About

Hello, I am David, once Br. David. My first Camino to Santiago de Compostela was in the spring of 2005, from Moissac in France.
My ‘long ago’ honours degree was in religions and theology and I had a romantic medieval vision of meeting the countless monks, friars, and nuns offering first aid and pastoral care all the way down the Camino – they were not there.

So that winter I renewed my St John first aid certificate, stocked a necessarily large first aid kit and went back to the Camino Frances (now the Camino de Santiago) the next year to offer free first aid to pilgrims. Since then, apart from the lockdown plague years, I have gone back every year, sometimes twice a year, to offer first aid and, from osmosis, this has expanded to also offering pastoral care – where needed.

I see my mission as responding to the direct command by Yeshua at the end of the story of The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:37) –
“Then go, Ye, and do likewise.”

I then opened my Camino Store - for two reasons. The first was to supply pilgrim items that were not obtainable off the Caminos in Spain, and – running it as a non profit – to help fund my first aid and pastoral care mission.

Because of the first aid kit and my back-up supplies kit plus my personal gear a rucksack was too heavy (I am 75!) so I designed and built a hiking trailer that I connect to a hip belt and it follows me easily wherever I go – do look out for me, come and say hello, if evening we could share a glass of Rioja and our Camino stories.

To be able to fully understand pilgrims, the pilgrim situation and needs, one needs to have completed a Camino before returning to take on this sort of mission.
Should anyone reading this wish to return to Camino to offer first aid to pilgrims then please do message me as I have written all I know about it into a Word document –
what I carry in my kits and why, my first aid methods, and general tips and thoughts garnered from many years on Camino in this role.
It will drastically shorten your learning curve and hopefully also give you the confidence, that yes, you too can do this.

With best regards, and – Buen Camino!

David