You spend a week on 100kms on The Way then find yourself following the yellow arrow road ten years on.
Actor and trekker Robson Green is the latest to put his boots on and head for Santiago de Compostella.
For his World’s Most Amazing Walks series for British TV channel U&Yesterday.
And share his Camino, which, of course, is his own.
There were touch points we recognise from our CaminoWays odyssey.
The passport, the pulpo, or octopus, and the cathedral botafumeiro incense holder.
As he traversed his way across Galicia from O Cebreiro to St James the Greater’s remains in Santiago de Compostella.
But because every day is an education on the Camino we learned some stuff we’d missed back then.
And they were all yellow
Such as the derivation of the yellow arrow symbol.
We already know why peregrinos, or pilgrims. wear scallop shells on their backpacks.
Although we prefer the more lyrical explanation, which he didn’t share, which is that James was carried ashore on clamshells.
But we just imagined that the yellow arrows which guide even the most accidental of tourists, to their destination.
That it was a Galician or Spanish Tourist Board signpost.
Starting out from O Cebreiro, of course, Robson, immediately learned that it was the handiwork of its most famous citizen.
Father Elias Valina, who stocked with an inordinate amount of yellow paint took off on his travels in 1984.
Along the French Way daubing yellow arrows everywhere to help peregrinos.
And you’ll be thankful to the padre for keeping you on the straight and narrow.
The big cheese
Armed with this knowledge Robson drops by, among other high points, a Queso Tetilla cheese in the shape of a booby.
The reason for it, the great storyteller keeps until the end of his trek in the great cathedral itself.
Which, Robson would be aghast if we spoiled.
Walking in his footsteps
The Geordie starts out his eight-part series in his backyard of the north-east of England.
Walking across to the other coast along the 2,000-year-old Hadrian’s Wall.
Before taking in the Danube River, along the Wachau Valley in Austria.
The north coast of Normandy, to the D-Day landings beaches.
The Great Glen Way through the Scottish Highlands, from the foot of Ben Nevis to Loch Ness.
The Douro Valley in Portugal, the Jurassic Coast on England’s south coast, complete with Sea-Rex.
And after his Camino odyssey, the Trail of the Eagle’s Nest in Poland.
A 100-mile route connecting a group of medieval castles perched across the limestone highlands.
Of course, through the miracle of modern technology I started my journey at episode seven and the Camino.
And one of our own
I am, of course, binge watching the rest and will break it to The Scary One that that is our mission for our Sixties.
To complete all of Robson’s treks, and more, not least our own neighbourhood walk, the John Muir Way.
And surprise my old walking companion, Wendy the Wasp Whisperer on the tenth anniversary of our misadventures this month.
