Jean-Pierre van Veghel: Camino Legend

PW: l want to bring our followers up to speed on how walking Camino’s can get into the essence and heart of some Europeans. On our Camino, we have been fortunate to meet Jean-Pierre van Veghel, a 61 year old Dutchman from Eindhoven who was able to sell his business at 49, reinvest his earnings and is now able follow his Camino and travel dreams.

Jean-Pierre’s first Camino was the French way and he walked this with his lovely and very capable wife, Jolander. That took six weeks in March-April 2014. Next was the Northern Camino in 2015 followed by Portuguese Camino in 2016. All these walks were also completed with Jolander.

The couple then went to the southern island of Japan in 2017 to complete the temple walks, a distance of 1200km that took six weeks. So memorable was this experience that he has a tattoo representing Japan on his right sleeve.

Still not finished, the couple walked in Nepal for a month in 2018. They were guided and reached an elevation of 5400m and recalled many intimate cultural experiences on that trip.

In 2019, the couple began the Camino from Seville and got as far as Madeira, when Jean-Pierre had to return home due to the death of his mother. This year he re-started from where they left off in Madeira with Jolander and her sister, Agnes. They had been waking for a month when we meet them as they were walking into Foncebaden. Agnes was not in good shape and small Paul, helpful as ever, carried her bags to the village.

Most impressive was that in 2022, Jean-Pierre after some personal pressures, left his front door in Eindhoven, and like the original pilgrims, and walked 2000km to Santiago de Compostela. This took him an incredible 8 weeks at an average distance of 35km per day. He said he came back better equipped to deal with what was going then on in his life. It needs to be noted here that Jean-Pierre does not walk the Camino, he G-L-I-D-E-S on the Camino. He maintains his strength, balance and speed throughout this motion. He says most days he will walk 10-20km because he just loves to walk.

Just want to say what a privilege it has been to get to know Jean-Pierre, Jolander and Agnes on our Camino, hearing of their incredible journeys, and just have fun with them. It’s been great for me to try to speak Dutch (poorly) and to connect with my own Dutch heritage. They haven’t been to New Zealand yet, but I assured them if they do visit, our country will tick a lot of their walking and outdoor boxes.

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