In the summer of 2022, I walked 800km from the small French border town of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Santiago de Compostela, completing the 'French route' of El Camino de Santiago. I polished off that trip with an extra 150km to the Galician coast. From the very east of Spain to the very west of the country, I managed to walk 950km. I figured I had to better that this year...

So instead of doing one Camino route this year, I'm doing two! Starting in Lisbon, the plan is to walk the 600km+ along the 'Portuguese route' north to Santiago de Compostela. However, instead of stopping there, I am planning to carry on along Spain's north coast down the 'Northern Route' to San Sebastian. Essentially the plan is to cover half of the coastline of the Iberian peninsula - from the south-west of Portugal to the north-east of Spain. A rough estimate makes that about 1500 km - which is longer than the famous Land's End to John o'Groats trek.

The school I work at, Swans International School in Marbella, does a lot of work with several charities, but we have a particularly strong relationship with the charity Rifcom, thanks to the efforts of former teacher Anne Smyth, Rifcom supports the impoverished communities in the Moroccan Rif Mountains and does plenty of work funding things from basic aid to helping establish better infrastructures for the communities, plus much, much more. I will be raising money for Rifcom to help continue the excellent work they do in the Rif mountains. You can read more about Rifcom here https://rifcom.org/