Where it all began...

Like many people, I´ve been saying for a while that one day I´d like to do the Camino de Santiago. I´ve always wanted to do a long-distance walk, take up the challenge and see how far I got, but life kept getting in the way: family, commitments, the need to earn a living. Now I am semi-retired, and while I still have family responsibilities they are not an insurmountable problem.
I had planned to visit China and Tibet this year - I´ve dreamed of visiting Tibet since I was a child, but last October I went to a talk by a pilgrim about her Camino, and I was hooked! My other dreams can wait, I´ve got to do this while I´ve still got the "get up and go" for it.

So, since last October I have been researching, planning and preparing myself for what I think will be a challenging physical and spiritual experience. In order to make sure it is going to happen, I´m telling everyone I know about my plans, then it would be too humiliating to try and chicken out!

I´ve just got back from a two-hour training walk with my pack containing 7 kilos - a sack of dogfood and several cartons of milk - I´m not risking being mugged and losing my brand new and expensive equipment - and although I ache a little I´m not unpleasantly tired. Since I am only in the 2nd week of a 16-week training programme I don´t think that is so bad.