Expat couple from Korčula island walk the Camino de Portuguese

Anna and Kobus van Rensburg arrive in Santiago de Compostela

27 May 2019 – On Thursday, 9th May 2019, Anna and Kobus van Rensburg from the small seaside village of Prigradica on Croatia’s Korčula Island, started their Camino walk from Porto in Portugal to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

Their walk would take them through the northern Portugal region and into the south western Spanish region. 

Walking 258 kilometers over a 11 day period with 10 overnight stays on the route.

The couple trained for 6 months walking from October 2018 to the end of April 2019, covering more than 800 kilometers on Korčula Island. Enduring the hard winter months they had to walk in days of 3 to 4 degrees temperature and most days they walked 20 kilometers per day.

It was a goal and dream of Anna to fulfil and her husband, Kobus trained her and she became fit for this long walk. 

Walking the Camino is a well know and long standing Pligrimage. Many people walk it for different reasons. Some do it for fitness or endurance, other for relaxation, and then others like Anna do it for spiritual reasons where she had time everyday to reflect on life, the ups and downs of life and to strenghen her belief in God.

Arriving in Santiago de Compostela on Sunday, 19th of May, the couple was tired but yet all well and fit. They arrived on the main square at the Cathederal holding the Croatian flag.

Will they do it again? Yes, maybe the Pligrimage to Rome in Italy in a few years from now.

The van Rensburgs, who are originally from South Africa, have been living on Korčula island for more than a decade. They fell in love with the island after a holiday in 2002.  

Every year for the past 10 years, the couple organise a pre-season clean up of the local beaches on the island, collecting washed up plastics and other rubbish items.