TO WALK THE WAY : One Pilgrim's Camino

Mike Timms has always been a wanderer – into the bundu (‘back of beyond’) as a child in 1950s Kenya, around Dublin during his college years, and along pilgrim paths in Wicklow and southern France as he approached the end of his working life.

He has never felt lost or alone, holding a faith in moving forward, one step at a time, and finding a peace – and sometimes reverence – in the quiet.

So upon retirement, he embarked on his first Camino, setting out on foot just north of Carcassonne in France in the direction of Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain.

He walked as a true pilgrim, with the scallop shell hanging around his neck, his pilgrim passport in his pocket, and no guarantee of a bed in the albergues along the Way.

Falling in and out of step with fellow walkers, he learned to trust them and to see the unexpected – injury, fatigue, detour, and the generosity of strangers – as blessings in disguise.

With immediate and assured writing, Mike Timms takes us on a mindful journey as he moves through this ancient landscape, attuned to the histories, traditions, and beliefs that have gone before him.

"To Walk the Way" is his gently transporting account of taking part in them in his own unique way.