“Back to Life, Back to Reality” 🎵 – Soul to Soul

Chapter 41

Hola Peregrinos,

Welcome to my penultimate blog of this most incredible journey, from the tip of Portugal 🇵🇹 to the top of Spain 🇪🇸.

A 33 day walk to the finish yesterday, in Santiago de Compostella, coupled with 7 days of travel to the start in Cape St. Vincent and my mid Camino downtime in Porto with Nicky.

It has been an amazing adventure, forged in celebration, tempered with obvious sadness, but totally grounded in gratitude, peace and companionship.

Buen Camino indeed.

I finally arrived in Santiago de Compostella, on the morning of Friday 1 May, at precisely 11.11.

Coincidence?

I’m not much of a fan of coincidence.

I think a greater purpose is always at work.

I walked in to Santiago with ‘hope in my heart’. 🎵

‘Cos I “never walked alone”. 🎵

11.11?

What’s the symbolism?

That’s a bit too much mumbo jumbo/hocus pocus for this ‘Smalltown Boy’ 🎵.

But hopefully, you get the point?

My simple brain prefers:

Gratitude!

I shared the last 500 metres of my walk into the cathedral square, live in a FaceTime call with my Red Hot Date. (RHD❤️).

I think I’m right with this:

Nicky wants me to come home now. 😂

I do too!

Yesterday’s walk was a symbolic experience for this particular peregrino.

Exactly 9 years ago to the day, hour and minute, my youngest son Jake and I, walked into that same square to be met by a scrummage of joy that once unraveled,proved to be Nicky and Rosie, my daughter.

We were buzzing!

We had walked the 500 mile ‘Camino de Santiago’ in celebration, after Jake survived significant and life saving brain surgery:

TWICE.

I was grateful then.

I’m even more grateful now.

You see, when you almost lose something very special, only to find it again, then that thing’s value increases massively.

3 years ago to the same date and hour I walked into that same square in Santiago, having enjoyed an amazing solo pilgrim experience with a great bunch of international pilgrims.

It was on that trip that I met Camino Steve, who I walked 2/3rds of this trip with.

I nearly became a matchmaker on that trip.

“Love was in the air” 🎵 and it was so near for smouldering Marco from Italy and beautiful Mae from Holland.

It didn’t work out, but that romance was the talk of the trail back then.

I walked into the square with Jesus: who is sadly no longer with us to walk Camino’s.

He walked almost 20 Camino’s in his lifetime.

Every time I saw Jesus, he seemed to display that core characteristic that so many of us crave:

Contentment.

In 2024 I walked my own ‘Crazy Camino’: 39 days of foot torture, walking over 1300 km in the process.

My Compostella said I walked 540 km. I had zigged from the Frances, to the Norte, then dine the Finisterre and the Ingkes Camino’s.

It’s never about the certificate!

I had felt so bad about myself in 2024, that I never even posed for the obligatory photo in front of the cathedral.

Instead:

I let my over packed 60 litre Rucsac take all the glory.

It deserves a second viewing!

It is not far below the weight of the Yank’s Tank!

It was way too heavy, full of so many unnecessary things.

Full of depression and sadness and baggage!

The black rucsac of this year weighs 5.5 kg. My blue rucsac in 2024 weighed at least 12.

Depression makes you stress about everything.

I had packed ‘just in case’.

And then I packed some more: ‘just in case!’

In those 2 Camino’s, I faced my own ‘personal storm.’

Later in 2024, I started to come out of that storm: but only when I exercised some personal courage to face my issues, talk them through with professional help, deal with my baggage (we all have it) and believe that things would change for the better.

Slowly and surely they did.

‘That dark dog called depression’ is now history.

I chose to re engage with life, realised that I had so much to be grateful for and made a determined decision that destroying my marriage and devastating my family, was a bridge too far.

Divorce was not entering my world.

‘Things could only get better.’ 🎵

And they did.

So I truly felt that walking into Santiago yesterday, finally buried my demons.

I love taking photos as you may be aware.

Interestingly, my phone has a 3 year gap where I barely even took, let alone saved a photograph.

I think it’s helpful for me to see that gap when I hunt fur a photograph.

It reminds me..

You might say “it’s sad.”.

A 3 year gap of emptiness.

A wasted 3 years.

I would say that I’ve had a 55+ years of happiness and that for me, far outweighs that very low point.

I’d also say, that the tougher things in life often forge us better than the easy ones.

Sometimes we have to the tough stuff, to fully appreciate the good stuff.

In 2024, my depression finished.

It too went west.

Finished!

Finito!

Gone!

‘My future is bright, my future is ORANGE’

Yesterday, I loved walking into Santiago quietly.

No whooping, no hollering, just me, with the ‘Yank with the Tank’ just behind me and Nicky on that FaceTime call, held tightly in my hand.

It felt so special.

The Portuguese Camino seems to almost apologise. as you enter the city of Santiago.

City?

More of a big town really.

It is only on the last 500 metres of that trail, that you actually even see the cathedral.

In contrast the French Camino gives you 4-5 km of visual warning and build up.

I’ve done that 2 times.

I don’t need that long visual anticipation any more.

Any guesses what time we were up, feet prepared and out on Friday morning?

You guessed it!

06.00!

Madness.

Although it was actually fine for me.

And it did mean that I inadvertently made my unknown appointment with 11.11.

I’m usually writing a bit or reading a morning ‘Thought for the Day’ at that time anyway.

So I’m usually up.

It’s my best time of the day, whether home or away.

So I was happy to set off.

We only had around 12-14 kilometres to walk, and the consensus of our ‘bubble’ seemed to be, that walking into Santiago at around 11.00 would be perfect.

So the 5 of us stumbled along a rough track through some woodland for the first 2 km.

There wasn’t too much talk.

I did wonder what thoughts were racing through the minds of my fellow C’Amigos.

Anticipation, joy, fear, worry, reality….?

The list is much longer.

I wondered what feelings were hidden in the smiling faces of the scores of pilgrims we now saw descending into Santiago on Friday.

It remains so fashionable to conceal what we truly think.

Is that healthy? 🤷🏻‍♂️

I think many pilgrims might have felt apprehensive.

After all they have been ‘in the world, but out of the world’ for at least 2+ weeks.

In my case, nearly 6 weeks.

We lose track of the world.

I have no idea what car fuel costs at the moment.

What is happening in Iran and Ukraine.?

Climate change?

Epstein?

Etc etc.

Arriving in Santiago after a long Camino, restructures our lives.

Our ‘disconnect’ is gone.

Our excuses, our run aways, our Camino bubbles have vanished.

We are back to real time.

And for some that is scary.

I know it is, because that was my reality in 2023 and 2024.

But that’s not going to be my future reality.

As morning started to break, the outer suburbs of Santiago came into play.

We saw some loveliness.

The yellow flowers returned.

No longer canary yellow: more of a sunflower gold.

I thought of Hannah and Liz and Dave the Jones tribe a lot.

The marker stones, indicating the distance to Santiago, dropped below 10 km.

Our ‘Camino Provided’ again.

200 metres before we saw this grain store, I said to the girls ‘from down under’🎵:

“Wouldn’t it be fun if we could climb up the perfect grain store for a group photo?”

Then it was back to it.

Michael had turned up just in time after his ‘tactical (loo) stop’ ……

We caught up with a lady walking with a very distinct limp.

Pain was etched all over her face.

But her body language was all grit and determination.

And a fabulous smile.

I ended up chatting with Ina and eventually her long legged daughter Lieke.

They had walked for 2 weeks from Porto.

Ina was determined to finish.

I knew she would.

It all sounds a bit repetitive now.

But they were yet more lovely pilgrims.

I’ve yet to meet a duffer.

Even the lady who told me off for not saying ‘ciao’, way back before Lisbon, was nice enough.

I’d actually been on the phone to Nicky at the time!🤬

A real reason, not an excuse!

Just saying.

It was so nice to see a mother and daughter walking together.

And so obviously in harmony with each other.

It flashed me back to 2017, a time when a very young Jake and a much younger me, were on the Camino Frances.

I know how special that experience was for us both.

This Dutch mother and daughter were experiencing something similar:

Despite the obvious pain.

And smiles as big as a ……

Wait for it…..

🥁🛢️🥁🛢️🥁🛢️…..

Dutch cheese! 👌😜

Street art, poppies and a final opportunity to get a nice ink stamp on our Credentials, were passed..

And then we entered the ‘Royal Mile’ and I made that phone call with Nicky.

11.11 was THE most appropriate time to finish. ie the ‘Gratitude Minute’.

I got Michael to power lift his ‘tank’.

What a beast of burden!

Then we embraced.

It was NOT a deliberately timed finish, but it certainly was timely.

I oozed silent gratitude.

Grateful for this experience.

Grateful for my lovely wife Nicky and my beautiful family.

Grateful for Hannah, Lizzie and all the Jones family.

Grateful for a mum and dad who love beautifully and grieve graciously.

Grateful for my friends and all the love and support I have had.

Too many to name here:

You definitely know who you are.

I’m so very grateful to have completed this challenge.

But there was still more to come on our big finish day.

We attended the 12 noon ‘pilgrim’s Mass’ in that beautiful cathedral.

At the end , 2000 cameras rose as one:

Someone had paid the €500 fee and that Botafumeiro was swung.

It is an incense burner: weighing over 15 kg.

In medieval times, pilgrims would have stank.

They had none of the modern day facilities we enjoy

The incense burner concealed their smell.

I never met a smelly pilgrim on this trip.

And of course I was the cleanest.

I alone, showered morning and night! 😇

I’ll be ‘Homeward Bound’ 🎵 on Sunday morning after a final blast of ‘Camino style luxury’, at Porto airport.

An overnight sleep in an airport lounge! 🫣

I hope I don’t smell at 0900 Sunday morning when I give Nicky a massive hug:

My evening shower routine has gone west for one night only!

Or will my ‘Camino provide’ one last time?🙏

This was a tough walk.

‘Nobody said it was easy!’ 🎵

But as I snooze on my luxurious bedding tonight, I will be quietly thankful for:

653 miles,

1051 km,

1,412,078 steps,

33 walking days,

£3200+ raised for Hannah’s charity.

(CORRECTION: £3,300).

Thank you so much.

Buen Camino.

Martin x
❤️🌻❤️🌻

Ps, please don’t forget the principal purpose of my walk:

To celebrate the life of my niece Hannah, and to support her family to set up a longstanding charitable legacy in her name.

My fundraising page closes on Tuesday 5th May. So far we have raised £3,300.

On Wednesday I will transfer the full balance to the charity’s bank account.

Without sounding greedy, I’d love your support to take it just a bit (or a big bit😜) higher!

The link and Hannah’s story is below.

https://whydonate.com/fundraising/celebrating-the-life-of-my-niece-hannah-24-tragically-taken-in-2025

Lizzie, my sister and Hannah’s mum, sent me this message this afternoon:

“I’ll write you something for tomorrow’s blog… haven’t done anything today as I’m struggling with the pain today and am really tired.
I did sit in the garden and thin out some sunflower seeds so you can have a sunflower picture!
Safe travels!
Loads of love and thanks for everything xx” 🌻💛

Lizzie tore her meniscus attempting this walk after we met up in Porto 2 weeks ago.

Our plan is to return to the Portuguese together and finish what we started.