Hubby wants to do a 6 week holiday alone

I think the question you have to ask yourself, OP, is when exactly you would ‘allow’ your husband to undertake this once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage. Is the answer ‘never’, and does being married to you mean that he will never be able to do this with your support?

6 weeks is nothing.

I'd be helping my hubby pack and sending him on his merry way whilst planning all sorts of solo activities while i have the luxury of 6 whole weeks to myself!

@Piratecatcher

My dad is 61 and did the Camino solo this year he trained for a long time and has been a life long hiker/walker and the Camino was a significant goal for him after having kidney cancer 3 years ago.

He found it much harder than he expected, I think he is still glad he did it, but I am not sure he would do it again in any rush.

That being said my mother didn't stop him, she winged a bit but at the end of the day his time is his own.

Thanks @Arregaithel . This was this years adventure

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5318873-has-anyone-hiked-from-tegernsee-in-germany-to-sterzing-in-italy?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

Much shorter and not solo but the Camino gave me the confidence to do it.
It also gave me the confidence to apply for a new role in quite a senior position in a very tangential area to my day to day job which I started a few weeks ago and am enjoying a lot even though it’s well out of my comfort zone so lots of positives.

My ex husband wouldn’t let me go to Spain with a friend to see her villa. She needed a hand hold after her husband died and it was only for a week. I went anyway, but it just added to our already stressed out relationship, hence we divorced.

It would do you both good to be apart for a while, send him off with your blessing and find a trip of your own to do with a friend.

Yes, you are being selfish.
This is a great time for him to do this and he's probably dreamed of doing this for years and hasn't been able to. He wouldn't have been able to go when his children were growing up or when he was working because it would have used up all the holiday allowance for the year. Now he's retired and still fit enough to do this it's the ideal time. Presumably he doesn't have caring responsibilities for you yet, this could happen in the future, or he could become ill himself. He definitely should go and seize this opportunity right now and you should be supporting him.
I don't see why you can't spend 6 weeks without him. He'll still be in contact all of the time and you can talk to him. Use the time to go on a holiday of your own choice or whatever. Fly over and meet up with him at the end or do a few days with him so you can experience what it's like.

@Twodogsonthecouch Hello there, many of us followed and enjoyed your posts from your fabulous adventure last year.

Anything else in the pipeline?

Well done! Not selfish at all. I will read the thread at leisure.

so obviously I’m biased, this is my post from last year. I don’t think I was at all selfish. My husband was hugely supportive and I would say it brought us closer.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5032932-2-weeks-to-go-to-my-big-solo-adventure-and-starting-to-lose-my-nerve?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

Don’t just “allow” him to go.. encourage him to go if it’s something he really wants to do.

I really cannot see why the husband has to compromise here. There is no reason why he can’t go.

There are different routes
I did the portuguese camino in 3 weeks lasr year. It was easy walking and wonderful.experience

I did this last year
.why not compromise and suggest 3 weeks?

You’re at risk of pushing him away. You still haven’t answered why you don’t want him to go.

Let him do it. Sure, you're married, but you are two individuals. You're not going to have the same wishes 100% of the time.

Doing the Camino will be an amazing experience for him. As other people have said, you could arrange to meet him somewhere midway for a minibreak, or you could use some of the time to get out off your comfort zone and explore something you really want to do. It can be scary, but you'll feel awesome.

Fly into Santiago, get bus/taxi to Sarria, get Correos (Spanish postal service) to carry your bag from place to place for you and do the last 100km's with him OP.

Get the pilgrim passport, collect the stamps from place to place and have an amazing time. My 12 year old did this with us, so as long as you're not terribly disabled or there's not some other back story, why not do it too?

I went away travelling for 6 months in the first year of my marriage!

Why not do parts of it with him, or meet halfway?
I would dearly loved to do a trip or trips like that, and life is too short to not take on such trips.
YABU.

DH went on a once-in-a-lifetime trip last year for 5 weeks and it was BAFFLING the number of people who joked about me 'letting' him go. Really odd, both in how it reflects on people viewing relationships and also in how they apparently see their own sense of autonomy.

I think YABU. Six weeks is not that long in the grand scheme of things - people's marriages survive deployments where they can only talk occasionally and all sorts longer than that. And this is a once in a lifetime experience where he can video call you every night if necessary/you could fly out and spend a day or two with him midway through as a holiday. If DH tried to stop me doing something I really wanted to do just because it was six weeks away from each other I'd be very unhappy about it (and I'm as good as my word because DH went on a 5 week trip last year without me).

Well, you cant do the Camino over a weekend and its a grail hike for many.
Yes, i think youre being selfish.

Oh let hubby crack on. It's something he's always wanted to do. Why would you not want him to have an adventure? You could do something of your own as well.

There's a book called Still Waters Rising by the geographer Nick Crane. When he was newly married, he went off and walked over mountains from the far west of Spain to the Black Sea. It took him 15 months. Hopefully your hubby won't read that book.

Me too.
I would love to do it but I don't think I am fit enough. A friend did it in her 50s, alone.

I know, right! OP, you could find yourself alone for a lot longer than six weeks if you don’t get your head in gear around this…

Honestly I think you are being very selfish. It's a fav experience and he's is well enough and financial able to do and you don't want him to do it because you will miss him.

Id be telling you where to go if I were him.

I’m in my early sixties and find it quite inspiring that at 69, something like this is doable, tbh!

Id be upset at first but on reflection, I’m sure I’d think Why Not? It’s obviously a dream of his-what would you be doing otherwise? Sitting in front of the TV together? He’ll have so much to talk about when he comes back. You could always have a little break to some of the areas along the way and meet him. Is there anything you fancy doing? A yoga retreat? A cruise? And when he’s finished, you’ll be so delighted to see each other, it will be like courtship all over again! I’ve been married 8 years-and would love my husband to realise his ambitions on the cusp of retirement. You’re a long time dead.