Three weeks from today I will be travelling with my friend Wraenna to Spain to walk the French Camino. This is the last 111km of the journey to Santiago de Compostela, also known as the way of St James.

We booked the trip last July, and had plans to do lots of practice walks between then and now however life ha got in the way.

This will be my retreat this year and I hope to use it to reflect on an article I am going to write for Anvil entitled Spiritual not Religious.

Between now and when we leave Holy Week and Easter are in the Christian calendar which means that as a Church of England priest I will be really quite busy. After that follows Beltane on 1st May which is the 3rd Spring celebration in the pagan calendar. Much of my ministry is focussed around Glastonbury, Somerset and this is one of the biggest celebrations in the town attracting people from all over the world.

Today however I am planning a practice walk with Cara the Collie. She is my constant companion as I walk all around the streets and fields where I live. We are planning to go just a little further a field into the Mendip Hills. The sun is shining but it is cool and windy.

I am going to pack my day rucksack with all the things I am likely to carry on the Camino, this will include blister plasters, waterproofs and my hydration pack. I’m not taking my passport today as I’m not leaving Somerset- although that might be a mistake.

This is the last chance I will have to do a serious length walk before we leave, I’m a little concerned that my hip might not hold out for the duration of 111km but I think it’s a little late to turn back now - better pack painkillers in my rucksack.

We are travelling with a company called Camino Ways who are providing us with a guide so that we don’t miss the yellow arrows on the pilgrimage and also to point out the many highlights to be seen. They are also very kindly taking our main luggage from one hotel to the next in order that we don’t have to carry much. We will not be staying in refugios which is the more traditional way to walk the Camino but Wraenna and I are relishing the idea of comfortable beds each night and only each other’s snoring. She is also ridiculously happy that there are baths in a number of the hotels and she has packed her bath-bombs already. I should add that she has had her luggage sorted and packed for months now, I’m still not sure what I’m going to take or wear but there are still three weeks to go - three hours will give me plenty of time to pack.

As I’m currently sitting in my dressing gown I had better get dressed, load up, find the map and take Cara the Collie for a very long walk.

So the walk was longer than I had intended. I had downloaded an app on my phone for a route to walk, it took me 25mins of driving up and down the same road to find the start and 3 mins from the start of walking and I was confused by the app. I set my phone aside and followed my nose, and the directions of people I passed on the way, All was going swimmingly, up one side of Burrington Coombe, a bouncy Cara the Collie racing through the woods a pause for ice cream from the very convenient van parked at the top of The Coombe. Across the road and off up the track with Cara looking very hopefully at the ice-cream cone in my hand, and up, up, up towards the Trig point on Black Down. We then continued walking across the top of the Down, Contented Cara bouncing along, the sun was shining and although it wasn’t walm the pace I was walking meant I wasn’t cold.
We turned off the Down and started to head back in the direction of the car. Reading Rowberrow Warren, a large expanse of forestry commission land. I should have realised the clue was in the name as we spent the next 2 hours in a rabbit warren of routes around the forest. We found a beautiful stream, with the most lovely houses built alongside it. We walk up and down and up and down, went round in a complete circle at one point and got utterly disoriented. Asking directions from people at this stage wasn’t so helpful as people sent me towards the wrong village or were as lost as I was. Eventually I ended up finding my way back to the place that we entered Rowberrow Warren and followed the path I probably should have taken 2hours previously back towards the village of Burrington Coombe. With no signposts I was guessing that was the case so I had concluded that if it wasn’t the right village I was going to the pub and calling my husband to come and collect us to drive back to the car! Not that I was starting to panic but I had concluded that couldn’t climb back over that hill again. As we reached the road, down a very steep hill we could hear sounds of motorbikes and cars going up the Coombe. What would have been 7miles had become 11.4miles and I realised that the downhill parts had made my toes very sore - need to find yet another way of lacing my boots! I was also getting cold, out of the sun and nearly 6pm, the closer I got to the car the stiffer I got.

What I learned
Mostly I enjoyed walking with only the dog for company.
I start to panic if I’m not sure where I am
Not eating anything before a 4-1/2hour hike is probably not sensible.
Taking a map as well as my phone is a good thing.
I need to find a different way to lace my boots so my toes don’t hurt as I go downhill.
I can walk 18km (11.4 miles) in 4-1/2hours even on very steep paths.
Codeine and Ibroprufen tablets, a bath and a pizza mean that I could do it again today