The Solitary Walker

I’ve always loved walking. I like the simplicity and freedom of it. No tying or troublesome equipment needed — just a serviceable pair o...

I began writing a novel about the Camino in the summer of this year, but haven't looked at it for several months. Now I realise that it...

I'm living in Germany right now, in the western region of Rheinland-Pfalz, and it's beautiful: picture-postcard villages, lush gre...

As regular readers of this blog will know, I'm very interested in Buddhism — Zen Buddhism in particular. This is not the place to go in...

The long straight track. Much of the time, we are willing to do almost anything rather than face the unknown, the wilderness. When we...

Zen pond. How many times now have I crossed over hill crests
 with the image
 of blossoms leading me on —
 toward nothing but...

The real traveller finds sustenance in equivocation, he is torn between embracing and letting go, and the wrench of disengagement is the es...

I remember that first day on the Chemin very clearly. 17th October 2007. Blue skies. Warm and sunny. The hills and valleys of the Auverg...

To be continued . . .

Today I remembered something I was told while walking in Spain by someone I met only that day.  Like many days, I was walking and cryin...

Arrival, like origin, is a mythical place. REBECCA SOLNIT Symbols, metaphors and allegories aside, pilgrim ways are actual physica...

The metaphor of life as journey, a journey of trial and tribulation, of discovery and revelation, a journey in pursuit of self-knowledge...

It’s Easter Sunday, and it's raining, and my thoughts turn to the Camino. I haven’t consciously thought about the Camino for some t...

A few years ago I was sitting in the pub at Kirk Yetholm on the final night of a three-week hike along the Pennine Way , that magnificent...

If a man wishes to be sure of the road he treads on, he must close his eyes and walk in the dark. ST JOHN OF THE CROSS The term ...

This is the first piece in an occasional series I'm calling Reasons To Walk The Camino . The name of the slough was Despond. JO...

In a  recent post on her blog Big Fun In A Tiny Pueblo , Rebekah Scott — writer and hospitalera from Moratinos — mentions meeting up with...

My first poetry collection, Raining Quinces , is now available through Amazon US and Amazon UK and all European Amazon channels. ...

Santiago Cathedral, Spain. Image: Wikimedia Commons The real traveller finds sustenance in equivocation, he is torn between embracin...