February / March 2009

I woke up one morning and decided to walk the 800km from St Jean Pied de Port in France to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

The plan was to walk every day, with the trip will taking me five weeks. I would walk the old pilgrim route, alone in the middle of winter, carrying everything I need and sleeping in refuges.

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I have been going for three days now – the first two were the most challenging of my life. Let’s just say that I am in pain most of the time. Along the way I am trying to raise funds for the charity CRY.

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I finally finished on Saturday 21st March after walking for 31 days. I rose early and walked through the night with a torch through a lovely forest and finally arrived at the cathedral in time for the pilgrims mass – which was a very emotional moment even for an atheist!

It was an extraordinary undertaking, hard at times and very rewarding and I am so glad I did it. As I walked I swore that I would never do it again but having been home for a day I am already thinking about the next challenge…

You can still sponsor Mark at http://www.justgiving.com/markluscombewhyte