Very soon I’ll be publishing a new book – it’s called:
The Way, My Way – Posts from a BLOG that became a BOOK that became a FILM.
Catchy title huh?
It’s a compilation of all the posts I wrote on my blog leading up to, during, and after my first Camino, and posts from my second Camino, the Portuguese Camino.
It has an incredible amount of detail about the two walks, including some wonderful photos. It includes multiple “audits,” analysis and breakdowns of gear, personal insights, what I did right, what I did wrong, etc.
Here’s the front cover – it’ll be up on Amazon in a week or so. I’ll let you know when it’s available –
Well, I’m a-standin’ on a corner in Winslow, Arizona Such a fine sight to see It’s a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford Slowin’ down to take a look at me
Come on, baby, don’t say maybe I gotta know if your sweet love is gonna save me We may lose and we may win Though we will never be here again So open up, I’m climbin’ in So take it easy…
The iconic song, written by Jackson Browne and Glenn Fry – Take it Easy – the song more commonly known as sung by The Eagles.
I stood on that corner today –
Jennifer and I stopped in Winslow on our way from Flagstaff through to Albuquerque tomorrow, and a screening tomorrow night.
Had lunch at La Posada – an historic hotel in Winslow –
And then stayed overnight at the (again, historic) El Rancho Hotel in Gallup, a town which has been the base for a lot of classic westerns.
Today Jennifer and I leave our home in Mudgee and begin a journey that will most probably not have us home again for four months.
Countries that we will visit are:
United States (45 cities)
Canada (3 cities)
Germany (10 cities approx)
Austria
Switzerland
Denmark
Norway
United Kingdom (15 cities approx)
Ireland (3-5 cities approx)
back to Canada
Malta
Whew. It makes my head spin just writing it down.
We are of course doing a roadshow of The Way, My Way. We have our first screening in Phoenix this Friday, and already it’s all but sold out.
I’ll be blogging here, if not every day then near as I can – and for updates on screenings etc check in here.
I’ll also be using a trip-tracker app called Polarsteps. If you want to follow our journey just download the app and search my name.
How do Jennifer and I feel about it?
We’re excited. Excited to meet new people and renew old friendships. We’re excited to see new places – like Denmark & Norway – and Malta especially! And we’re excited to be bringing the film to a wider audience.
Really, how privileged are we?
I can’t quite believe my life has taken this turn – and it all started by my walking the Camino in 2013.
As readers of this blog know, each year around this time I do an “audit” of what I achieved this year pegged against what I hoped to achieve this time last year. And I outline what I hope to achieve in the coming year.
This year was all about the release of The Way, My Way.
We released the film on 100+ screens across Australia and New Zealand on May 16th. The film opened out to about 330 screens and went on to become what many film analysts described as “the surprise hit of the year.”
We ended up playing in cinemas for 20 weeks – at a time when a film is lucky to last three weeks – and we did theatrical Box Office of close to $2.5m in Australia and New Zealand.
For Jennifer and me, this exceeded our expectations well and truly. I would have been cock-a-hoop with a 6 week run and a BO of $1m.
But the film was cleverly and adroitly handled by distributor Maslow Entertainment, headed up by Marc Wooldridge. Marc, along with his associate Alex Taylor, did a superlative job managing the film.
Marc quickly came to understand the Camino ethos and spirit, and it was that understanding that helped him power the film to the result that we got. Marc will be using his unique approach to help distribute the film across the US, commencing in March.
On a personal note, I very much enjoyed working with Marc this year. I quickly came to respect his knowledge and love of cinema, and his belief in the commercial viability of home-grown movies. Plus we laughed a lot. In this business, tough as it is, you’ve gotta have a laugh.
With the Australian release, Jennifer and I did our bit doing Q&A screenings around the country. It was exhausting, but we got to meet our audience on a personal level, which for us was enormously fulfilling. The Q&As also allowed us to witness first hand the impact the film had on many. Some people told us they’d seen the film five and six times.
We were joined for a few weeks on the Q&A tour by Camino legend and Elder Statesman Johnnie Walker – and that time spent with John was one of the highlights of the year for us.
As was later in the year when we screened the film for a large convention of European Camino leaders in Pula, Croatia. John organised the screening – he was there, with Jennifer and me, and we once again witnessed their overwhelmingly positive response to the film.
We got the same reaction, if not more so, when we screened the film later in the year as part of the St James Day celebrations in Santiago, Spain. Once again John set up the screening, held in a grand old theatre in the historic centre of the city. It was glorious, but scary. This was a cinema full of very experienced pilgrims. There could be no more critical audience. But fortunately they loved it.
John later hosted all of us – some of the cast that had attended the screening, and Executive Producer Rudi Wiesmeier and Sales Agent Simon Crowe – to an unforgettable lunch in John’s favourite restaurant in Santiago. John’s generosity and support for this film has been incredible.
In amongst all this I did other things.
Jennifer and I spent a good deal of the second half of the year working on a project to be shot in India, a story based on true events concerning what’s called a double honour killing. Unfortunately that film fell over – the Indian producer we were working with was not able to pull it all together within our timeframe.
So, how did I go with my laundry list of things I wanted to achieve this year? Here’s what I hoped to achieve this time last year, and in bold, what I actually did or did not achieve.
Release The Way, My Way theatrically in Australia and other territories world wide. Done, kind of. We did release the film theatrically in Australia and New Zealand, but not in other territories. That’s happening next year – 2025.
Release Facing Fear online globally. Done.
Publish a ten year anniversary edition of The Way, My Way.Done.I wrote an updated edition with an extra 15,000words and it was published through Arcadia Press.
Publish a book of my Camino blog posts, called The Way, My Way – Posts from a Blog that became a Book that became a Film.Done – an 80,000 word manuscript that’s in the final stages of publication and will be available on Amazon by Christmas.
Complete the filming of Hope – the third in the series which includes PGS Intuition and Facing Fear.Not done. Couldn’t find the time.
Further development of my elephant film to be shot in India, tentatively titled Elephant Mountain. Done. The film is now called Mother Thunder. Development is continuing.
Write the screenplay to the sequel of The Way, My Way – titled The Way, Their Way.Done, although the film is now called “The Way, Her Way.” I’ve completed the script and Marc and his team at Maslow will be distributing once again.
Begin writing another novel – a metaphysical thriller. Done. Or rather, doing… The book is called “Dead Image,” and I’m 30,000 words into it.
On top of all this I commissioned Dan Mullins, of My Camino Podcast fame, to do the audiobook of The Way, My Way. That will be published on Audible.com by Christmas. And I’ve also begun active development on another movie, a crime-caper movie involving a group of dysfunctional pensioners.It’s a comedy.
As well, I spent time this year writing a non-fiction work detailing how I’ve changed since walking the Camino. The book is called If I can Change, You can Too. I’ve already this year written 15,000 words and will look at completing it this coming year.
So what do I hope to achieve in 2025? This next year is going to be massive. Here’s what I wish to do:
Release The Way, My Way in US and Canada – and support that release with a Q&A tour, from the beginning of February to the end of March.
Release The Way, My Way in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and support that release with a Q&A tour in April.
Screen The Way, My Way to an annual gathering of North American pilgrims in Vancouver in mid May.
Screen The Way, My Way to a convention of Camino leaders in Malta at the end of May.
Walk the Portuguese Camino (for the 3rd time!) in preparation for the shoot of The Way, Her Way.
Release The Way, My Way later in the year in Italy, and support that release.
Shoot The Way, Her Way on the Portuguese Camino in September / October.
Work on the post production of The Way, Her Way.
Write the first draft screenplay of the next movie in my Camino series – called The Way, His Way. (I aim to become the Taylor Sheridan of the Camino! haha)
Complete the writing of my metaphysical thriller, Dead Image.
Complete the writing of my non fiction book, If I can Change, You can Too.
Write a treatment of my dysfunctional pensioner crime-caper screenplay.
Shoot more material for the Hope film.
Seems like a lot? It’s about how you use your time. I try not to waste a moment. I try… But I am, by nature, a lazy man.
Mounting the production of The Way, Her Way in Portugal is once again going to be a big and complex undertaking, but that’s what Jennifer and I do. We’ve shot films on the remote Nullarbor Plains (Kiss or Kill), in Nova Scotia (Two if by Sea), in Papua New Guinea on the Trobriand Islands (In a Savage Land), in New Orleans (Tempted) on a remote Barrier Reef island (Uninhabited), and of course we shot The Way, My Way on the Camino in France and Spain. I seem to love setting my stories in exotic and logistically difficult locations!
On the health front, I end the year in my seventh year since diagnosis of my Parkinson’s disease. This year, with all the traveling and the tension involved in supporting the release of the film, and not being able to keep up my fitness regime, I saw a deterioration in my condition. That said, my neurologist, one of the country’s top Movement Disorders specialists, still rates me his gold-star patient – and hasn’t materially altered my medication for the past two years.
This coming year, I’ll be having cutting-edge stem-cell treatment in the US with one of the world’s leading experts in this field. He’s had spectacular results with Parkinson’s patients. Fingers crossed it slows the progression – it might even go some way to reversing the condition. We’ll see.
So that’s it – I achieved pretty much all of what I set out to achieve this year, plus some. And I’ve set an agenda for next year that would be challenging for someone half my age. But I don’t see age as a barrier. On the country, I feel more energised, and more capable, than at any time in my life.
But on those few occasions when it has happened, invariably I’m surprised, and grateful. Grateful because I’ve tasted failure many times. And so my reaction to success is now the same as my reaction to failure:
So what…
Success doesn’t mean anything, nor does failure. They’re flip sides of the same coin.
You need to fail to achieve success. In many ways failure is a prerequisite for success. My experience is that to succeed, you need to step outside the box, to stand uncomfortable, to risk humiliation. To be prepared to be crushed.
I’ve been crushed many times. It’s not pleasant, let me tell you. But to achieve anything in this life you have to get back up, spit the blood from your mouth, and go back to work again.
My success is this recent film I’ve made.
For me, the success the film has achieved isn’t its box office or the acclaim it’s received, it’s that people have gone to the cinema and come away feeling good. Feeling inspired. Feeling empowered.
That to me is success.
Some kind people have said I deserve this success.
They’ve seen me struggle. They’ve seen me hurt. They’re seen how hard I’ve worked, for so many years, without any apparent benefit.
They say I deserve all these good things now and I say thank you, but silently I say no I don’t. I don’t deserve anything. The world, the Universe, doesn’t owe me anything.
No matter how hard I’ve worked, what risks I’ve taken, I’m not entitled to success.
Just as I’m not entitled to failure.
I’m very suspicious of this word deserve.
The word lacks humility. It lacks grace. It speaks to me of ego-based entitlement. Of expectation. Of sought-for outcomes. That’s a space I don’t wish to inhabit.
I don’t deserve anything.
Is success preferable to failure? To answer that I have to ask myself: What is success?
For me, it’s that I finished the film and it’s the film I wished to make. How fortunate am I?
By the end of the first week up to Friday 24th, The Way, My Way had a box office gross of nearly $750,000 – from Australia and New Zealand.
That’s phenomenal.
I asked Paul Brennan, highly respected film industry veteran on the exhibition side of things, why is it working so well. Here’s what he wrote back:
THE WAY MY WAY is one of those rare events in screen success in that the feature is appealing to enthusiastic baby boomer audiences who still like to attend the cinema as well as the cinema owners and programmers who delight in screening to crowded sessions, especially Sunday to Friday in what would normally be considered off peak times.
Seeing THE WAY MY WAY is an elating passive emotional cinema experience which celebrates the humorous human condition for educated adults still wishing to be included in social life. It is also an inspiring sports film…it might be walking and learning and feeling, and that experience for mature adults is a valid part of their healthy lives.
THE WAY MY WAY validates how older people still see themselves, and especially the ache and repair of relationships. Even with their own body. By experiencing the journey as a screen vision, it certainly uplifts the viewer to participate in nature, effort and emotion to the point of heartfelt release by the 100th minute.
Few films pass from maker to viewer with enthusiastic intergenerational audience result. Anyone from 25 to 85 can see themselves on screen, and often wish parents and relatives to reconnect. The word of mouth, essential for return visits and good conversation is a solid strike rate. Many viewers return, bringing neighbours and family with them. And on attendance multiplies.
While mainstream blockbusters and exhausting cinema crowds dominate evenings and Saturdays, THE WAY MY WAY is the humble blockbuster providing profitable sessions at the counterbalance times of matinees and weekdays, a schedule which sees both ticket-buyer and cinema owner delighted at the access and the experience.
THE WAY MY WAY is not competing with any movie in the market; it is the competition itself in a parallel orbit. And everyone is happy. Hiking businesses would cheer and promote both the topic and the supply materials as working examples of their business aesthetic.
Similar rare unique release titles would be AS IT IS IN HEAVEN and THE WORLD’S FASTEST INDIAN.
I’d just finished the Camino Frances, and I could barely walk. I was in a huge amount of pain from a damaged knee, and the last thing I ever wanted to do was walk another Camino.
I’d scratched my irrational itch that was the Camino Frances, and that was that. I’d done it. I’d had enough.
The train stopped for a moment, to allow another train to pass as I recall, and while waiting I looked out a window and down on a small lonely wooded lane.
Way below me a pilgrim stood at a crossroad. She had a backpack on, poles, and I could see the scallop shell hanging off her pack. She had a guide book out, and she was trying to figure out which way to go.
At that moment my heart leapt.
I wanted to be down there on that wooded lane. I wanted to be wearing my backpack again. I wanted to be lost, trying to find my way to The Way.
At that moment I knew I had to walk the Camino Portuguese, even though only moments earlier I had vowed to myself I would never walk a Camino again.
And so here I am, twelve months on, having not only completed that walk, but I had the privilege and honour to lead a wonderful group of pilgrims too.
And what a time I had!
What a time WE had!
I will remember it always as being one of the most enjoyable times of my life. To walk a sacred path with friends. To share stories, meals, to share unforgettable memories.
How lucky am I?
And then Ireland. I don’t know what drew me to Ireland, but it reeled me in and landed me flapping and smacking on its decking, in awe and wonder at the power and magic of the place.
I want to go back. I need to go back. For some reason it holds a spell on me that I just can’t explain. I need to know all about that spell. I need to feel that magic deep within.
I’ve shared this walk, these walks, with my wife Jennifer who each day seemed to glide along the paths as though she was transported on wings. Perhaps she was.
She made every stage of the Camino Portuguese look effortless – with her relaxed easy gait and her readiness to help others. She showed me what it is to be a true pilgrim.
And so it comes to an end.
But there’s never an end, is there…
There are more paths I want to walk, more mountains I want to climb, more rivers I want to cross. The act of walking is a powerful statement. There’s something inherently honest about the simple act of walking.
It levels you.
It elevates you.
It heightens you.
And walking towards a higher purpose –
Well, what can be better than that…
Here are the few shots that I took that I quite like.
They’re not coffee table book shots. I have a real problem taking those shots. I’m not good at that kind of photography.
The shots below are not meant to represent the Camino we just completed. They’re just odd little pics that I took along the way that speak to me, and probably to no-one else.
It was Easter Sunday, and some of the group went to Mass. Marie volunteered as a helper for the English Mass, and at the end of the service the Botafumerio was swung. Marie has a problem with crowds, which has kept her out of packed services, but today she overcame that fear and witnessed something she never thought she would ever see.
She was delighted.
We then walked to lunch, and we shot a group photo – this time with Steve included. (He wasn’t in the group shot yesterday.) The group showed their best side…
And then their not-so-best side…
We had a terrific lunch at one of Santiago’s top restaurants, away from the tourist crowds and frequented by locals in the know.
Afterwards the girls wanted a shot just of themselves, which I objected to because I thought it was sexist, so I did my darnedest to mess the photo up.
(Glass half empty or glass half full?)
Begrudgingly, I then took a more considered photo.
After lunch we said our farewells to Catarina. We gave her a group hug – she has been fantastic, and everyone adored her.
She felt very teary as she walked away, back to the van which she would then drive back to Mercedes in Porto.
If ever we do another Portuguese tour, (and we’re considering another one in October,) then Catarina will be a part of it.
Tomorrow pretty much everyone leaves, except for Steve and Arlene, who are staying on an extra week. Jennifer and I fly out Tuesday for 10 days in Ireland.
I’ill write a series of posts over the next week or so, reflecting on the time we’ve had together. But just to say it’s been an extraordinary two weeks. We’ve formed friendships that will last a very long time, we’ve laughed so hard that we’ve almost needed resuscitation, we’ve stayed in some beautiful hotels in some gorgeous towns and eaten some truly wonderful meals, we’ve walked through some spectacular countryside, and some have had profound revelations about their lives.
They will go back home with a vastly different view of life.
This has not been a decadent five star jaunt – this has definitely been a spiritual journey. Yes we’ve stayed in some nice digs, and yes the van has been there for support when needed, but this has been a very real pilgrimage for everyone involved.
It hasn’t been an easy walk, and when we got our Compostelas yesterday there was a very real sense that we’d damn well earned it. There wasn’t one of us didn’t appreciate what it meant. We’d walked the Camino Portuguese.
From a personal point of view, I’ve had an extraordinary time. I’ve learnt so much from this wonderful bunch of people, and I’ve been humbled by them and inspired by them. I will remember these last two weeks as being a very very special part of my life.
To all those in the group – thank you so much. Thank you for taking the risk of coming along, thank you for trusting Jennifer and me, and most importantly thank you for being the wonderful human beings that you are.
You are the ones that have made this tour something so very memorable.
Got to Tui, had a beautiful home cooked style lunch, had some wine, went to the room, and woke up eleven hours later!
Slept from 5pm to now – 4am.
I never do that.
So that’s the reason this blog is late. Sorry about that!
Now I’ve got to remember what happened yesterday… oh yes, that’s right – drove out of Caldas de Reis in the rain. Sorry Steve, would like to tell you the rain stopped, but yesterday the rain was pretty damn consistent.
The hotel we stayed in by the way was situated right beside the stream that cuts through CdR, and had a glorious view.
Drove south, checking out the hotels we’ll be staying in along the way. Stopped at a gigantic supermarket and brought some groceries. I love wandering through Spanish supermarkets – with the hams hanging and the gigantic fish on display as thought they’ve been plucked straight from the sea.
Got to Tui and our little hotel nestled right beside the Cathedral in the old town. The Cathedral was very dark inside, with pre-recorded hymns whispering through hidden speakers.
The Cathedral is quite unique in that it looks like a fortress, with it’s crenellated towers – Tui looks across the Mino River to Valenca, in Portugal, and it was a fortress when it was first consecrated in the 13th century.
Had lunch in one of those places where from the outside, the restaurant looks dowdy and unbecoming, but the prices are good. Walked inside and the joint was bustling with locals.
The food was like mama’s cooking – a local pasta soup, then spare ribs in a stew, surrounded by boiled potatoes that melted in your mouth, followed by an extremely yummy home made desert that was part flan, part tart. Beautiful.
All for the princely sum of €9.
Oh, and I also had a bottle of Rioja. Well, not quite a bottle, but I did give it a bit of a nudge. That’s what put me to sleep. And pure exhaustion from the flight over.
Today we’re heading into Portugal, and will be staying overnight in a wonderful casa rurale in Rubiaes.
PGS - The Way 
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