With retirement looming, Tony Collins chose to use a long-overdue sabbatical to walk the 490 miles of the Camino, from the French border to Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain. He was deliberately stepping out of his comfort zone: making a pilgrimage, carrying his pack, through a land whose language he did not speak, into a religious culture far removed from his own, in search of sources of reverence. However he would not walk alone; the Way of St. James has many adherents, with well over 200,000 completing their Camino journey during that year.
He had expected the Way to be arduous, and so it proved. But he had not expected so bracing an internal journey, his battered soul laid open to examination and past errors offered up for scrutiny. Nor had he expected such moments of intense spiritual encounter, or so many precious friendships.
In the end he discovered, as so many have before him, that the Way leaves an indelible mark.
"Tony Collins's new book is an absolute delight. We take not one walk with him, but two, and both are a genuine pleasure. Here is a man who stands at the verge of retirement, who looks back and forward, and does so with both reverence and great good humor. There was so much quiet passion contained within these pages, and so many powerful lessons. Highly recommended."
---Davis Bunn, author of The Lion of Babylon
