Tag Camino de Santiago

An Unexpected Passion

Reg Spittle 10 Comments

How did I get to this point in my life, more than 12 years after I left the working world?

Today, I share with you these words from carryoncouple.com, where my wife Sue traces our journey:

The headlines jump out at us daily — Find your passion…Create a more purposeful and fulfilling life.

Passion is such a strong, emotional word. Does everyone have a passion? What if I can’t find mine? Will I be happy if I’m not passionate about something…anything?

Reg and I have never dwelled on finding answers to these questions. We set goals, make plans and often make decisions as life’s pathways unfold before us. But then something interesting happened…

In 2013, not long after we had both retired, Reg and I walked Spain’s Camino de Santiago. Neither of us walked with expectations. We weren’t searching for healing or peace or direction. I just knew that we needed to do it. Reg wasn’t so sure, and may have been the most reluctant pilgrim on the Camino that year, but my stubborn enthusiasm opened a new world of interests and travel opportunities for us.

Passion had found us!


Since that fateful walk through Spain, we have become passionate about long distance walking, exploring some of the world’s most beautiful treks. I keep our carryoncouple blog up-to-date, sharing bits and pieces of our travels. We both started additional blogs; Reg posts book reviews and I share my favorite photos. Reg became serious about writing, publishing three separate books detailing our adventures. I’ve designed maps for his books as well as the covers.

Reg recently released his third book, (here’s a link) Hoofin’ It On The John Muir Trail, an adventure memoir recounting our 30-day trek through California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. This, along with his other two books, are available at Amazon.com.

In April we will set off on a couple new trekking adventures. One through Italy on the Via Francigena and another shorter walk on England’s Cotswolds Way. I hope you’ll follow along.

My Camino Book: Is This Really Happening?

Reg Spittle 2 Comments

I was warned. The vast majority of books from indie authors find few readers beyond family and friends and have a short shelf life.

Almost six years after my first book, Camino Sunrise: Walking With My Shadows, was published, it is finding new readers in surging numbers in several countries, especially the United States and the United Kingdom. One wrote me a note:

“My friend and I so enjoyed your book Camino Sunrise. I have read endless books written by pilgrims, but yours provided me with an entirely new set of information. Thank you for all I learned from you and Sue with your beautiful book.”

Another posted a review:

“Not only did I love trekking the Camino through the eyes of Reg and Sue, I so appreciated Reg’s candid and very personal reflections on a difficult childhood, bullying and lack of confidence. I too find myself looking critically through the rear-view mirror of my life. I’m inspired now to bravely find my own Camino challenge.”

The number of new readers is inspiring as I finish work on my third book about my journey with Sue on the John Muir Trail through California’s Sierra Nevada wilderness. My second book, Trippin’ Through My 60s: When Adventure Calls, the Trails of Europe Answer, is also gaining renewed attention. It transports readers to Scotland’s West Highland Way, the Alps’ Tour du Mont Blanc, Italy’s Way of St. Francis, and England’s South West Coast Path.

It is an honor to know people choose to read my books. Above all, I hope my love of distance trekking will encourage others to give it a try, like I did–grudgingly–on the Camino de Santiago, my first trek. Or maybe they will experience adventure from their armchairs.

Both books are available on Amazon in ebook, paperback, and audiobook formats. If you are a Kindle Unlimited member, you can read it free. The paperback can also be ordered online through Barnes and Noble and Powell’s Bookstore in Portland.

I am gratified that readers have invalidated the predictions about indie publishing, at least in my case. When I left the working world in 2012, I would never have guessed that distance trekking would play a leading role in my life. And to think that people would one day read about my adventures. I am still coming to terms with that concept, but it has left me grateful beyond measure.