Travels with my donkey

Having no knowledge op Spanish and even less about the care and feeding of donkeys, Tim Moore, Britain’s indefatigable traveling Everyman, sets out on a pilgrimage to the  cathedral at Santiago de Compostela with a donkey named Shinto as his companion. Armed only with a twelfth-century handbook to the route and expert advice on donkey management from Robert Louis Stevenson, Moore and his four-legged companion travel the ancient five-hundred-mile route from St. Jean Pied-de-Port, on the french side of the Pyrenees, to the cathedral at Santiago de Compostela.

Over sun-scorched highways, dirt paths shaded by leafy trees, and vineyards occasionally lashed by downpours, Moore and Shinto pass through some of northern Spain’s oldest towns and cities in colourful company. Clearly more interested in Shinto than in Moore, their fellow walkers are an assortment of devout Christian pilgrims, New Age-spirituality seekers aspiring to be the next Shirley Maclaine, Baby Boomers contemplating middle age, and John Q Public just out for a cheap, boozy sun-drenched outdoor holiday.