On the Camino

I'm not an artist - there's a reason why I studied Engineering and not art but these pictures are ones that even I can do so they must be simple! Start off with a square of cardboard - 10cmX10cm (for those who use the Imperial system sorry, I have no idea how big that is sorry!) Find a picture of the Cathedral that you like and draw a very rough outline of its shape I think that you can make that out! Then paint over this in white paint, go outside the lines as well so that they're covered up Don't worry about the brushstrokes being visible, it looks better if you can see them Wait for it to dry and then draw the Cathedral's outline in black pen And now fill in the details This isn't my best example maybe but it looks pretty cool! The Botafumero looks good too Or a different view of the Cathedral    Or a (badly drawn) Waymarker  

So what do you do after you finish walking? After my first Camino I do remember waking up and looking around me at the curtains and thinking, 'Huh, these curtains in this albergue look just like my curtains at home!' What do you do when you get home though? Well you still see yellow arrows and follow them: or else you just look for them everywhere. And you look for Scallop shells as well (fewer of these about than there are arrows) And you look everywhere for Churros and chocolate - I found some in Wales! You also wonder why everyone is no longer talking about their feet all of the time and actually miss the snoring!! What do other people miss about the Camino?

The first in an occasional series of crafts on the Camino. This one is painting shells! Firstly gather your supplies: scallop shells, paint (I used acrylic paints and they worked well), water to wash your brushes and brushed (I used the ones that I paint mini figures with)  To start with I did a Union Flag shell: Just one idea - I did a few others as below: A few more ideas for you! If you did them before you went and then varnished them then you could wear them on your bag! Will also look good as decorations or on cards

I thought that it would be interesting to take pictures of all of my equipment for the Camino for you guys to see - I know that a lot of people make lists for others but not many show everyone what they take. Please remember I'm not a photographer! I have only ever walked in September and March-May, requirements at other times of the year will be different. Here goes:

Is this a possible new way to do the Camino?!

In 2010 I walked to Finisterra. This is the certificate: The sunset over Finisterra is in the certificate’s centre and the Scallop shell, symbol of the Camino and often collected from the beaches in Finisterra, can be seen.         The four corners depict the symbols of the four evangelists: an angel for Matthew, a lion for Mark, an ox for Luke and an Eagle for John. A rough translation is: ‘The concello of Finisterra certifies that (name) reached the Coast of death and the finish of the way of Saint James’

I have been asked often about how many women walk on the Camino and the answer is quite a few! In fact in 2012 43.5% of those who achieved their Compostela were female, not bad going especially when you put it into perspective of the World situation for women  - only 1% of the world's land is owned by women, women only hold 18.2% of parliamentary seats worldwide and women make up just 17.3% of FTSE 100 board directors. That's quite some inequality in the world and when you consider that girls are twice as likely to be illiterate as boys it's not a situation that's likely to be changing that soon. Today I'm at the Writes for Women event in Nottingham which is hoping to raise some awareness of gender equality as part of Nottingham Women's Fringe where we've all chosen our own projects and goals to write for; I'm doing mine for Nottingham's Rape Crisis Centre where trained Counsellors and volunteer support workers provide face to face councelling, edu...

A little article in the town magazine:

Albergues are the usual place to stay I would not advise this: And yes I did sleep in that box for one night but in England and for charity

I've been looking back through my photos of the Camino and thought I'd post some pictures of the type of things that you eat whilst walking A selection of bread for breakfast one morning Churros and chocolate! Churros is similar to donut batter and the chocolate is a hot chocolate that is as thick as custard - yummy! Eating Churros and chocolate Galician soup - potatoes, beans, ham and cabbage Cake because who can walk without eating cake? More churros and chocolate - okay, so maybe I like this just a bit O'Cebreiro cheese and honey Patatas bravas Tortilla Not exactly a full selection I know! Me and Becky usually cooked our own food which was pasta with tomato sauce or soft cheese and tuna or some meat. Sandwiches were the usual for dinner. Pilgrim meals tended to be: salad, pasta or soup to start; pasta, fish or meat with chips (rarely potatoes) for the main and the pudding was yoghurt, fruit or cake. Not much var...

There are traditions when you reach Santiago: hugging the Apostle, kneeling before the casket and then putting your hand on the Tree of Jesse on the Portico de Gloria  However this is no longer allowed when you get to Santiago - there's a rail all around the area but if you live in the UK there is a possible alternative (that you still cannot touch but you can get close to) at the Victoria and Albert museum. The Victorians liked to do plaster copies of many sites and the copy of the Portico was made in 1866 by a team from the South Kensington Museum (as the V and A was then known) and its display and, along with a serious of photos by Charles Thurston Thompson, helped to raise awareness in the UK. At its opening it was said to be a, 'glory of the museum'. A visit is a great chance to see what the Portico looks like as the actual Portico is surrounded by a lot of scaffolding at the moment that makes it difficult to see anything. I didn't take any pictures of...

Back in 2011 me and Becky wrote a list of things that we found annoying on the Camino. Here it is: Bag rustlers - the people who get up at four in the morning and then spend the next hour in the room packing their things away in the noisiest plastic bags in the world Snorers - those who are like an orchestra all by himself ... like Dad who got a cold on the Camino that make his snoring so bad that the only other person in our room swore at him in German, stormed out of the room and spent the rest of the night sleeping ng on the sofa in the kitchen. He left me and Becky laughing and Dad sleeping on oblivious! Cyclists who approach you silently and then almost run you over - get a bell, say, 'Buen Camino,' or just, 'hi,' anything at all so that we know you're coming and don't have to dive off the path out of your way! People who wait until the lights are off to switch on and play with their phones - at home we probably all text in bed or check on Facebook ...

I was recently asked to write 120 words and mine and Becky's Camino to people who had never heard anything about it - 120 words to describe over 30 days worth of walking across a country! It actually turned out being 123 words (I was working on the plus or minus 10% from College) but here it is: Santiago de Compostella in Spain is the resting place of Saint James, one of the 12 Apostles, and has been a site of pilgrimage for hundreds of years – to receive the Compostella certificate one has to ride a bike or horse 200km or walk 100km - although some people walk a much greater distance, like the 800km my sister Becky and I walked from France to arrive in Santiago.         Walking, we covered three mountains and had knee high snow as well as nearly 30 o C days as we went 20-30km per day and met people from such diverse countries as America, Mexico, New Zealand and South Africa.         After 32 days, we...