359 Adam Wells ~ How To Prepare For Your First Long Distance Trail

Holly: Hello and welcome to the Into the Woods podcast, episode 359. This is your host Holly Worton and I am back with another guest. Today I am talking to Adam Wells, we met way back in 2011, I think, at Toastmasters in London. I used to go to this crazy early Toastmasters group near Covent Garden, I think it was called Covent Garden Speakers but it was one of the very few early Toastmasters groups that meets at 7 o’clock at the morning and I am not a morning person so I don’t know what I was thinking when I did that (!) but I absolutely loved the group. So that is where we met and then lost touch and reconnected a couple of years later and I used to join him – before lockdown – on a lot of his walks he organises as part of his “Discover the Camino” Meet-up group. So we have spent long hours with other people out on walks talking about the Camino which you may remember, I mentioned a couple of times, I have been wanting to do since 1996. So this is something that is really, really, important to me and I love being in groups of people that talk about this trail. I have been wanting to have Adam on this show for a while to talk a little bit more about long distance walking which is one my passions and it is something that I would like to encourage more people to do which is one of the reasons that I write my walking books.

So who is Adam? Adam Wells is a life transition coach who helps individuals struggling to find new meaning, purpose and direction following a major, and perhaps unexpectedly difficult, life change event. Adam also mentors individuals wishing to embark upon an inner journey of personal transformation through walking Spain’s Camino de Santiago (Way of St James) pilgrimage path. You can find him at: http://adamwells.com  and you can email him at [email protected]. He also runs that walking group when not in lockdown around London and Surrey for people who are interested in the Camino but, you know, if you don’t know much about the Camino and you just want to go walking I would say come along because you might learn something new and interesting, so I will link to that in the show notes.

What are you going to learn on this day’s episode? You are going to learn why you might want to walk a long-distance trail. We discuss the mindset you need to do a long-distance walk, because as you know I think mindset is really, really, important in life. Adam discusses how to prepare for your first long-distance trail and he also gives his top tips on preparing for your walk. He also discusses that trail life is like a liminal space and I really loved this part of the conversation because every time I walk a long distance trail, even if it is just something short like a national trail here in the UK, 100 miles or so, it is like I enter this other world and so Adam gives his perspective on why that is and I really found that useful. We also discussed, Adam discusses, the three inner stages of a long-distance walk and I also found this really, really, interesting. Finally we talk about how to handle life after the trail because a lot of people do find it challenging to reinsert themselves into their old lives, because they have changed and are not the same person they were when they left for the trail and so you can’t exactly go back to what you had, you have got to create a new version of your life, so how to do that? So I hope you find this episode interesting and useful and I am super-excited about it because this is one of my favourite things to talk about and one of my favourite things to do. So without further ado, here is this week’s episode.

Holly: Hi Adam!

Adam: Hi Holly!

Holly: How are you doing today?

Adam: I am doing fine thanks.

Holly: I am super-excited to talk about walking with you.

Adam: Me too, I haven’t actually spoken much about walking to people in such a formal way, so this is great.

Holly: In such a digital way, because you usually do it offline.

Adam: That’s so true, yes, it is normally outdoors.

Holly: Actually walking on the trails. So how did you get into walking? How long have you been doing this and how did it start?

Adam: Well I have always had a love for walking so I would say my walking started in childhood, I know literally it does, but my love of walking has always been with me, ever since I was a kid. And I would say actively the awareness of wanting to go for walks since I was 12, or 13, when I went away youth hostelling for the weekend and then just walked from Arundel to Bognor Regis with a friend. That was probably a four-hour walk and ever since then I have been engaged with walking, so it has been great throughout my life, yeah, wonderful.

Holly: And at what point did you move from day walking or short-distance walking to long-distance walking?

Adam: I would say that was in 2008, an email came across my laptop and it was an invite saying: who would like to climb Kilimanjaro for my 50th birthday? And I read the email and I thought: why not? And I responded to that and say ‘yes’, and that all came about and that really was my first long-distance walk and distance-wise it is about 50 miles or 60 miles, the walk, but it is obviously a vertical walk and that is where the challenge came. And then since then I have done a lot more long-distance walking. 

Holly: And so Kilimanjaro was your first long distance — vertical — hike {laughing}

Adam: Literally!

Holly: What was that experience like? Was it what you expected? What did you learn from that?

Adam: That’s a good question. I had no other expectations other than thinking: what am I letting myself in for? It was an incredible experience just in so many different ways, just going to Africa in the first place and arriving in, I think it was Arusha, the people we were with and just being in Africa was amazing. And then the walk itself was incredible, you are going through three, I think, different temperature zones on the mountain itself, it starts off tropical down right at the bottom and then it is almost a lunar landscape and then at the top of the mountains with the glaciers. So you are going through all those different variations and then on top of that there is the physical aspect and I realised that I couldn’t… some people can talk and talk and talk and I discovered that some friends that I went with actually stopped talking at 5500 metres, whereas I realised that I couldn’t walk and talk and I actually stopped talking to other people whilst walking probably around 2500 metres because I needed a strategy, I couldn’t walk and talk because of loss of energy so I sort of went within myself and found a strategy to walk with poles and things like that. Then the last night up, the summit night, that was an interesting experience because it turned out to be an 18-hour day and it is probably the physically hardest day I have ever had in my life; just with the climb to the summit and descent down to where I started my climb to the summit; and then you had to continue going down even further and I had actually run out of water… three or four hours I was walking across the desert without water and I was absolutely physically exhausted so it had everything in it that journey, that trip, everything. 

Holly: And so that when you stopped talking to other people you went within? What did you find when you went within?

Adam: I wasn’t looking for anything it was just that I wanted to get to the top and I wasn’t sure that I could and so I am not really one for affirmations but I sort of gave myself an affirmation. I found this routine of when one pole went forward, I would say one thing and when the other went back, another. I got into this rhythm with this affirmation and it is was something like: I am going to get to the top, I am going to get to the top and that sort of self belief in that. And it did pay off. I suppose if I found anything that day on the descent was that you are actually stronger than you think you are, you can be ripped apart quite a bit but you still actually whole and having said that when I got into the camp for that night my legs were and feet were on one part of the field and my mind was… I felt a little bit disconnected but you are stronger than you think you are and that was the take away that day.

Holly: That’s rough. I have known a couple of people who have walked Kilimanjaro and it has always kind of been in the back of my mind and I am not sure that I am ready for it. {laughing}

Adam: I don’t think you will ever be ready for it!

Holly: {laughing}

Adam: I think it is one of those things where you just have no expectations, you just go, it is the journey.

Holly: And just deal with it.

Adam: You just go, it is the journey not the destination and take it one step at a time and it is what it is, that is really the best way to approach it.

Holly: That’s really interesting, because I think a lot of people when they think about doing a physical challenge like that they think: oh I am going to have to change for months, of course some adventures you do have to train for, I wouldn’t go to Everest base camp without training you know; but I think it is very interesting to explore the possibility of: perhaps there are a lot of adventures out there that people might be interested in that you don’t have to be… you have to be at a certain level of shape but as long as you can walk a little bit you can get through it.

Adam: Yes I think often with lots of things in life we don’t know how to do things but I think with walking it is not like we don’t know how to walk, we do know how to walk, we have known, since the age of two, how to walk. It is the wisdom of walking which is important and I think with Kilimanjaro it was one of those events where, yes, you want to do training beforehand because it will give you a greater chance of success, I wouldn’t recommend not doing training to climb Kilimanjaro, but when you are there in that moment there is sort of a wisdom to approaching the mountain and knowing when to walk, when to stop, when to rest and all of that sort of thinking around it helps.

Holly: And I think mindset comes into play when you are walking a long distance trail, as you said you are not really into affirmations but you started using one and it really helped your mindset, you got to the top and you got back down.

Adam: Yes totally, and in that sense I was a novice to long distance walking those big, huge, mountains like Kilimanjaro, so you jump into these things with innocence. You really have no idea and it is working out what works for you and people around you will have suggestions and ideas and everything else but it is finding: well this is actually what is working for me, to sort of say no as well in moments, that’s a big part of it as well, because, yes, people wanted me to speak to them. I couldn’t get to the top if I was burning out and if I had no energy left inside me so I had to be a bit: no right now this is my strategy and sticking to it.

Holly: Coming back from that trip, did you think: I am going to do that again or something similar or what happened?

Adam: Yes so I came back, we went as a group of friends, and a couple of us said: let’s carry on this long distance walking so we ended up walking Hadrian’s Wall path from Newcastle to just beyond Carlisle and then we walked the West Highland Way, from Glasgow to Fort William, and these absolutely fantastic walks in the UK. It was a different experience, obviously, and it was more of a long distance walk, I think the first one, Hadrian’s Wall, was around 70 miles; and then I think it is 120 miles the West Highland Way. These were over a period of seven to ten days these walks and it was lovely, it was just enjoying beautiful British countryside and really nice, absolutely lovely. Then that was that and then the following year I had another experience which sent me off in a completely different direction on the walking front.

Holly: I can guess what that might have been…

Adam: Yes, so in 2010 I found myself, I was asked to show a couple of ladies on a tour guide trip around northern Spain and so I took the ladies to the city of Burgos and, whilst they were looking at the cathedral, I watched all these pilgrims walking past me and they were walking of course the Camino de Santiago. In that moment I just knew I had to do that, it was like a whole different set of energy just went through me and I thought: right, next April I am off, I am going to do that, I will resign from my job. And I did, I did all that and that is actually where I have been putting all my energy and focus and it completely changed my life, the Camino Santiago. And you know, serendipity, today is the day that I actually arrived in Santiago Compostela, back in 2011, so round about now, lunchtime, nine years ago today I arrived, so that is quite spooky really.

Holly: The Camino is a totally different experience because you are out there for more than a week, several weeks, and it is like your life becomes, you are entering this different dimension and your life is the trail…so tell me about that because I have only ever done a week long walk.

Adam: So the Camino de Santiago, to give some background, there are many routes to this great city centre, Santiago Compostela in northern Spain and the most popular route is called the Camino Frances which is traditionally called the French road and, in the Middle Ages, millions upon millions of pilgrims walked it and have since the eighth century. Today most international pilgrims or individuals will start walking from the French Pyrenees. It is I would say a five week trip, a five week walk, and you can do it, people do it for a whole host of reasons: for just a physical challenge, to be in nature, to do it for a religious experience, it is a religious pilgrimage, to do it as a tourist to just enjoy the sights, to enjoy Spain. You go through five regions (four or five regions) and it is all the wine, the culture, everything, something that gives you everything.

I think you have to decide how you want to walk the Camino so, for me, back in that time of my life in 2010, I was in a job which I didn’t particular enjoy, I knew what I didn’t want but I didn’t particularly know what I did want. So that moment in Burgos seeing those pilgrims and looking back now all I wanted was freedom, freedom to explore, the gift of time and space and that is what I sensed the Camino was all about. And I think the call to the Camino, it is not like it is new to me, I knew what the Camino was and, in 1997, I had started this job and as soon as I started this job my boss said: I am resigning, I am going to walk the Camino de Santiago and I thought to myself: I really want to do that, I know that I am going to do that, but I will have to wait until retirement, I am married, I have got responsibilities, all this stuff…

Then in 2003, my parents invited me, they said: oh we are going to travel around northern Spain and just coincidentally they said: look we are in this village, meet us in this village and I was just flying in to Madrid for a meeting and I thought: yeah, ok, why not? And so I go up an meet them in this village and unbeknown to me this village is on the Camino De Santiago and I wasn’t conscious of that at the time, there were all the signs but it wasn’t that the desire was there. So I was definitely called back in 2011 to do my Camino then and I just left thinking: I don’t know what is ahead of me but I am just going to enjoy this experience and it is incredible and since then I have understood how personal transformation occurs on the Camino if that is what you are actually looking for.

Holly: Yeah you said something really interesting before we hit record and I wrote it down, because it was one of your nuggets, you said, “walking is the container for personal transformation”.

Adam: Yes I think humans are seekers, we are always looking for something more and there are stages in our lives whereby we actively have something within us, that we feel this desire to go off and do something and create something or something totally unexpected hits us and we just need time out. And to process that big shock and change to the system we feel that disequilibrium, we need a container, we need to get away from the status quo. The Camino, or any pilgrimage, provides that container to have the transformation experience whereby you leave your known world and you enter into this space, a liminal space, which is the unknown. In that space you are going to break it down into three stages and separations and you have left your known world and you have got your identity from work and things like that so: who am I now? You are not sure who you are. So on the Camino you leave let’s say the old CEO hat on, whatever it is, and you become a pilgrim and you are transitioning into whatever state, but that first stage is around embracing the loss and then there is this middle part which is around the deeper fears, actually. Say I have retired and I have got these regrets that I haven’t achieved: x, y, z or I feel bitter about this and you need time to process this stuff and let go and then finally there is this third stage of: oh okay, I have had this death and rebirth experience, this isn’t who I am anymore and you have got this sort of enlightenment. You reach the end of the walk and think: maybe I can do this when I come back…the new you coming out. I have got a little Camino story that really sort of exemplifies that if you would like to hear it?

Holly: Yes…

Adam: So on one of my walks I met a lady, a French Canadian lady, she said that it was her second Camino, she was about 72 and she said her first Camino was when she was 66, and she walked it because her husband had suddenly just died after 40 years of marriage and she said: I was absolutely bereft, I had no idea what to do with myself and someone just said: just go off and walk the Camino and she decided to walk from the middle of France. You know it starts, it is all over, and she started in the middle of France so it is an 1800km journey. And she is the first person who ever explained to me that you can break the Camino down into three stages I just described; the first stage is hell, she said: it is hell. And it is true. It is hell because your body has to get used to the new reality. The first stage of the Camino really is the breaking in stage, anything new we have to break in, so you have to break in your boots, you have to break in your backpack, and you have to break in a new language. And breaking in is breaking in and that is why it is so difficult and you get blisters. She said: during this first stage I just couldn’t see a future for myself, as well as the physicality of this walk, I was just crying every singe day and [the words] “my life is over, my life is over”, was repeatedly going around in my head. And then I got to the middle stage — and this was around Burgos so in Spain this was in the meseta, so the meseta is a flat tabletop, barren, part of Spain and like a desert; in good weather it is hot and dusty and dry, in bad weather it is windy and awfully cold and so on. And she said: I was in the middle stage of this desert and she said I was walking along and I have been crying all the time, six weeks of crying and crying and in this desert stage, which she called death, she said: I just fell to my knees because I had an epiphany, I realised in that moment that my husband was not my entire life, my husband was just part of my life, I had a life before my husband and I can have a life after my husband. And I realised too that my husband had given me many, many gifts, forty years of a wonderful marriage, three fantastic children and so it was like I got up and was a different person. This is like the hero’s journey you are into the abyss, it is the death and the rebirth, and this was her rebirth. And she said: I carried on walking, and the last stage, which on the Camino map is Galicia, which is rolling hills, it is green, it is fertile, as you come into Santiago itself. She said in that third of the journey I started thinking to myself: what is it that I always really wanted to do? She said that I had always wanted to help underprivileged children in Latin America.

Holly: Wow.

Adam: So yes, she said she got back to Quebec, I sold my flat, I sold everything, and I have spent the last seven or eight years, every year going to these countries, helping underprivileged children, she said: it has been amazing, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. And she said: obviously I loved my husband but I have had a new life, it has given me so much and I feel so blessed as a result. And that in a way sums up the power of the Camino being a container, we need that container for our grief, to just be in that space and just process and process and process, until you can no longer process and: that’s it I have let it go…surrender. And then you have this new fresh insight about yourself, about the world around you; and nature has a big part and walking plays a huge part in this as well.

Holly: What part does nature play in this for you? How does that fit?

Adam: We are humans, we are part of nature, we are part of this world and we live so much in an artificial world and I think people come away from the Camino and they are: wow, it was an amazing experience and stuff and I feel so good inside myself and everything else. I have often thought it is because when we are walking, the more we walk in the Camino, the more we walk inside ourself, the more we are actually walking home. I really feel when I am walking the Camino that I am walking home, that humans are walking home to an authentic way of living that we should be living. So you have stopped being the human-doing and become more of a human-being, because we have this natural pace and we slow down and we get to see so much more because we slow our pace down.

Holly: And life is so much more simple on the Camino, or any other long distance trail, because you have just got to wake up in the morning, have your breakfast, walk to where you are going to stay that night and then sleep and you are just living: eating, sleeping, walking, it is just so satisfying and simple and just I don’t know but there is something about it that I just find so deeply satisfying.

Adam: You have hit the nail on the head it is that recognition that less is more and you see that on the Camino, or any long distance walk, your home is on your back. Then, from there, you discover: what are my real needs vs my imaginary needs and, ultimately, what we are carrying on any walk what we carry in our backpack, fundamentally we carry our fears in our backpack, so if you have got a really, really, heavy backpack, it is our fears: I need this for this and this for this…you know I need something for all these in case of emergency.

Holly: Yeah exactly…what if?

Adam: What if? And actually most things don’t actually happen and you discover that and it is about the letting go process: what can I let go of? What are my real needs? Imagine that weight on your back, you end up looking down at your feet all the time, your feet are hurting, you have got blisters, once you let go of all of that, you lighten the load, you can see the view…

Holly: And it is funny because that is such a recurring theme when I read hiking books about other people’s experiences, the recurring theme of the hiker who packed too many things and started discarding things along the way.

Adam: It is so hard to do, on that first Camino, the first days over the Pyrenees mountains, at the top of the Pyrenees, I met this chap I think he was about 25 years old, he was about six foot two and had a 25 kilogram rucksack! The recommended weight to carry is around eight kilograms or ten per cent of your body weight. He had 25 kilograms.

Holly: And he probably didn’t weigh 250 kilos {laughing}

Adam: No quite, exactly. So he said: I am struggling, I don’t think I can get to Santiago and this was on day one, he was saying: I don’t think I can get to Santiago. I said, “why not?”, he said, “I am carrying all these books”.

Holly: What?

Adam: Yeah he is carrying loads and loads of books to read. I said, “you can get rid of them in Pamplona post office”. He said, “no I can’t, I cannot let go of them they are too important to me”. So that was his Camino, that was his letting go, but it was a very hard thing for him to do.

Holly: So in the end did he just quit the Camino?

Adam: I have no idea, I just carried on walking, I never saw him again. But these are the challenges, letting go is so hard but it is the first thing that we have to do to allow ourselves to get into the next stage of the journey to create fresh space, if we need new space we have to let go first.

Holly: Exactly. So another thing you said, again before we hit record, when we were chatting before, you said: the Camino is not in Spain, it is not just confined to the actual walking. So tell me more about what that means.

Adam: What I mean by that is that the Camino is a metaphor for life, I look at the Camino as a place to remind you of…like driving lessons, you are going for your test, but you learn the lessons [to drive]… you learn the lessons [of the Camino] to live life. Walking the Camino you remind yourself: yeah actually I want to do this when I get back, this is common sense. So I think of it actually as, you know, you learn to drive, you get to Santiago, you pass your driving test, you have got all the skills, now you know how to drive, you now have all the skills in knowing how to live…and, so the point is to live in the real world. It is very much like the philosophy of Joseph Campbell, a hero’s journey, you go off on this great adventure, you gain some new insights about yourself, you gain a reward, you get information and you come back and share that reward, that insight, with society, with your family, with your community. And that is how we grow and that is the point and we have to come back from these experiences to share what we learned, the new us, in the world and then the new Camino just begins. So there is a new expression, the real Camino begins in Santiago because that is the change that you want to bring back into the world when you get home and then you begin a new journey with implementing those learnings you got from the path.

Holly: Oh how exciting! So why do you think you continue to walk long distance trails?

Adam: I think for me now it is the simplicity of life, I love just being out in nature, that is where we are meant to be and also, with long distance walks, it is being with the locals, you meet the local people you sort of, there is a thing you learn to trust in life and what I mean by that is there is a lot of moments when you get yourself into a bit of bother, or you are not sure how this is going to work out, because the tricky moments come and then discover that there is a whole different range of serendipity, serendipitous coincidences that happen which would never happen if you weren’t in this space.

And, the more I walk, the more I have this serendipity and it becomes a way of living life, actually when I come off [the walk] the life at home and stuff, [I see that] actually this is a way of living life, it is a philosophy of living life. I don’t need to have all the answers and I think this is what long-distance walking teachers you you don’t have all the answers to everything. And I think that is the distinction between being a pilgrim and being a tourist; where being a pilgrim you are willing just to go within and just trust in the journey, and whoever is going to be there to help you, and whatever the situation is you have this inner faith that something will work out; as opposed to a tourist where it is just a journey, you take photos and there are home comforts… There is no right or wrong, it is [they are] just different things. When I go walking I like to walk as a pilgrim, so I learn to trust and gain something much deeper from sort of the whole experience and environment and such like, if that makes sense?

Holly: Yes, absolutely, absolutely. So what do you think is the most important thing that you get out of walking long distance trails?

Adam: You discover that you are stronger than you think you are, for sure, and it is that self-awareness I think is the key thing and I think there is a thing around self-love, if you don’t love yourself, it is a teacher of self-love, if you are not taking care of yourself, listening to your body, if you are not recognising that walking is a whole-body-experience, where actually your body is more important than your mind, you are probably not going to finish the walk, or you are going to struggle. So there is this thing about self-love, it is actually: I have got to give to myself, so if there are things around that I am not comfortable with, asking for help when you need help, or if you are not comfortable with accepting help when help is offered, then these things become very, very, difficult, so there is an awakening there. What else? I think back to that human being/human doing thing. Also the people you meet on the walk, you always find that every person has a story to tell, and you really sort of can gain something, like that story with that lady, a ten-minute encounter with somebody can absolutely change your life. And there is another expression with the Camino, you meet the people you are meant to meet, and it is so true, I have had it so many times. This is learning, in the big wide world, go out, engage, be open, and just see what happens.  

Holly: So for someone listening to this, who has never done anything like this before, why would you suggest that someone might give it a try?

Adam: I think for the same reason somebody said to climb Everest: because it is there. {laughing}

Holly: {joking} Because you can!

Adam: Mallory wasn’t it that said that…? It is a, I would say, because you can. It could be with whatever the walk is, with the Camino I have seen so many inspirational people on the journey and I did my own meet-up walk with the Camino and people would come and say: I can’t do the Camino, I really can’t do it and I would say: yes you can…no I can’t…yes you can… and two years later they have done it and they have come back. And that is the point, just give it a go, take it one step at a time. Yes it sounds like you are walking into the unknown and it is scary, but it is a growth journey and all about growing ourselves and so many people, we all start off nervous but at the end of the journey being fearless. Then it is like: if I can do this, what can I do next? The Camino is a catalyst for personal development, for change, for something you know, it is a life changing experience if you are open to it and that is what you want. If you don’t want that, it is absolutely fine, it is still a great experience just to have fun and enjoy Spain and everything Spain has to offer.

Holly: And it is still probably going to change your life even if that wasn’t your intention, just because it is such a different experience from your normal life.

Adam: Yes totally, totally. To answer your question you are giving yourself the gift of time and space fo yourself and I have heard said, if you are in a relationship or in a family, people say: I can’t go off on the Camino because I have got my family, I have got these responsibilities. If you are able to, yes there is a time commitment, say five weeks, but if you can get that time commitment and it may be that it will take a year to actually do a bit of planning, to get five weeks to do it, but when you do, you are on Camino and your family are at home. Whilst you are in Spain having your Camino your family are at home, they are also having their own Camino at home, without you, and so there are these two separate journeys that are happening at the same time. Whilst perhaps you are thinking about your other half and how much you appreciate them, and everything else, and all those sort of deeper thoughts, they are doing the same thing at home. When you get back together, after the journey, there is an opportunity there to say: actually this is what I missed about you, or this is what really irritates me about you…this is what I want to change but there is that space that actually it can work on both sides. This could be a win-win and so it works at many different levels. I try and say give yourself, when do we give ourselves the time and space for ourselves? With COVID19 right now, this to me is very much a Camino experience, for eight weeks now we have paused life with the lockdown and this is an opportunity to maybe reflect on: where am I headed? Do I want to go back to the old work exactly the way it was, or change direction?

Holly: I think you are right because you talked about the Camino or other long distance trails being kind of a liminal space and we are all in that now in our homes in lockdown because I am still working, a lot of people are still working, a lot of people aren’t working, but life is totally… even though I am working from home my life is totally different and I feel like we have entered that liminal space and I am not ready to come out of it just yet.

Adam: [Although] I don’t think it is going to let you… That’s exactly it and particularly the first few weeks we let go fo the known world and we are now in the unknown and we still have the unknown. The virus we know is going to be around for at least another 18 months until the vaccine comes and the journey of maybe in and out of lockdown and so we are going to have this phase, just like the Camino, where it is going to be hell, the first third is hell, the middle stage is what she called the death stage, but really that is the real, deep, inner reflection, the what can I get from this. So we still have a lot of this journey to go through, it is a psychological journey, that’s really what it is all about, a shift in our thinking in our consciousness, can I make the best of what reality is today. And that is what is really being called for and asked for, how can I make the best of this although I can’t change any of it in my mind. We are in that liminal space, you are right.

Holly: So what mindset do you think people need to walk a long distance trail?

Adam: I think to be open is a key one and to know that you are physically able to do the work, so that sort of self belief. At the end of the day whatever comes up: I can do the walk. You are going to walk with, what I call, walking with wisdom. So that is listening to the body, it is knowing when to walk stopping, as oppose to thinking: I must get to this destination tonight. And I think it is that thing to recognise: why am I doing this walk? Is it the journey or is it the destination? Particularly on the Camino Santiago, you think: I’ve got to get there as quickly as I possibly can, and you get there and you ask people: do you remember these villages and everything you went through? And there is no recollection of any of that stuff, I think with a long-distance walk you need to recognise that it is a journey. So it is learning about the history, what do I want to see? The people I want to engage with. And then I heard something, I had a conversation earlier, with a guy today and he said: H-E-A-R-T this is a mnemonic from a company, remember H-E-A-R-T, it is be humble; be engaged; be awake; be resilient and be thankful. I think that really sums up for the Camino, or any long distance walk, you want to be humble, you are a visitor in a Camino village, you are a visitor in a foreign land, so be humble in that foreign space. Be engaged, be awake to what is going on around, be resilient and then to be grateful, to be thankful… I think it is really good just to remember that when we go walking.

Holly: How would you suggest that someone prepare for their first long distance walk?

Adam: To walk. {laughing} It sounds obvious but I think to me that is the best training, is to go walking but to do it wisely, build it up slowly. I have walked with people who have never walked more than a mile before. We just started off very slowly, getting a walking routine together and for the Camino, finally, at the end of your training, be able to walk back-to-back days, say three days on the trot, with your eight kilogram rucksack and just get used to walking 12 miles, that is all you are going to do each day on the Camino. So know, I can do this and can do it three days on the trot and psychologically once you have done that, I think you are there, this is for the Camino, other long distance trails if you are carrying a heavy rucksack with camping equipment, that could be a completely different type of training or whatever. In the Camino world, just get up to three days worth of walking back-to-back so you feel stronger. I think there is that recognition that you are going to get stronger on the walk, as you walk continually on, you are getting stronger, wiser and fitter.

Holly: I think it is really important what you said about training also with your backpack on, because before I walked the South Downs Way, which is my first long distance trail, I used to walk with this tiny little day pack, it was almost like a child size pack, it had room for my water and that was it, and so I was so happy doing my day walks with my tiny little pack and then I walked with my 36 litre pack on the South Downs Way, which was, it was light weight, it was probably a little bit over the little but it wasn’t that bad, but it was a huge transition from tiny little pack to normal size walking pack was tremendous, so when I came back from that I very mindfully and consciously did my day walks with a bigger backpack.

Adam: Yes that’s the thing, the training has to be done somewhere, whether you do it in the first week of the actual adventure, or actually I just want to hit the ground running when I get to wherever, or if you have done all your training in advance.

Holly: I have a friend who has this 44 litre Osprey pack, because he does camping and backpacking, so what he does is, any time he leaves his house, if he is just going down the street to the post office, he puts the pack on. Wherever he goes, he has got the pack on, because he is training, even if it is in half an hour segment, he is always training.

Adam: Absolutely that’s a great idea, just go down to the supermarket and use it for bringing things back. Weigh each item too, that goes into your backpack. I did the Camino last year and I weighed absolutely everything and it is incredible and knowing that technology adds up a huge weight. We live in this technological world now and the charger and everything it is one or two kilograms once you add it all up so it is back to that question: what are my real needs vs my imaginary needs.

Holly: Yes I am always mindful of that because when I do a long distance trail, I always bring my iPad mini with my keyboard, because I am writing my book on the trail, so it is like: I could write it down in a journal, but then I would have to type it up, so I would rather bring the extra weight it is not that much…but for me it serves a purpose.

Adam: But that is it, you have answered the question of why am I doing this walk? And you are doing this walk because you are writing a book, so this will come with the cost of having to bring that. That is absolutely fine, it is understandable. It is when you go and you haven’t really thought all of this through and you are in Spain or wherever and you [could] have a bit of a meltdown because [suddenly] it is: what am I going to do in this situation? But when it is rationalised in advance you have got your reasons, understood it, and practiced for it, it is all fine. There is no right or wrong way to do these things, well there is probably a wrong way… but in the sense that there is no right or wrong way if we allow ourselves to know who we are as an individual and why we are doing this and find ways to manage whatever comes up then who is to say…

Holly: Yes. So what would you say are your top tips for someone who wants to walk their first long distance trail?

Adam: The top tips, well one is definitely training. Two, I would say is research the route and learn as much as you can about it, it is the journey, not the destination, so what can I see? If it is the language, what can I learn to help me communicate with the locals? There are probably things too about safety and security and checking ‘what if’ scenarios, if I get myself into trouble how can I get myself out of trouble? Those sort of sensible things. And training is really the key thing. And make sure you have a good time too.

Holly: Exactly, exactly. So one thing you always hear people talking about is post-trail depression and a lot of people really struggle to insert themselves back into their normal lives when they come back from a long distance trail, so what are you thoughts on that? Or what are your tips on that?

Adam: I think that is it, particularly with the Camino, you come back, and you are a different person. I think the thing is not to rush getting back into the old world and it is to give yourself that space of: I am going to allow myself to process who am I now. But there are things that you can do before you go, like, for example, with the Camino, it is saying to people, look I am going to come back and I am going to be different so when I come back this is the type of arrival I would like to have. So, say you haven’t been seen for x number of weeks and you fly back home and there is a big celebratory party for you by your family, you may be feeling: actually this is the last thing I need, I just want to still be in my, let’s call it Camino bubble. So [maybe] talk to the family and write a letter and send something to them and say: this is how I am going to be when I return…

And there is a book, Returning From the Camino, by Alexander John Shaia where he talks through all of this stuff. And things too like writing a letter to yourself before you go: okay I am going off on this adventure, these are my expectations, what I am expecting, these are my fears, or whatever. So you write a letter to yourself and you can open that letter when you come back and think: who am I now? And respond to it. It is about really giving yourself time to process everything. It is very hard in this world now because for most of us it is jump straight back into the job and it is also people, you can get very disappointed because you have changed, but the world around you hasn’t changed, and you have these expectations that people are going to listen to your amazing story and suchlike and all the experience that you had… And you could find that there is a lot of disinterest and people aren’t actually interested. So there is a thing too about not having expectations and assumptions when you return back to take the pressure off.

Holly: And also be mindful that integration of any kind of experience, or healing, or whatever, can take time. So it might take your months to integrate everything that you learned and experienced and overcame on that journey?

Adam: Yeah and it maybe, for me, my own personal journey, I see that my Camino, in 2011, was opening a transformational journey of change and the Camino I did last year was in many ways the closing of that journey. And so there are these two Camino journeys that are like thresholds and I think it is recognising, it does take time and just to go with that flow and recognise actually: this might be a whole beginning of a whole new journey of change in the big wide world. And I am going to go on a similar journey and I am going to have to embrace whatever comes up and deal with it in a way that only you know how to and just being gentle with yourself in the process. I think it is a process, we are so harsh with ourselves with wanting to have results all the time.

Holly: [Thinking that] I have got to get back into things, things have got to be normal, but you are not the same person that left…

Adam: You are not the same person, exactly, you have opened Pandora’s box, you can’t close it once you have opened it. And this is where the fear comes in because you are back into this world and it is like: who am I now? Am I going to do this? It is an identity thing, you may have retired and gone off and walked the Camino and you think: I was all this in the past who am I now? And you are in this place of feeling “nobody”, not that you are a nobody, that you have no body, you just feel discombobulated and lost and you are in this place and it just takes time to process. And I think when you come back it [helps] to find some like-minded souls, people who have been through that experience already, turn to that community to help you sort of engage with your experience. And in many ways, in days gone by, you had these ancient tribes [who] had rites of passage to navigate all these major life changes and the community was a big part of that, to the rites of passage. On the return from you rites of passage experiences, the community acknowledged you have come back, this is who you are now with your new sort of responsibilities, particularly from adolescence to adulthood, you would come back as an adult and the community would recognise: yes you are now an adult. And so, we don’t have that so much now… at all. We have to figure this stuff all out for ourselves as opposed to the community doing it as a communal experience.  

Holly: The thing is, and I think it is interesting, when you have clearly structured ceremonies and rites of passage, and things like that, people know what to expect but since we don’t have that one person will go away on the Camino and come back a different person, but no one else understands because it is not like a normal context in our lives.

Adam: No exactly, and that is the challenge for so many people returning from the Camino. We have the Camino groups and things like that and that was one of the reasons I set up my walking group, was for that reason. Sadly, [our] society, it is not laid out for us anymore, we are having to discover this for ourselves, which can be quite challenging. But by going on the walk, we then discover everyone else is in the same boat and we are all helping each other and we have this amazing community spirit and this is where there is a real magic in that sense. We’re not all alone, actually we are part of the whole and so it is incredible really.

Holly: So what would be your final advice or nuggets or words or wisdoms for somebody who may be interested in doing a long distance walk?

Adam: I would say… do it. If there is a call from within, if there is something that is a burning desire: shall I, shall I not? It is like my day in Burgos all those years ago, in front of the cathedral, seeing those pilgrims, if you have that feeling burning inside you, just go and do it. You have got nothing to lose, scary but it is in the scary stuff where we grow. For me, they say you have one life before your Camino and another life after your Camino. And that has been so, so true and so if you have this burning desire to do something, whatever it is, a long distance walk, the passion of something, just go and follow that passion.

Holly: And pay attention to the bread crumbs in your life, because you had several breadcrumbs that were marked “Camino” before you actually did it, so I think that is really, really, interesting.

Adam: In the Hero’s Journey, you have threshold guardians, that is one of the stages and so the threshold guardian is one where you have that breadcrumb: I want to go off and do this, but something is stopping you, and that is because you might not be ready for it at this time in your life. And so the threshold guardian might hold you back and then it might come back later and then at some point the threshold guardian will say: it is time, you are ready, off you go. And I think that is the thing, if you have that desire there, you are just itching and it is that one final thing, allow that threshold guardian to get out of your way and just begin.

Holly: I like that! So where can people find you online?

Adam: My website is: http://AdamWells.com, yes that is where you will find me.

Holly: Are you on social media at all?

Adam: Not very much.

Holly: {laughing} That is what I thought.

Adam: I will confess here that one of my things from coming back from the Camino was to simplify my life and to reduce a lot of the noise in my life and things like that and I found that I just wanted to have one point of major contact which was my website and things like that. I understand too that getting your message out there you have to be on social media so maybe this is my next stage of my journey to re-engage in a different way, I have been listening as well…

Holly: I would like to see you do an Instagram of your walks, that is easy enough, you just take a picture and you post it, you don’t have to say much.

Adam: Okay, I will commit to doing that.

Holly: All right, perfect. Thank you so much for coming on and talking about long distance walking which is as you know a huge passion for me, it has been absolutely wonderful.

Adam: Thank you for inviting me, it has been great, I have loved it.

Holly: Excellent, thanks.

 

Holly: Thank you very much for listening, please drop me a line and and let me know what you thought about this week’s episode, you can email me at [email protected] or find me online and get in touch there, I would love to hear from you.

And remember to visit: https://hollyworton.com/359 for the show notes on this episode. Thank you.