As the warmth still struggles to remember its place in Madrid, and the rain Gods continue their campaign to drown the city I find myself planning a walk. This time it isn't some jolly through the local mountains or traipsing through twee villages. On the 6th of April I will be taking a train to the handsome city of Santander on the frayed north coast of Spain. The day of arrival I will mosey around, eat some tapas, gaze at the beach, meet up with some friends who hosted me on couchsurfing and stay with them again. On the 7th of April I shall wake up, put on my backpack and walk for about 50 days.

The Camino de Santiago is the famous pilgrim route in Spain and France that has been leading travellers to the city of Santiago de Compostela since the first few decades of the first millennium. I shall spare you the history otherwise I shall have nothing to write about in my next book, but safe to say that over the last few hundreds of years the pilgrimage has changed a lot. It is no longer only for the religious. People of all creeds do it, fitness freaks do it, people like me do it, gap year students do it. This is what I have been told. I intend to walk all of it and more in an effort to experience another side of the country in which I live. I also want to experience the people; why do they do it? Who does it? Questions like these.

I will be doing three different legs (using the recommended stages), as follows:
1. Santander to Irun (13 days) followed by a rest day stopover in Bayonne
2. Saint-Jean-Pied-Du-Pont to Santiago de Compostela (31 days with a rest day in Logroño to visit some friends in Haro and maybe another day in Burgos to visit the prehistoric site of Atapuerca)
3. Santiago de Compostela to Muxia via Finisterre (4 days)

In total I will walk 1,186km. Whether or not I experience something life changing or spritiual I don't know. I fear that I won't. Either why I intend to document my trip via my YouTube channel as well as jotting down with ink my thoughts. Every couple of days I intend to post a video to show what happens on the camino, what I feel, what I find. Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4Q_FNBBV813OtMClRc43BQ.
I ask you to join me on this Camino. Subscribe to the YouTube channel if you could. That would be amazing.

This blog is now officially sleeping until I return, so the next two months shall be a case of All Quiet on the Iberian Front.

Tally Pip. See you on the Way.