20th Anniversary and a Cameo

It was supposed to be the anniversary camino, twenty years since I first set out on the road to Santiago, when I planned to walk that path again. I'd had a milestone birthday a few months before I did the first camino, and I'd celebrated another milestone shortly before I was due to undertake this one. I was planning to mirror the route I first walked as a novice pilgrim back in 2004. The bags were packed, the flights were booked, and then things took a turn that meant I had to cancel. Camino 6, the third Frances, was not…

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Thoughts on reaching half a century

I turned 50 recently. That's half a century. 1974 was the era of Watergate and the Vietnam War. Abba were rocking Eurovision with 'Waterloo'. The Russian menace was threatening to overrun the west. English politics was in turmoil. Joe Biden was a toothless Washington hack. China was run by an ageing and brutal dictator. There was conflict in the middle east. How so much has changed since I was born.  Even though I've been of a mature vintage (and in denial about it) for a decade, I can no longer escape the tag of being middle aged. If normal life expectancy measures…

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Macau

A LIFE IN THE DAY OF MACAU Ask Chat GPT where can you find replicas of London, Venice and Paris situated within a Portuguese metropolis, where the sun never stops shining and the entire population is Chinese, and it will either respond by saying that it cannot answer such a crazy question, or it will direct you to a faraway land that seems too fanciful to be real named Macau. Its a land of casinos and churches, vice and virtue rolled up into a picture postcard peninsula of promise and riches. No one who witnesses its charms will ever be…

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Made in Taiwan

MADE IN TAIWAN Taiwan, an "independent" island in the Pacific, precariously close to a gigantic neighbour that looks at it with a mixture of disdain and desire, is a faraway land of mystery and opportunity. In the modern world, when one thinks of Taiwan the first thing they think of is impending war. Conventional wisdom suggested an invasion, if it were to come, would not occur before 2026. This was 2024. I'd probably dodge a proverbial bullet if I went this year.Not a country that's very high on peoples' dream destinations, I was drawn to Taiwan by a mixture of…

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A Pilgrim’s Rules for Simple Living

To many of us it seems like the world fell off its axis in 2016. The vote for Brexit, Trump and the triumph of Leicester City in the premier league seemed to signal the end of the world. And it's been all down hill since then: a pandemic, a war in Ukraine, high inflation, an energy crisis, the Chinese baring their fangs towards Taiwan, a stock market meltdown, political polarisation and a culture war in the west, and with the possible return of Trump - or the reelection of Biden - it seems like we won't have to wait long for the…

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The Seven Keywords of Pilgrimage – Slowness

In 2015 I flew to Lisbon to walk the Caminho Portuguese. During the flight I spotted Cape Finisterre, my final destination, down below. It took about 45 minutes to fly from that point to Lisbon. It would take me nearly 4 weeks to walk back. In the modern world, journeys that once took weeks or months by land and sea can now be accomplished in a day or so.

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Camino del Norte: Part 1

Caminos are to pilgrims what drinks are to alcoholics: one is too many, two isn't enough, and three isn't half enough. The Caminho Portuguese, after two instances of the Camino Francés, was like the difficult third child who had upstaged the first two better behaved ones. Were I to walk another, it might make things right with the world again. Now, I must state the walk in Portugal was not that bad. A bad experience can result from sickness, injury, being abducted, robbed, getting gored by a bull, or simply not making it out alive. The Caminho Portuguese was, at…

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A Tokyo Story

It was a quiet Olympic Games in 2021. With spectators banished from the stands, and some competitors unable to participate due to never ending Covid pandemic, the titanic battle between the world's greatest athletes was a more muted affair this year. Those who wanted to travel to the games to support their fellow citizens could only do so from the comforts of their own homes, and the great city of Tokyo did not get the opportunity to showcase its many charms on a global stage. While an international sporting competition may have been a good excuse to visit this thriving…

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Caminho Portuguese: Part 2

For part 1 of the Caminho Portuguese, click here.  The first week on the Caminho Portuguese had proved to the most difficult and demanding of all my caminos, but I as long as I could get out of bed in the morning and put my boots on without assistance I was prepared to carry on. I had reached the town of Alviazare, about half way between Lisbon and Porto, after six days, and I expected to reach Porto in another six. Carlos, the owner or the albergue in Alviazare, had provided great hospitality to all his guests, and he kindly…

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Caminho Portuguese: Part 1

Most families have a black sheep, the person they store in the proverbial attic for fear of embarrassment, who they only acknowledge at funerals. I’ve probably been that person in my own family. Let’s face it, no one who walks multiple caminos could be considered sane, and the insane are rarely welcome in polite society. I’ve been fortunate to walk the Camino Francés, a beautiful journey of spiritual fulfilment, redemption and lasting friendships, the Norte and Primitivo, a challenging trek of stunning vistas and warm collegiality, and the Via de la Plata, an epic journey of haunting isolation that rewards…

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