We have read so many times about the Camino de Santiago … and then forgot about it again. But somehow, it would always pop up again – in magazines, on the internet or in casual conversations.
We love being out in nature and have done a couple of hiking trips in and around Cape Town, our home city.
Decision made in 2014:
In 2014 we decided it was time to undertake this journey in Spain … we were ready for an adventure – totally out of our comfort zone – and a hike for four weeks in Spain sounded like the perfect opportunity.
Over the years we bought all the hiking equipment we could possibly use and one day in May 2014, after a hike on the famous Table Mountain, we made the decision to buy our tickets to Spain …
Death of a loved one:
But then Corna’s dad suddenly passed away. We had to deal with our grief and there were then other commitments that needed our attention … our Camino was on hold … but it was always present in our thoughts.
Will 2017 be the year?
By the end of 2016 we were so trapped in our work commitments that we needed to somehow “break out” of this routine to stay sane. And this is how we – eventually – bought our tickets to Spain, packed our backpacks and by the end of March 2017 we were ready for an adventure of a lifetime!
Get a guidebook:
We had to order our guidebook (the highly recommended John Brierley guidebook) from overseas, since we could not find it anywhere in South Africa. The Confraternity of St James here in South Africa supplied us with a “Spanish Survival Guide” … at least we will know how to order beer and wine in Spanish (oh, and maybe more importantly, ask for directions should we get lost 😉).
Our pilgrim’s guidebook and a translation card for emergencies
A map in our guidebook of the Camino Frances – starting in St Jean Pied-de-Port in France and ending in Santiago de Compostela in Spain
We are not starting in France (unfortunately):
We would have loved to start walking from St Jean Pied-de-Port in France, but unfortunately we were time-restricted.
PAMPLONA → SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA
29 DAYS
729km (452 miles)
Our Camino would therefore start in Pamplona and end in Santiago … we hope to have the opportunity to go back one day to walk the full distance of the Camino Frances ☺️.
Click here to read about our arrival in Pamplona.
Wet and Dusty Roads 
Hello again.
I have decided to take a little break from writing up my Sri Lanka trip as my head is spinning and so I am sitting comfortably with a coffee and some Mott the Hoople (remember them?) playing. I am really looking forward to a good binge on another one of your wonderful hiking adventures.
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Mott the Hoople … had to google them … and know why their name did not sound familiar, because their best song (“All the Young Dudes”) was released in the year I was born – 1972 🤪.
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Ouch,
I used to listen to it at school discos (I never danced). I saw them at the O2 in 2013 when Ian Hunter was 74, Mick Ralphs (the guitarist was 69 and they was still nailing it, what a superb gig.
Sadly, there will be no more. Buffin the drummer sadly died of Alzheimers and Mick has had a stroke. I am so glad I finally got a chance to see them as we had no gigs in Belfast when I was a kid because of the Troubles.
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Well, at least you had the joy of that one concert! The lack of gigs in Belfast sounds very much like what it was in South Africa in the “apartheid” era until things changed in 1994 …
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We used to get two gigs a year, both Irish acts, Rory Gallagher and Horslips and I loved both of them – still do , come to that.
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