What a fantastic day we have had. The weather has been glorious and we have walked through a combination of lovely open scenery and beautiful little villages. Beyond Pamploma the day started with a steep climb. J made his usual protests. We continued upwards through farmland with the views becoming ever better as we climbed. […]

A shortish walk of only 14km today. We walked with a very interesting fellow pilgrim today – a retired headmaster who had been just about everywhere in the world – including Everest Base Camp. Flattish walk through pretty countryside. We saw an interesting medieval bridge in one place we passed through. About halfway to Pamplona […]

Today was the longest day of the Camino – 27km. We got off early after another rather indifferent breakfast – the one meal the Spaniards don’t do well. The first part of the walk was through rolling woodlands – again, very reminisent of Argyll and very pleasant. As we got to lunchtime though, the path […]

Today we walked from St Jean in France to Roncevalles in Spain. We did not get off to a good start as J was late getting ready and all the other pilgrims had left – so walking on our own we immediately got lost. Luckily we managed to join up with another Pilgrim group – […]

This morning we went and had breakfast at the famous Ribera market in Bilbao. J had a hige speciality Basque Palmier – I’m surpised he would ever eat again after that. Then we went to the Basque museum which was quite interesting but would have been better if there were English lables on the exhibits. […]

Arrived in Bilbao fine. Unfortunately the appartment is a bit indifferent – we bought two pizzas and then discovered there was no oven! However Bilbao itself is surprisingly lovely. I always thought of it as a rather dull industrial city – but in fact it has a load of charming buildings, a nice river and […]

Whanne that April with his shoures sote The droughte of March hath perced to the rote. And smale foules maken melodie, That slepen alle night with open eye, So priketh hem nature in hir corages; Than longen folk to gon on pilgrimages A quote from Chaucer at the beginning of the Canterbury Tales and very […]

Beautiful day here today for Mother’s Day and we went down to Rhu to see my parents. The marina looked really scenic with bright blue water and hundreds of white boats – there is nothing more pretty than Helensburgh when the weather is nice – shame it doesn’t happen very often! I cooked a bit […]

Last night I got home from Glasgow quite late. I was sitting in the lounge and suddenly a heard the most tremendous grunting and squealing coming from the back door. I dashed over, thinking that something was attacking the cats (or more likely that they were fighting with each other – again). I opened the […]

I’m a big fan of Badgers and also of the Scottish Badgers charity. They have been asked to publicize some talks about the rewilding of Scotland – another subject which is very dear to my heart. There are upcoming talks happening here: 5th April – Corran Halls, Oban 3rd May – Theatre Royal, Dumfries 24th […]