Hi folks. I am home from Santiago just over a week now and I have been hit with a bad dose of the Post Camino Blues. I find myself waking up earlier than normal and also wondering what I was doing this time last week. My backpack is never far just in case I need to throw it on. I guess the only way to counter-act this dreaded condition is to meet with people who feel the same and keep writing.

In other news:

My 2016 Camino Finisterre in one page: I have just finished writing about my times on the Camino Finisterre. The link to each day can be found in the Camino Finisterre 2016 at the top of the page. I will be posting a more general post about that route in the coming days.

The LWIBloggies: The Littlewoods Blog Awards were held last night and the travel award was won by a smashing travel blog called WanderingOn.com. Check out their site if you can. Congratulations to all winners on the night, they can be viewed here. I have quite bit of work to do to reach their level but I am happy plugging away here, doing what I love. And I’m delighted to have reached the final with all your votes.

A little look into the future: I have started browsing through the Brierley’s booklet for the Camino Portuguese. I really want to walk the Coastal route from Porto to Santiago, and then on to Muxia. This should take up to 18 days. Plans are afoot! It is meant to be a beautiful trail with very few peregrinos. That said, I missed the social aspect of the Camino Frances on the Camino Fisterra. Hmm…lots of decisions to make before the start of the New Year.

Dublin Festival of History: And finally, Dublin City Council are holding a number of free events from September 23rd to October 8th during the Dublin Festival of History. One such talk is “The Irish and the Camino de Santiago: 800 years of history” and is being held in Cabra Library on the Navan Road on October 6th. You must book in advance. Full details can be found here. So if you are from the area, it would be great to attend.

Before my previous Camino in May, I met up with some friends and took in one stage of the Lough Derg Way. It was a fab day, and we were treated with great weather, even though my calves were giving out to me for a few days. When we finished, we had a few cervezas and we were told that a group of people in Tipperary (where one of my friends is from) would like to know and learn about the Camino de Santiago. Now we all have walked the Camino Frances so we thought that we would have no problem. We just need to meet and sort out who will be talking about what.

We have a storyteller on board who has walked from St Jean Pied de Port three times and has walked in France also. He loves to talk about the funny side of life and his storytelling nights can be pretty entertaining. I’m hoping to talk about facts and figures; for example, the best time to go; how to get there; the weather; the costs; how many people have collected their compostelas and at what time of the year. All this information is freely available online but the most important thing about this is we would like to leave an impression. We hope to have people talking about this trip to Spain so their next step is booking flights.

At this stage, the talk is planned for September which leaves me with plenty of time to put something together. Speaking to a group is slightly intimidating however, but I can worry about that when I get there.

So, if you wanted to walk the Camino and had little information, what would you like to hear about in this talk?