In 2002 I did the Camino de Santiago, a world famous walk across Spain. There is lots of information available, there’s books, there’s even a movie about it. A pilgrimage route for over 1000 years. I’ll call it across country, even if the end is not quite on the coast (there is a trail for a few days that goes there from the city).

We started from the French border, and took about 5 or so weeks to get to Santiago de Compostela. Easy well-marked trails, good amenities along most of the route. Can get crowded. This was my first introduction to ‘genteel’ walking after the wilderness of NZ. Polishing off a bottle of rough peasant red for lunch and then staggering down the trail for another 15k was not really my style before this, but it was surprising how quickly I adjusted…

There are many reasons to do the Camino – spiritual, cultural, physical… or you might not have a reason at all. My reason was because I felt like a damn good walk – however, something happened on the first day that had major ramifications for my life. Camino, eh.