Hi, Dinnie, and a Warm Welcome to the Forum
Here are a couple of links which also may be of help as you begin:
www.santiago.ca
American Pilgrims on Camino's FAQs about a Camino pilgrimage
The good news is, you are in a forum with a wonderful group of people. Most are here to help people like you to achieve their pilgrimage goals. We can offer you encouragement, knowledge, and point you in the direction that will help you help yourself.
My suggestions to start is this:
Take a deep breath. Write down in large letters the reasons
why you want to go on Camino. Place that piece of paper where you can see it every day. That way, if anxieties and fears threaten to overwhelm you as you plan, you can just breath, read what you have written, and focus on those reasons until the negative stuff fades.
Make a list of questions and concerns that you have, then go to the Search Engine at the top of the Forum pages. Then, at your convenience, you can enter the words or phrase that you want more information about. You will get a huge amount of information to explore.
If you find that you need help with anything, post a new thread so that your question or concern can be readily seen. If you post a question within someone else's thread, you won't receive as big of a response.
Remember that perfect timing as it relates to how you feel, scheduling, and day to day life issues, seldom align themselves perfectly. If one waits for such to occur, doing something like a pilgrimage will always be in danger of taking a back seat while you wait for that perfect alignment to happen.
Dave