The Camino de Santiago is an ancient Pilgrimage route from southern France to the Cathedral de Santiago in Galicia in Northern Spain. Walking it has been on my bucket list for a few years.
Whilst it will be a while before my boots trek across the Pyrennees and through the fertile Spanish plain I’m in luck because our charity for 2020 – St Basils – has setup a challenge to complete the route virtually by 12th June. John and I are one third of the way through and I’m loving it!
https://stbasils.org.uk/events/step-up-challenge/
Check out the link for all the details and how to register. When you register you get see an interactive map which displays the route together with a photo of and a description of the starting milestone. You can join and complete the challenge solo or, even better, you can setup up a team with up to 5 people. The total route is around 500 miles so get together with a few of your walking / running buddies and do it as a team event! It costs £10 per person to register with proceeds going to St Basils.
It’s very simple to use just complete an activity and enter the distance. You can enter steps, distance in miles or Km and you can enter walks, runs or bike rides so it doesn’t matter what you use to track your activity just enter the number. John and I are both in the same team ‘McSEFitness’ and between us are making very good progress. We are around one third of the way and in 10th place. It’s great when you pass a key milestone on the route, such as Pamplona, you get a photo of the town and some information about it. It’s not quite the same as actually being there but we can all dream can’t we!
St Basils is raising money to support their work helping vulnerable young people at risk of homelessness in the West Midlands. With many of their normal fundraising activities on hold this ‘virtual’ challenge is an important event for them. We’re enjoying our pilgrimage and hoped we might tempt some of you to take part too.
Let me know if you join so I can look out for your team on the Leaderboard. If you discover the meaning of life while you’re at it please share that too! Good Luck!