Chapter 36
Hola Peregrinos,
Welcome to more ‘Tales from the Trail’, a daily blog that charts my 1000 km, 600 mile walk from Cape St, Vincent at the bottom of Portugal, to the historic pilgrimage city of Santiago de Compostella, in north western Spain.
It’s been a walk that has celebrated many things: life, love, colour, nature, humanity, faith, gratitude and joy.
It has also been a walk that respects and recognises challenge, hurt, loss, sadness and grief.
It really has been ‘the walk of life.’ 🎵
I finally managed to ride through my very own personal storm in 2024: it was built on bereavement, retirement, relocation and loss,
As things started to improve I hatched the plans for this walk which started on 25 March and looks set to finish in Santiago on Friday 1 May.
A very fitting date.
11 years ago on 1 May 2014, my youngest son Jake underwent his first of 2 x 10 hour long bouts of brain surgery.
The second 10 hour operation in February 2016 removed a benign tumour.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Jake thrives: and boy, does he live life!
Once his medical issues were finally resolved, I decided to designate May 1 as ‘National Green Jumper Day.’
An important date in the calendar.
Actually:
In MY calendar alone.
Long story short, his mum and I had walked the streets of Leeds in May 1 2014, whilst he underwent that 10 hour long, life saving surgery.
Nicky had forgotten to bring a coat and it was bitterly cold.
In the spirit of a true gentleman, I had given her my coat.
So I was freezing.
We wandered aimlessly into the John Lewis store in Leeds, where I finally bought myself this green jumper.
Jeff Banks was the designer and at £15, it was an absolute bargain.
And that’s the origins of ‘NGJD‘.
It is recognised by only one person: me.
My kids think I’m nuts.
Unfortunately this year, my recognition of NGJD will have to be virtual: I have nothing green with me in Spain.
That first operation didn’t heal Jake.
But it did set him up for the second operation that did.
And the rest is history.
Sometimes in life, we have to endure that ‘set back’, in order to ‘get the set up‘.
This Camino celebrates my own ‘set up’.
2 years ago I came out on Camino, acutely depressed.
I walked a crazy 1400 km Camino in 32 days.
My sister Sarah asked me:
“Why are you making yourself walk such ridiculous distances?’
I couldn’t give her a sensible answer.
I basically ‘smashed’ my feet, day after day.
Medieval pilgrims often self-flagellated on their Camino’s.
Self flagellation?
Ask Google.
Guilty as charged.
Battering my own feet was so pointless.
(Please ignore this video below : it should feature lower down the blog, but I can’t work out how to delete it! 🫣)
It didn’t change a thing……. THEN.
But that ‘set back’ Camino experience, did play its part in this, my ‘set up Camino of 2026’.
I’m grateful for it.
That was then.
My good friend Charles who runs THE best ‘Hot Chocolate’ shop in the UK with his wife Heather, asked me for a photo of my feet today.
I’ll save it for Santiago Charles.👍
But in truth, the 2026 version isn’t much better than that in 2024.
That was then:
Similar batterings this year; but not my own fault this time.
It’s the Camino!
I’m not the worst.
The Camino will almost certainly hurt you: but it will also mould and restore, develop and change you.
If you let it.
‘No pain, no gain’ remember.
And by the way folks, if you ever come to Pateley Bridge, please try Coco Joe’s.
It is exceptional!
And I get no fee from Charles and Heather, for saying this! 😜
https://share.google/y0bCtCf7pLMN6dcBM
Life can be tough.
My family, like so many others, has not been immune from grief: mostly caused by tragedy and loss.
In July 2025, my youngest sister Lizzie and her husband Dave, received the news that all parents would dread.
Their youngest daughter, Hannah, aged. 24, had been killed in a head on crash, with a car driven by a man who was many times over the limit for drink driving,
Hannah’s traumatised family are still trying to process this reality.
It must be so hard to try to make sense of something that makes no sense.
Hannah was gifted, talented, hard working, fun and loved,
She loved reading.
During their journey through this loss, the Jones family have established a charity in Hannah’s name that gives a free reading book to children starting school on their first day.
Any sponsorship you choose to give me, as I move towards the end of this journey, will go to directly supporting the aims of ‘Les Histoires d’Hannah’
So many people have done this already.
Thank you so much.
The total is just £170 shy of the £3,000 mark.
Wow!
If you are interested, please click the link below.
Thank you so much if you do.
Glass sunflowers, fused by Lizzie, Hannah’s mum, have become the symbol of her life and her charity.
Lizzie is a glassmaker.
Hannah often tinkered in her mum’s studio and generally helped her out.
The fused sunflowers can be bought for £15.
Hannah’s younger brother Paddy is visiting us in May and it looks like his baggage allowance will have a significant sunflower stash in it.
Please let me know if you would like to purchase one.
They are beautiful, particularly if they hang near a window, where they catch the light.
Whilst Lizzie was on the trail with me, we posted a photo of Hannah’s sunflowers in my daily blogs.
My granddaughter goes to ‘Sunflowers’ a local children’s nursery, part time..
Yesterday I received more online donations from staff and families who‘s children attend Sunflowers.
Such a lovely connection.
Another example of so much love, kindness and compassion towards the Jones family from so many people who don’t even know them. .
I know they feel it and appreciate it.
Thank you all so much.
Lizzie joined me on my walk last Monday, intending to walk to Santiago with me.
Unfortunately, those hopes were shelved, when she tore her meniscus 3 days after her start.
She flew home last Saturday,
She is determined that she will return to finish what she started.
Hopefully we both will.
This morning Lizzie wrote again for my blog.
“Hannah loved to travel, but she was also a home bird.
A paradox, perhaps — but one that I could relate to perfectly.
We travelled a lot together, and we also spent many happy days simply being at home. The last of my four daughters, we enjoyed each other’s company enormously. We chose to do things together — from the mundane supermarket shop to travelling throughout Europe, including Copenhagen to support Dan in his first full-distance Ironman.
She invested fully in everything we did together, and I remember us planning our support strategy for cheering Dan on. We even designed T-shirts especially for the event.
She and I had also spent many early Sunday mornings together supporting Dan at his training races — sometimes cold, sometimes too early, but always with her full enthusiasm and generosity of spirit. She never did anything by halves when it came to the people she loved.
She had an unrivalled energy and sense of fun, and I remember wanting to surprise her during our visit to Tivoli Gardens a couple of days before the race. Tivoli is home to one of the oldest wooden rollercoasters in the world.
I am not an adrenaline junkie, so Hannah was absolutely not expecting me to ride it. Wanting to surprise her, I did my “research” — which basically meant watching a couple of YouTube videos filmed on the ride — and decided I was probably just about brave enough to have a go.
On arrival at the gardens, and with Hannah still in the dark, I insisted we go straight to the rollercoaster so we could “have a look”. Unfortunately, the bloody thing was closed for thirty minutes for essential maintenance, which did absolutely nothing to help my already slightly wavering courage.
But much to Hannah’s amazement and delight, we did eventually ride it.
I didn’t cry. I did scream. And we both laughed ourselves silly.
It became one of our very best memories.
But my favourite memory of that trip isn’t the rollercoaster, or even the Coldplay concert we went to in Vienna on our way home. It is actually a video of Dan finishing his Ironman — something he had trained so hard for, and such a phenomenal achievement. (For those who don’t know, an Ironman is a 3.8km swim followed by a 180km bike ride and a 42.2km run.)
Another reason I love it so much is because of Hannah, just visible to the right of the screen.
Her reaction to her big brother running down the red carpet at the end of that gruelling race is just beautiful. She is literally jumping up and down with excitement, demonstrating perfectly two of her greatest qualities — her enormous pride in those she loved, and her genuine joy in seeing them achieve their dreams.
It’s such a rare and beautiful quality to have.
I think about that moment often.
It makes me proud.
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/17sxyEAL1T/
Lizzie writes beautifully.
I’m trying to persuade her to write a book.
🥾🌻🥾🌻🥾🌻💛🥾🌻🌻🥾🌻🥾
Onto Mondays’ walk.
It was a more manageable 32,000 steps, 15 miles or 24 km.
Initially it was beautiful.
Hilly trails and some lovely peregrinos.
I walked and talked some more, with those 2 lovely Italians who live in Rome.
Billa on the right and Irena on the left.
Articulate, clever girls.
They are transitioning into the world of work.
They graduate this summer.
What a great idea to take some time out to walk a Camino, before making that huge decision.
Irena is a lawyer.
She wants to work for Italy’s Crown Prosecution Service.
Billa wants to develop her psychology skills.
They both have a plan that is formulating.
Their Camino has helped with that.
I wish them every success.
The trail was starting to busy up: a tell tale sign that Santiago is near.
It was a bit annoying.
Tourist pilgrims everywhere, appearing from nowhere.
“Be gracious MM”.
You too are a tourist pilgrim!
You’ve just been privileged enough to have the time and resources to walk for longer!
Ouch!
It was pretty.
Undulating hills revealed secret surprises.
I really liked the scenery.
On another positive note, my feet squeaked rather than screamed:
But the hordes of peregrinos really got in my way!
Stationary horses watched the sideshow as it unfolded.
Incredulity was on their faces.
“Who are these guys?”
We stopped for first and second breakfasts and were served by incredible, hard working waiting staff.
Pedro was only 19.
He literally ran the orders out to the customers.
Such a lovely boy.
With a fantastic work ethic.
Fatima wore the best lipstick in Spain.
Such a lovely smile!
I do love a bit of lippy 💋!
More beautiful flowers.
Then the big news arrived!
NEWS-FLASH and 🥁 roll.
Camino Steve had finished!
He touched down, late morning at the cathedral in Santiago.
1000+ km, 600+ miles and 1.5 million steps.
In 32 days.
Amazing!
An incredible effort.
He even got to see the ‘botumfeiro’ swing.
This is where the video was meant to be.
For that to happen, someone has to be willing to pay €400.
Will I be so lucky on Friday?
Jake and I saw it swing back in 2017 on my first Camino.
My wife Nicky and daughter Rosie were there too. They had come out to meet us.
So special!
9 years ago!
Golly.
I remember the cathedral’s security guards saying “No photos” to the pilgrims attending the Pilgrim’s Mass back then.
Haha!
Good luck with that amigos.
2000 cameras came out as it started to swing.
They had no chance of implementing their own rules at that mass. 😜
More horses munched their grass and we passed a beautiful field full of purple.
A farmer driving a vintage tractor.
I wish I knew my flowers!
Then we hit the river track into Pontevedra.
It was cool and shady and those 4 km were completed in less than an hour.
They must breed giant moles here.
Cool street art on a motorway underpass distracted my mind from thinking about my sore feet.
Welcome to Pontevedra, where the local time was 2pm.
I met my C’Amigos for a drink and a bocadillo! Wow!
Pulled pork and cheese for €4.
Michael was eating polpo: octopus.
Not really my cup of tea.
But very interesting to look at.
We had time for quick look at the basilica before a dinner with some more superb peregrinos.
Hopefully, as I finish, I have completed my one personal challenge today.
I have a bet that this blog is typo free.
My lovely friend Sarah is eagle eyed on typos.
That double copy of the video doesn’t count Sarah! 😜
I’ve already beaten Arsenal on this Camino.
Can I now beat Derby.?
She will let me know before dinner I expect.
It could go either way!
🤷🏻♂️
Thanks once again for the read.
Buen Camino as ever.
Martin x
Martin Moorman is a 61 year old retired Headteacher who lives with his wife Nicky, daughter and her family in North Yorkshire, UK.
Happily married for 36 years, Martin and Nicky have 3 grown up children, all happily married too. In his spare time Martin loves walking, photography, football, renovating cooking and talking rubbish to anyone who will listen!
Martin Moorman 