Via del Plata Camino Experience to Santiago de Compostela - Tapa blanda

What is the Silver Way peregrino? Peregrinos (or pilgrims as most probably know them) have walked the country paths (caminos) to Santiago Compostela to pay homage at the tomb of the Apostle St James since the 9th century. In those early days many a poor peregrino perished on the way. Even today some people still do, but the probability, like the hardships are much less now as we hike in good boots, carry a lightweight packs, eat good food and are better prepared. I had already walked 700 km, that's most of the well-known French Camino from Pamplona to Santiago, the year before. On that, my first camino I 'd had my feet washed, kissed and blessed, and had other strange experiences and suffered terrible blisters! Yet here I was wanting more, it was like a drug! It was a holy year and the French way would be crowded I was told. Ok, I would walk the route that many an ancient peregrino had undertaken to get to Santiago. That is to start from Seville and is known as the Via del Plata Camino or The Silver Way. I thought some surely must have walked from Cordoba, so why not start from there, it’s a little longer but it's such a lovely city! How unprepared I was for this next adventure! This Camino was to test my strength to the limit, and yet at times fill me with so much joy! I was to learn what it could mean, just to light a candle in a cathedral! I was to meet and befriend locals and people from around the world making friendships that have lasted to this very day. I am a modern pilgrim. I carry a camera and hope to show as well as tell you what the experience was like on my Via del Plata Camino. There are many route books and if you are thinking of attempting to walk this Silver route you need to get a good one. This book is not a guide, it is to give you a look at what difficulties you might have to overcome, a little insight as to what the country is like that you will have to travel over. It covers mostly the joyful experiences that I had, that may or may not happen to you on the way, so that you may be better prepared than I was.

The author, Mike Davey, was born in the UK in 1939 and spent most of his childhood and early teens in Camber Sands, Sussex. A few years after his marriage, he moved to Alfas del Pi in Spain with his wife and 2 young children, where he worked as a builder for 13 years. He moved to Western Australia in 1983 and has lived there ever since, but his love for Spain never faded - hence his passion for walking the pilgrim routes there. His other passion is oil painting, and he has reproduced some of the photos in his books in oils. He walked the well known French Camino from Pamplona, in Spain, to Santiago de Compostela in 2003, a distance of approximately 700 kilometres. In 2004 he walked approximately 1300 kilometres! Starting in Córdoba, he walked to Sevilla and then northwards on the Vía del Plata to Santiago. He continued on to Fisterra and across to Muxia and back to Santiago. In 2005 he walked the North Camino from Irun to Oviedo, then the Primitivo from Oviedo through Lugo to Santiago. He returned by bus to Oviedo to complete the North Camino via Oviedo - Ribadeo - Sobrado to Santiago. Next he took a train to and walked from Pontevedra, on the tail end of a Portuguese Camino near the coast, back to Santiago. Now nearly 68 years young he walked the lonely Ebro Camino from Tortosa to Logroño and continued on the French Camino to Santiago in 2007. His proposed Mozarabe Camino of 2009 was cancelled due to a knee problem, but walked in 2010 instead. In May that year he started walking from Cordoba to Merida, then took a bus to Zamora. He then walked the Camino Portugues de la Via de la Plata through Portugal to Verin. Here he took a bus to Oviedo. Finally he walked from Gijon on the north coast to Caudonga (Covadonga) in the Picos de Europa. This was no mean feat for a man of 70 years, but he was still not the oldest peregrino en route!