FAIRFIELD COUNTY – Monticello resident Pete Oliver, 64, accomplished a major adventure earlier this year: hiking a historic European pilgrimage route called the Camino de Santiago, or the Way of St. James. He walked for 40 days, from May 9 to June 17, completing a 480-mile journey through France and Spain. Along the way, he crossed the Pyrenees, weathered a hailstorm, and traversed big cities – all on foot, and wearing the same pair of shoes for the whole trip.
“I joke that the heaviest thing I had was two pounds of vitamins,” Oliver said with a laugh. “Otherwise I kept very few things, just a journal and a couple changes of clothes.”
The Camino is a centuries-old network of footpaths in southern Europe that all lead to the grand cathedral at Santiago de Compostela, believed to contain the tomb of St. James. The pilgrimage is open to everyone, regardless of religion, and has grown in popularity – nearly half a million people walked the Camino in 2024.
Oliver, who moved to Monticello with his wife in 2018, retired as a Colonel in the Army Corps of Engineers and later worked as a project manager. The couple’s three sons are 41, 38 and 30.
“I graduated from the Citadel in 1982,” he said, “and at my 40th reunion, a buddy had just come back from doing the Camino and told me about it. And I was like, I’ve got to do that someday. But I just kept working and doing what I was doing. Then 18 months ago, I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. And I thought, well, I need to do it before I’m not able to do it. I also wanted to have some time by myself to think and pray about what’s next in this chapter of my life. So I decided to retire in 2024. I talked to my wife about wanting to do this, and she helped make it happen.”
Oliver began his journey at St. Jean-Pied-de-Port, France, the traditional starting place of the Camino Francés (French Way). The first day took him straight up an asphalt path to the top of the Pyrenees, just as a hailstorm began to rage.
“The wind was incredible,” he said, “and I worried if I should take shelter near the rocks. But I pushed on.”
Later, the asphalt changed into a dirt trail through the mountains.
“The scenery looked like the Sound of Music,” he recalled, wonder still in his voice. “Grassy fields, way up in the mountains. There were cows and horses with no fences, just grazing everywhere with big bells around their necks. Then I crossed into Spain and went into a thick forest.
“Later in the trip, I was on the meseta – the flatlands, huge fields of barley and wheat. I was walking on trails where farmers drive the tractors between their fields,” he said.
“On one of the mountains, later in the trip, there is a huge iron cross – the Cruz de Ferro. It’s a tradition to bring a little rock from your home and place it there, to symbolize leaving your anxieties and worries at the foot of the cross. So, I brought a rock from Monticello and wrote my name and favorite Bible verse on it. It was a very emotional moment,” he said.
“The path went from village to village, and I took time to veer off the trail and go look at castles or cathedrals. Other times I’d be walking through major cities, like Pamplona, León and Astorga. That was like downtown New York, with buildings all around.
“But the path was always well-marked, and there were other pilgrims on the trail, so you’d always hear news about whatever might be up ahead,” he said. “I also used an app called Camino Ninja that showed things like the elevation, distances, and available accommodations. Most nights, I rented a little room in somebody’s house, and a couple of times I stayed in a pretty nice hotel place. And for meals, you eat at all kinds of places, from cafes to 5-star restaurants. You run into everything,” he said.
“I actually ended up walking 661 miles total,” he said. “My Fitbit showed 1,246,000 steps from when I left the first morning until I walked into the Cathedral of Santiago.”
He arrived back home just in time – not only for his wife’s birthday on June 22, but also for the birth of their first grandchild that same day.
“I got to Columbia at 7 pm and went straight to the hospital where my granddaughter was born,” he said with a smile.
“I tell people, you don’t have to go walk 500 miles to the Cruz de Ferro to lay your worries at the foot of the cross. You can do that here at home, at your own church,” Oliver said. “But it was a wonderful thing to get to go do it there too.”
