13th March

I’m at the airport and I’m ready to fly. My Camino has begun!

I was a bit nervous setting off this morning, though that’s normal for any travel adventure. My first flight has been delayed but that still leaves me with a wait between flights of about 4 ½ hours so a bit of a welcome delay really.

This journey will be a pilgrimage for me and I expect to find myself challenged along the way, physically, mentally and spiritually. I don’t know what’s in store for me both on this trip and in the future, so some time for reflection will be good.

I’ve just started re-reading a book that I’ll continue with for this walk. I’ve read it a couple of times previously, but I think the last time was about 25 years ago. It’s titled ‘A smile on the face of God’ and it’s the story of Philip Ilott, and his journey through incredible periods of light and darkness during his life. It’s a book that has always inspired me to look beyond the bumps in the road in my own life and to try and understand my place in this world.

Well, my flight has just been called so that’s it for now.

11th March 2026:

Well, I've packed and repacked several times now; each time removing something I can't see I'll possibly need! I probably still have more than I need to take, but it all fits in my luggage so it's coming with me.

10th March 2026:

I have the T-Shirt and I'm ready to go! Just two more days of work and then we're off.

3rd March 2026:

Just 11 days to go and we are off! I’m feeling prepared and ready to go. My foot is healing nicely and I’ve been wearing my walking boots for the last couple of weeks without any discomfort.

On my own walking challenge, I’m up to 241 days with an average daily step count of over 10,000. So that’s nearly 2 ½ million steps over the last 241 days. So I should be ready for this.

24 Feb 2026:

With less than three weeks to go my plan was to harden up my feet by wearing my walking boots every-time I go out. That plan was working well, with another 6km fast walk at lunch time today, but then I poured just-off-the-boil water over the toes on my right foot; so my right foot now has a lovely big blister on it, not from my boots but because of my own carelessness!

20 Feb 2026:

And so, finally, the journey begins… It seems like only a few weeks ago I started a countdown to the Camino on this website. In fact when I kicked it off there were 136 days to go. Now we’ve just three weeks until we set off.

My journey will begin by heading across to Manchester, catching a flight over to Spain and heading down to Vigo where I'll meet the rest of the team. This Pilgrimage is to raise funds for 'The Choir With No Name' and for 'The Archer Project' (two charities supporting people with experience of homelessness in and around Sheffield), but will also be a personal challenge for me.

Our camino will begin in Vigo where we'll pick up the Portuguese Coastal Route to Santiago to finish at the Santiago de Compostela on my 60th birthday.

My plan is to update this blog both, leading up to the walk, and, while I'm away, with thoughts, experiences and some photos from each day's walk. I'll try not to be too self-indulgent about the state of my feet or the weather, but who knows :-)

About 10 years ago I was chatting with one of the directors at the office and he said if I wanted to do this I should just book the time of and go, well, 10 years later the time has come.

Am I prepared? Yes, in my head, but probably not as much as I could be physically.

I do walk at least 5km every day to get my minimum daily step target of 7000 steps and I currently have a streak of 231 days (without missing a day) but those are quick short walks on fairly flat paths.

I've also done a few longer walks in the build up over the last few months. But it's been nearly 10 years since I walked the Dales Way with back to back days of long walks over rough terrain. So we shall see.