What to take for a 800km walk, in one backpack? One thing is almost certain – what you start with is not what you will end with. Camino albergues are littered with discarded gear. Some depends on what you normally use. Do you walk in shorts? Pants? Whatever. Take it, but just make it light. READ MORE
Category: The Camino to Santiago
The 790km pilgrimage from St Jean Pier de Port to Santiago
My pack and me – an uneasy relationship
What should I take for the Camino? This exercised my mind in the few weeks I had to prepare. A lot. And, it also exercises the mind of most people before they go – judging from the internet. Also a lot. I decided I would carry my pack, even though a bag toting service was READ MORE
Beguiling Burgos
Burgos turned out to be a pretty decent place to be unwell for a few days. I now think of my first Camino as ‘before Burgos” and “after Burgos”. After taxi-ing through from Santo Domingo, I holed up in a cheapish place right in the historical centre – the creaking Hotel Norte y Londres READ MORE
The Camino Cough – it got me!
Yes it happened. I got sick. Very sick. Too sick to carry on. So what’s it like being sick on the Camino? The short answer is miserable. The long answer is interesting. Because you’re a long way from home. And on a mission. But you can’t get ahead with walking 20 plus km a day, READ MORE
Days 1 and 2 – St. Jean to Roncevalles
Twenty five kilometers over the Pyrenees is no joke under any circumstances. Add a 8kg pack, no training and jet lag and it’s bad! A few weeks before leaving I’d decided to stay over halfway at Orisson and got booked into their overflow gite at Kayola. Turned out to be a good choice, considering. The READ MORE
I’m doing the Camino
My Camino to Santiago starts in about 30 minutes. My pack is packed. My passport and money are in place. This is really happening! Until today, preparations involved booking a one way ticket to Paris, lying on the couch reading a book on what to take (half-way) and another book on how it changed someone’s READ MORE