The last month has been a rewarding experience for me personally. Let me explain.

Writing here has always been fun but for the last number of years, I can see my posts aren’t reaching the pilgrims I hope to see them. And I don’t want to go around forcing people to read my posts. So I thought of another idea.

A podcast had always been floating around in my head, even pre-covid but I was reluctant to start it solo. Maybe one of my Camino buddies would join me and we would talk each week about tips and tricks etc? This was last Christmas. And then March hit and lockdown hit. It became apparent that my Camino in September would not be happening this year. So I was looking for something else to fill the gap. Something productive that would help my wellbeing. Hey, let’s get this podcast off the ground? I didn’t want to wait any longer. I bought the equipment and sent out a request for pilgrims who wanted to be share their story on the podcast. Fast forward to today, I have 5 episodes uploaded and I have a further 3 recorded.

I have been lucky to speak to pilgrims from Canada, Germany, Spain, Ireland and USA. I look forward to talk to pilgrims from the UK, and Australia. It’s amazing what you achieve when you put your heart into your passion. I’m really enjoying it but I started with zero experience. So I am still learning as the weeks progress. The last episode was uploaded last Wednesday. María Seco lives on the Camino Portugués while my next guest PJ Costello has a passion for the Camino matched by no other. His story can be heard on Wednesday.

So the month has been rewarding. I haven’t earned any money for what I do. I simply chat for 30 minutes or so and upload it to the internet. It helps me and I hope some new pilgrims gets some valuable information from it. Details about kit is subjective – there is no right or wrong answer, but I hope some of the podcasts can tell future pilgrims what is best to avoid or what is a must bring.

I think I have found my niche – I will write a few posts here and there and keep working on the podcasts until pilgrims prove difficult to come by. As for speaking in front of a crowd? I am going to avoid that for the time being.

I’d love to hear your feedback of the podcast. If you are unable to comment, you can send me an email to clearskiescamino@gmail.com. Many thanks.

In Astorga in 2017

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?