Spanish Steps: One Man and His Ass on the Pilgrim Way to Santiago

Spanish Steps: One Man and His Ass on the Pilgrim Way to Santiago

by Tim Moore Jonathan

Cape $120

Making the pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago to Composetela on the west coast of Spain was enough in the 10th century to earn full remission from sin. The 770km trek was popular with English tourists in the Dark Ages - easier than Rome and not as dangerous as Jerusalem. Tim Moore, a travel writer who likes a challenge, such as the Arctic and the 2,000km Tour de France, sets out to do the camino with a donkey named Shinto. He relies a bit much on Shinto as the butt of his jokes, and his blokey Englishness verges on tedious, but by the time Moore reaches his goal after 44 days he's earned remission from the literary sins committed in the course of this 300-something page journey. Religious fundamentalists who take Catholic mythology seriously should not read this book. Moore gathers sometimes touching, often comic, vignettes of his fellow pilgrims. His English-abroad humour lacks universal appeal, but if you understood Life of Brian you'll get a laugh out of this journey.