Camino de Santiago - Invierno

I was at the hairdresser's discussing holiday destinations and my passion for walking when the lady mentioned something called 'Camino', a long-distance walk across Spain. I had to ask her to spell the name of this 'walk' so I could research it. I thought I was a 'die-hard' walker but not knowing about the 'Camino de Santiago' made me feel a bit clueless.

People think there is only one Camino, the one from France to Santiago, however, there are countless. As soon as a pilgrim sets out to Santiago de Compostela, he or she is on the Camino de Santiago and the distance can range from 80km to over 2,000km. After looking into it in more detail I decided to go with a less-known Camino, only made official in 2016, called the 'Camino de Invierno' (Winter way).

I couldn't find any books or maps but managed to find an online forum that showed the different stages. I booked my flights a month later. Booking accommodation proved to be a bit more of a challenge as most had to be made via phone in Spanish; considering I didn't speak any, it was interesting. Due to the lack of a guidebook I created a personalised (and palm-sized) guidebook that covered a bit of the Camino's history, the different stages, my accommodation details, pictures of interests, etc. The next step was to actually learn Spanish. I walked to work for 3 months listening to tapes, 'talking' to myself and watching movies in Spanish. I literally had the time of my life.