Via del Plata Camino Experience to Santiago de Compostela
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!