“It‘s the unpleasant and the uncomfortable that have brought me here, just as much as the blessings.”
A gentle and moving account of the modern Camino de Santiago.

Mike Timms has always been a wanderer—from his childhood in the 1950s in Kenya’s “bundu” (the back of beyond), to wandering around Dublin during his college years, to walking pilgrim paths in Wicklow and southern France as he approached the end of his working life. He has never felt lost or alone, always holding a faith in moving forward, one step at a time, finding peace—and sometimes even reverence—in the quiet.

So upon retirement, he embarked on his first Camino journey. He walked as a true pilgrim, with a scallop shell hanging around his neck, a pilgrim passport in his pocket, and no guarantee of a bed in the hostels along the way. Falling in and out of step with fellow walkers, he learned to trust them, and to see the unexpected—injury, fatigue, losing his way, and the generosity of strangers—as blessings in disguise.

With direct and assured writing, Mike Timms undertakes a spiritual journey as he moves through this ancient landscape, listening to the histories, traditions, and beliefs that have gone before him.

Mike Timms

Born in England, he spent his childhood between Kenya and England. He studied at Trinity College Dublin, and later worked in mental health and rehabilitation. His essays, writing, and plays have been broadcast on RTÉ, Ireland‘s national broadcaster. Since first setting out on the Camino de Santiago in 2011, he has walked many other Camino routes, including those from Portugal, Portugal and A Coruña, as well as pilgrim paths in England, Ireland, and Brittany. To Walk the Way: One Pilgrim’s Camino Diary is his first book.