When I walked the Camino de Santiago for the second time, several years ago, the last part seemed more like a parade than a nice quiet hike. I decided to look for other long distance trails to walk for a few days or weeks. Italy offered that opportunity with a 400k section of the Via Francigena through Tuscany. Then I learned about the Rota Vicentina, a trail network in south western Portugal that was fairly new (2012) and not so crowded yet.
Back in 1999, hardly anyone had heard of this 1,000 year old pilgrim’s path which runs from the border of France and Spain to the city of Santiago de Compostela in north western Spain, a distance of over 700 km, or about 450 miles. Kees and his brother started training and never stopped hiking again. In fact, Rob ended up hoisting his pack onto his back, closed his front door in Amsterdam and walked to Santiago - over 2000 kms in 16 weeks. Years later, Kees hiked the Camino for a second time. I joined him for the last portion. Now, more books have been written about this trail then, probably, about any other. This is his account of walking that now very popular trail.
Spain has its Camino de Santiago. Canada has the Trans-Canada Trail. Peru boasts the Inca Trail. The Netherlands has the Pieterpad.
Many of our trips focus on hiking. Kees is the true long-distance hiker in this family, thriving on long days on a trail and a pack on his back. He walked the Camino de Santiago in Spain twice. In this post we’ll share with you one of his favourite long distance trails: the path of St. Peter, or ‘Pieterspad’ in Dutch.
