Stephen & Gill Nicholls
EYKE, WOODBRIDGE, SUFFOLK
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It all began in 2010, when I started reading books about the ancient Camino de Santiago - the 31 different routes that go from all corners of Europe, to the alleged burial place of St. James the Apostle in north-west Spain.
I wanted to 'offer up' thanks for the last seven years of my life - some of the happiest I had known - but I wasn't keen on starting a 1,000 km walk, so decided for my first pilgrimage, to limit it to the 250 kms from Porto [in Portugal] to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain. I started out on All Fools' Day [April 1st, 2011] as I thought that might be appropriate...
This was a true pilgrimage - days of walking and prayer and contemplation: they turned out to be some of the most amazing days of my life! The wonder was not in arriving at my destination, but in the people I met along the road - not just other pilgrims, but the kind hoteliers, the locals and, yes, the other pilgrims too - my "camino family".
I always walked alone: yet we met up from time to time in albergues [hostels] and passed each other en route: and we developed the most wonderful, loving fellowship and concern for each other. Many times we exchanged e-mail addresses, and we still maintain contact.
I was so badly 'bitten' by the Pilgrimage ["Camino"] bug that further walks were carried out in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and, my final pilgrimage in 2016. Now it's time to acknowledge that my body isn't as young as it was, and call it a day. God is good .....
Pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela [Galicia, Spain].
PILGRIMAGE I
Porto to Santiago de Compostela
2011
I had allocated a month for the walk - which I completed comfortably in 16 days. So many memories ..... being attacked by dogs in a Portuguese forest, sleeping in a hostel with one other pilgrim - who could have snored for Spain. Crossing ancient bridges, built by the Romans as part of their main road Via XIX: the warmth of the sun always on the back of my legs: the constant sound of trickling water in northern Portugal: cuckoos.....
I took over 700 photographs, which have been uploaded to Picasa. See the links below. I wrote a diary of the pilgrimage in which there are about sixty of the pictures: if you'd like to see the diary ......
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1. Click on the link button - it will download into your "Download" directory.
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2. Go to your download directory and double click the downloaded file - it should open as a Word document [.doc] on your computer. If the ".doc" suffix doesn't download, just re-name the file with the correct .doc suffix!​
2012
PILGRIMAGE II
Via de la Plata - Salamanca to Santiago
It was a total, dismal failure. After only three days, walking had to be abandoned due to the rain - day after day - and the feet which were so badly blistered that I had to seek emergency hospital treatment.
I returned home feeling very despondent and depressed - I had let down so many friends around the world who had been praying for my success. I decided it would be better if I stopped walking "The Way" - I was getting too old, anyway.
That state of mind continued for about a week. Then I started looking at the Camino web site again http://www.caminodesantiago.me/ and replying to a few pilgrims in the Forums.
Meanwhile, I DID take a load of pictures - I also wrote a diary .....
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1. Click on the link button - it will download into your "Download" directory.
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2. Go to your download directory and double click the downloaded file - it should open as a Word document [.doc] on your computer. If the ".doc" suffix doesn't download, just re-name the file with the correct .doc suffix!]
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2013
PILGRIMAGE III Lisbon to Porto
For my Diary of the Pilgrimage, click on the button!
To see the photos full screen, visit the following links:
Google have muddled up the exact sequence of pictures - apologies! But they're all there!
PILGRIMAGE IV
Camino Ingles - A Coruna to Ferrol to Santiago de Compostela.
2014
I flew to Santiago with my brother, Peter, who had never been to Santiago before, and had some enjoyable hours in the city, before I took a bus to A Coruna and started my pilgrimage from there.
I walked from A Coruna to Bruma. In Bruma I caught a bus back up to the north coast, to Ferrol where I started walking south again, back down to Bruma and thence to Santiago, so walking both routes of the "Caminos Inglese".
I wrote a diary of Pilgrimage IV, and a separate Photo Album which you can download .....
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1. Click on the link button - it will download into your "Download" directory.
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2. Go to your download directory and double click the downloaded file - it should open as a Word document [.doc] on your computer. If the ".doc" suffix doesn't download, just re-name the file with the correct .doc suffix!
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I completed Pilgrimage IV - the ancient Camino Ingles - in May 2014. A delightful camino - with NO blisters!
This was a thanksgiving camino - thanking Him for 75 years of good health and a happy life. It's a very short 'camino' - barely 100 miles - but I walked both 'legs' of the camino, and my walking totalled about 140 miles.
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A wonderful, wonderful 'camino'. This pilgrimage was a great success. In spite of bad blisters, the sun shone for the first two weeks, and I only had rain on one day - such a difference from the previous year. Again, I took many pictures. The little thumb-nail shown here is the wonderful wide River Ebro.
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I wrote a diary of Pilgrimage V, which you can download .....
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1. Click on the link button - it will download into your "Download" directory.
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2. Go to your download directory and double click the downloaded file - it should open as a Word document [.doc] on your computer. If the ".doc" suffix doesn't download, just re-name the file with the correct .doc suffix!
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Ebro Diary: approx. 2.5 MB Ebro Photo Album approx. 11.5 MB
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I'm so sorry these are large files - I've done my best to compress and minimise. The Diary includes some 100 photos and the Photo Album 140 photos. Enjoy! I'd love to hear your feed-back!
To see ALL the photos full screen, visit the following link:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/gEfGqxP1GBa8juSa9
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PILGRIMAGE V
​Ruta del Ebro - the final journey?
2015
Completed in May 2015 . A delightful if lonely Camino - not really a 'pilgrimage' as there was no religious site at the end of the 200 mile journey.
Very hot during the first week, with temperatures up to 37 degrees C: very little rain in the entire three weeks! I saw one other pilgrim during that period, stayed in four albergues [by myself in three] and otherwise settled for inexpensive Hostals and Hotels.
PILGRIMAGE VI
Sureste from Alicante.
2016 ...February.
Starting from Alicante in February, I walked for two days before needing hospital treatment for blisters. While recovering, I heard a weather forecast for the hills over which I planned to walk .... 30 cms of snow! I asked myself "Am I here to enjoy myself or arrange a suicidal pilgrimage?"
I hired a car, and had twelve great days meeting up with many old friends in the Castellon area. This ended up as a non-Pilgrimage!
My Final PILGRIMAGE VII
2016 ... May.
Santiago to Finisterre.
After the disappointment of the February non-Pilgrimage, I was delighted to have the opportunity of walking again in May 2016, the "final" camino from Santiago to Finisterre - named by the Romans who believed it was, indeed, the 'finis' + 'terra' - the end of the earth.
You can understand why they thought that, when you stand at the lighthouse on the westerly point of the Iberian peninsula.
For much of the way I went with Sarah - a good friend who lives close by me in Suffolk, UK, who then went on to Muxia while I had a couple of days in the Little Fox House, visited previously in 2014. Then we met up again for a few last days in Santiago de Compostela.
My Final, Final PILGRIMAGE VIII
2019 ... February.
Porto towards Santiago, following the COASTAL CAMINO.
I got an urge. It's funny how, once you've started walking different caminos, you get yet another urge to walk yet another camino. I wanted to walk the Portuguese Coastal camino. My dear friend who lives in Portugal - Catarina - said she'd like to join me for the first five days. And so it was to be. We had met on my first camino in 2011 so it seemed fitting that we might walk my last camino together.
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Part 1 of the photo album covers my five days with Catarina.
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Part II shows the final nine days when I was on my own - not really walking any camino, but enjoying my last days in Santiago de Compostela, then Porto and finally Lisbon and Sintra - Catarina's home city.
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[The photo - right - shows me and Catarina in front of the Cleric's Tower in Porto: lower photo - one of the many windmills along the Atlantic coast line.]
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Left click on the first picture to start seeing them all full screen.
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Click on the > on the right of the picture to move onto the next one.
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IMPORTANT: Click on the little 'i' in the circle on right-hand side for information, my comments, and often even a map at the bottom, showing location. etc.
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​Future PILGRIMAGES ...
are now unlikely, as age-related problems have caught up with me - arthritis of the spine and feet, kidney problems and a frontal hernia which makes breathing difficult when walking. I should be grateful that I have been so well up to now - while on Pilgrimage VIII I celebrated my 80th birthday!
But I have had a wonderful eight years of being a 'peregrino' [pilgrim] and thank God that I have been able to do it. I have made so many friends, and visited so many beautiful mountains and pathways in Spain and Portugal.
In the meanwhile I am enjoying three or four holidays every year, always in the sunshine of Spain or Portugal - walking a little and taking my time. My photographs and details are on the "Holiday" page. You can follow this link!
​May God bless each one of you on your pilgrimage through life.
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O I would go
How gladly I would go
Were feet and limbs not aching with old age.
O I would go
Relive those times now past
When walking on the old, well trodden paths
Gave me such joy
O I would go
Meet up again with fellow travelers
Enjoy their company – their love – whilst on the road
Leading me onward to that golden shrine
Of Santiago.
O I would go
To walk again those quiet ways
Beside the rivers, over Roman paths
Under the welcome sun of northern Spain
To Santiago.
O I would go
But now the years have come
When pain prevents the onward path
To Santiago.
Yet even now, I bless those travelers
Still in their young or middle years
Who walk the paths pre-trodden by a million feet
To Santiago.
© Stephen Nicholls