilgrim meal’ every evening, which typically consisted of French onion soup and fresh bread, a bean cassoulet and a glass of wine.
She also quickly adjusted to the shared rooms and communal showering facilities in the hostels, while arming herself with a few stock Spanish phrases to call ahead each evening to reserve a bunk bed at the next stop.
But as well as the physical journey, Anne – who would describe herself as a “lapsed Catholic” – also found herself on a spiritual journey, whether it was finding clarity on certain issues, healing old wounds, or growing in self-belief that no matter what lay ahead once she reached the end of her journey that she would be okay.
“There were certain things that lightened my own personal load and by this hardship I went through – as in the hardship of the road – I all of a sudden went: ‘Wow, you can do this!’” she explains.
“So it was like you have the burden on your back and you have the internal burden and the stronger you get, you can take more weight on your back; but the stronger you get, you can actually relieve the internal burden.”
And in less than six weeks Anne reached her final destination of Santiago de Compostela.
“As I stood there in the shrouded cathedral, I thought: ‘I did it! I just walked 500 miles! Yipee!’. There was a real sense of achievement and I made it there in one piece,” reflects Anne; though admits that part of her wanted to “keep on walking”.
“But it was almost like a message in itself that the journey never ends,” she says. “We’re on a journey in our lives and the journey never ends and it’s how we walk that journey and just taking one step at a time.”
And in one way the Camino was just the beginning, as shortly after Anne’s return she made the decision not to return to contract work and instead set up her own business, Camino Essentials, which sells pre-packed hiking essentials kits, inspired by the difficulty she had sourcing everything she needed when planning her own trip.
“And the good news is I haven’t had to go back and do any contracting yet; and I hope I don’t have to,” says Anne, who adds that since her Camino experience she feels much happier and more relaxed in herself, with a strengthened sense of self-belief.
“I don’t know what my future is, but I know one thing: it will be okay,” she emphasises.
In 2019 Anne will return to the Camino with a friend to walk to Finisterre and Muxia, but for anybody considering making the pilgrimage, her advice is to remember that it is your journey, not anybody else’s.
“If you really want to do it, you can do it and don’t let other people tell you that you should be doing this, you should be doing that,” she says.
“It’s your pilgrimage and if you want to walk some of it and get the bus for another bit of it and walk the rest, it’s your pilgrimage.
“You do it whatever way makes you comfortable. If you transport stuff to take the burden off your back so that you can deal with the burdens in your soul, do it. Get that physical weight off you and work on yourself because you will just feel the benefits.”
And for Anne Starr, those benefits will last a lifetime.
“The message is to keep moving forward and no matter how difficult life may get, stay focused on what lies ahead, not on what has already happened. Though the terrain may be tough at times, the way to get through is to take small steps and you will get there in the end. There’s no point looking back because it’s in the past and there’s nothing you can do to change it,” she says.
“Keep moving forward with faith and trust – that’s when the magic happens.”
For further information, visit www.camino-essentials.com
Read more
"Failure wasn't an option" - the farm-to-fork cafe on the Long Mile Rd
Guardian of the sea - meet the chair of the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority
How do you tackle a journey of 500 miles? For Anne Starr, the answer is simple really.
“Take one step at a time and you’ll get there,” responds Anne, who walked the Camino de Santiago in Spain, solo in 2017 at the age of 56, having decided that she needed to make a change in her life.
One of 12 children raised on a dairy farm near Nenagh, Co Tipperary, Anne (now 57) spent most of her career working with Bank of Ireland in Dublin, Cork and finally London, as a project manager. In 2011, however, the economic downturn saw her being made redundant.
“So that was the beginning of ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’, because I had to get out of that comfort zone of a 32-year career in one place; but it turned out to be very good,” reflects Anne, who continued to use her skills as a contractor, usually spending six months on a project, before moving on to the next challenge.
But while she loved her work, the fast pace of life also took a toll and in 2017 she knew she needed a change. Just what, she wasn’t sure.
“I went away to Corfu and I reflected on things and I was just going ‘I’m knackered!’” she recalls. “I just kind of went: ‘Something has to change, but I don’t know how to change it’.”
In her spare time, Anne had always enjoyed going on the occasional hill walk, mostly to escape London city and reconnect with nature. She had, however, heard about the Camino de Santiago and seen the Martin Sheen film The Way, and began to wonder if she might find the answer she was looking for on ‘the road’.
“I thought this is a place for really long-term reflection,” explains Anne of her decision to tackle the 800km/500 mile journey along the Camino Francés (the French Way).
“I had the luxury in so far as I was able to take time out… but that’s where the luxury ends.”
Anne Starr pictured on day four of the Camino.
One step at a time
Indeed, as Anne was on a strict budget, rather than go through a tour operator she decided to plan her own solo trip, budgeting a maximum spend of €35 a day for hostel accommodation and meals.
She also knew she would have to travel light, investing in a 40-litre backpack and carefully adhering to the “packing list recommended in John Brierley’s A Pilgrim’s Guide To The Camino, which included everything from a head torch and spare bootlaces to nappy pins and a sewing kit, as well as two sets of clothes to wear and wash en route.
Not all of her preparations went to plan, however, with a minor leg injury and post-virus fatigue throwing her training off course, so it was with more than a little trepidation that she boarded the flight to Biarritz to make her way to the start of the route at St Jean Pied de Porte in September 2017.
“It was fear and excitement,” recalls Anne, who had taken the precaution of booking her accommodation for the first two nights for “peace of mind”, as well as using a service called JACOTRANS, which would transfer her main luggage for €5 to her next destination, while she carried her water, lunch and essentials for the day.
As she embarked on the first leg up through the Pyrenees, she admits that she feared that she might not be fit or fast enough for the journey ahead; but a chance meeting gave her the encouragement she needed that she was on the right path – in every sense.
“This old man in his 80s flew past me and he said: ‘And where are you off to?’ and I said: ‘I’m going to Santiago’. He said: ‘How are you getting there?’ and I said: ‘One step at a time’ and he just laughed and said: ‘That’s the attitude. Don’t think of it as a 500-mile journey. Look at what you’re doing right now and just take each step as it comes and for every step you take forward, you’re getting closer’,” explains Anne, who typically covered an average of 13 miles a day, with shorter distances if the terrain was more challenging.
“On tough days sometimes I’d go: ‘Oh gosh, this is hard’, but then I’d say: ‘I’m getting closer: I’m further away than where I started and I’m getting closer to where I’m going’.”
Anne Starr pictured on day 17 on the Camino.
Spiritual journey
While the prospect of travelling alone had been slightly daunting for Anne, it did not take long to meet other travellers over the communal ‘pilgrim meal’ every evening, which typically consisted of French onion soup and fresh bread, a bean cassoulet and a glass of wine.
She also quickly adjusted to the shared rooms and communal showering facilities in the hostels, while arming herself with a few stock Spanish phrases to call ahead each evening to reserve a bunk bed at the next stop.
But as well as the physical journey, Anne – who would describe herself as a “lapsed Catholic” – also found herself on a spiritual journey, whether it was finding clarity on certain issues, healing old wounds, or growing in self-belief that no matter what lay ahead once she reached the end of her journey that she would be okay.
“There were certain things that lightened my own personal load and by this hardship I went through – as in the hardship of the road – I all of a sudden went: ‘Wow, you can do this!’” she explains.
“So it was like you have the burden on your back and you have the internal burden and the stronger you get, you can take more weight on your back; but the stronger you get, you can actually relieve the internal burden.”
And in less than six weeks Anne reached her final destination of Santiago de Compostela.
“As I stood there in the shrouded cathedral, I thought: ‘I did it! I just walked 500 miles! Yipee!’. There was a real sense of achievement and I made it there in one piece,” reflects Anne; though admits that part of her wanted to “keep on walking”.
“But it was almost like a message in itself that the journey never ends,” she says. “We’re on a journey in our lives and the journey never ends and it’s how we walk that journey and just taking one step at a time.”
And in one way the Camino was just the beginning, as shortly after Anne’s return she made the decision not to return to contract work and instead set up her own business, Camino Essentials, which sells pre-packed hiking essentials kits, inspired by the difficulty she had sourcing everything she needed when planning her own trip.
“And the good news is I haven’t had to go back and do any contracting yet; and I hope I don’t have to,” says Anne, who adds that since her Camino experience she feels much happier and more relaxed in herself, with a strengthened sense of self-belief.
“I don’t know what my future is, but I know one thing: it will be okay,” she emphasises.
In 2019 Anne will return to the Camino with a friend to walk to Finisterre and Muxia, but for anybody considering making the pilgrimage, her advice is to remember that it is your journey, not anybody else’s.
“If you really want to do it, you can do it and don’t let other people tell you that you should be doing this, you should be doing that,” she says.
“It’s your pilgrimage and if you want to walk some of it and get the bus for another bit of it and walk the rest, it’s your pilgrimage.
“You do it whatever way makes you comfortable. If you transport stuff to take the burden off your back so that you can deal with the burdens in your soul, do it. Get that physical weight off you and work on yourself because you will just feel the benefits.”
And for Anne Starr, those benefits will last a lifetime.
“The message is to keep moving forward and no matter how difficult life may get, stay focused on what lies ahead, not on what has already happened. Though the terrain may be tough at times, the way to get through is to take small steps and you will get there in the end. There’s no point looking back because it’s in the past and there’s nothing you can do to change it,” she says.
“Keep moving forward with faith and trust – that’s when the magic happens.”
For further information, visit www.camino-essentials.com
Read more
"Failure wasn't an option" - the farm-to-fork cafe on the Long Mile Rd
Guardian of the sea - meet the chair of the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority
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