ORGANISERS are preparing for the sixth annual Camino Salvado pilgrimage from Subiaco to New Norcia in August.
Registrations for the 160km walk have already reached the 24-person limit, with many on a waiting list hoping for a cancellation.
This year there will be two pilgrimages, the first commencing on August 25 and the second on September 8.
Described as a walk for people “of faith, those with no faith and those who seek faith”, the Camino Salvado often attracts non- Catholics for the journey to the Benedictine monastery.
Organiser John Bell told The Record pilgrims from Victoria and New South Wales often fly across the country to take part in the seven-day walk.
He said he has been constantly amazed at the joy the pilgrims experience despite the challenges of walking 25km each day.
“They’re blistered, they’re tired, they’ve got sore knees, they’ve got sore calves, they’ve got sore thighs, and somehow or other it becomes a joy in the evenings,” he said.
“What emanates is this success of accepting and completing the challenge… in spite of all the aches and blisters.”
Staff and students from Nagle Catholic College in Geraldton completed the walk in May prior to a student retreat at New Norcia.
Damian Ramos-Nunez, a religious education teacher at the school who took part in the walk, said it was a memorable experience for all involved.
“Camino Salvado is a very powerful experience for our students,” he said.
“It is one of the first times in their lives that they enrol themselves in something that seems almost impossible and then, with the support of each other, achieve the goal of arriving in New Norcia.
“Camino really epitomises the old ‘journey is as significant as the destination’ metaphor in the way it challenges them physically and mentally, and in the way they learn that the people, the places and the time taken to encounter themselves and even God is such a powerful experience.”