to the Spanish city of Santiago De Compostela,

the resting place of the remains of Saint James.

about 2.5 million people a year visit Santiago,

over 200,000 of them walking the Camino, a pilgrimage across France

and Spain. Traditionally, the Camino De Santiago

should begin from the front door of your home. If you happened to live 50 kilometres away from the Cathedral,

that was all you walked. If you live in Nottingham, like me,

walking from your doorstep would take an inordinate amount of time.

Infact, plenty of people in Europe

do begin from their homes, a few weeks at a time

over a number of years.

So where did I begin my Camino?

In 2013, I walked 116 kilometres from Sarria to Santiago in five days.

This easter,

my challenge was to walk 90 kilometres in four days

across hills, mountains and rivers

from Santiago to Finesterra, the end of the world.

So it's day one, usually we'd walk about

20 kilometres in one day but since we arrived in Santiago

at midday we're only walking ten kilometres.

Pilgrims from every background are

today drawn to the Camino from all over the world.

We're from Germany.

We're from Ireland.

I'm from the United States, but I live here in Santiago now.

The language in the way is English because it's easy for

different cultures, Korean people, Catalan people,

Germany,

Namibia. All the people possibly speak

in English and this is a good experience to

all the people, because we have many languages,

but we are only one people.

What is common to them all, is that they have left behind

all that is familiar to them, in order to wake each day to a new

stretch of road. No two pilgrims are likely to experience

or to understand the Camino in exactly the same way.

Some will have walked 100 kilometres some 500,

some more than a thousand! Why do they do it?

This documentary seeks to answer that very question.

When you see a town with people around a table with dinner,

they are very open to share

the reasons, why they do the Camino.

I was fed up with my life and then

I really wanted to go out my comfort zone. I just wanted to get some confidence

because I came here by myself.

I want to concur

one big thing in my life.

It is essential to travel as light as possible

as everything you need is to be carried on your back whilst walking roughly

20 kilometres each day. As a filmmaker,

I had an excessive amount of equipment.

*Water*

By the 12th and 13th centuries, half a million christian pilgrims made

their way to an across northern Spain

and back each year. They did this to be granted a

miracle by Saint James and to transform their lives in some way.

When they returned, they would be treated as local celebrities

within their community.

Yellow arrows, painted sprayed or carved

guide the pilgrim on their journey, but why is the scallop shell the emblem of

the Camino?

Why is it depicted on each and every signpost?

One story relates to a troubled man being rescued from the sea by Saint

James.

When the drowning man was lifted from the fury of the waves,

Scallop shells clung to his clothing. This shell became an emblem for

Saint James and also the trials of being a pilgrim.

*Shower*

*Birdsong*

Accommodation tends to be scattered

around the 15 to 20 kilometre marks so it is worth finding out where each Albergue or

or Refugio is before you start your trip. Refugio's or Albergue's come in all

shapes and sizes.

Most hostels are made up of mixed dormitories with simple bunkbeds.

Your pilgrim's passport is what gets you into a Refugio.

This passport has spaces for stamps obtained from different establishments

during the day.

These stamps work is proof that you have walked a certain distance.

Hand in the passport at the end of your journey if you have walked over 100 kilometres

to receive a certificate.

I keep in touch with two of the ladies I met,

one I'm going to visit this year in Frankfurt and

we are pen pals. I have an Austrian lady who is older and we're

pen pals, I'll send her postcards and Christmas letters and she'll do the same.

I've met more than 10.

We met together in Santiago which is the destination of this journey.

We celebrated together, it was quite the

biggest interest, for me.

The Way is an inspirational film about Tom,

a man who decides to walk the Camino after collecting the remains of his adult

son,

killed in a Pyrenees storm whilst walking the Camino. What Tom doesn't

plan on,

is the profound impact the journey will have on his life!

In the film, Tom and his newfound friends find it impossible to stop

walking after reaching Santiago. As I walked the last 100 kilometres in 2013

from Sarria to Santiago,

it only seemed right that formy second pilgrimage,

I continue my journey from Santiago

to what pagans believed to be the end of the world.

I am in love with the sea.

We started in Porto at the sea, we wanted to finish it.

I thought that I could find the answers that I wanted to find

when I got to Santiago

but I couldn't, so I just decided to go further to Finesterra to

get my answers and I needed some time to think about

myself.

It's two thirds of the end and the fact that it was out to the sea.

There is a well known saying that the Camino begins when you reach the end.

The sense of achievement that you get from competing such a journey is,

it's, indescribable!

Life is a journey in itself and

I aim to walk my life's journey with the same enthusiastic and

gutsy determination as I walked the Camino.

Why did I walk the Camino? Well,

for that very reason.

*Honk*

Subtitles by Edward Fleming.