Walking the Camino de Santiago
Preparations and planning.
It is said that no plan survives contact with the enemy. To this I would add that no plan survives contact with the Camino. Nevertheless, and with some sense of trepidation, I offer here my plan for my “long Camino”. This is a total of 65 days walking (plus a scheduled Zero day in Burgos). Some days are short/half days. […]
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Early this morning, I had my follow-up visit with the podiatrist. He was extremely pleased and somewhat amazed with my rapid progress. We discussed a Cortizone shot, but given the level of improvement, he wasn’t too enthusiastic about it. So that’s off the table. Most importantly, he cleared me for my Camino. I am convinced that my rapid recovery is […]
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During my planning time, I’ve made reservations at a handful of gîtes along the first ten days of the Via Podiensis. Some of these make perfect sense – places that fill up quickly (e.g. the monastery at Conques), or places that are choke points (Domaine du Sauvage). But then today, I got it in my head to have reservations at […]
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This morning I met with a podiatrist. My left heel has been in a considerable amount of pain since we did a training hike to the waterfront back on May 17. My shoes were nearing end of life, and my inserts were well past their prime. We were hiking with full Camino packs, mostly over concrete. A perfect storm. It […]
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Several weeks ago, I was struck by the thought of carrying others with me on my long Camino this autumn. Now I know what you’re thinking. Sounds a little odd, yes? Perhaps the easiest way to clarify is to quote from the note to myself that I wrote back on April 3rd: I’d like to walk this Camino – all […]
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Ten years ago today, I got on an airplane to go to a country I’d never been before. I didn’t speak the language. And I was going to walk 500 miles across the country, mostly alone. The plan was to meet up with Francine in León, which is more than halfway to Santiago, a couple of weeks into the walk. […]
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Ten years ago today, I posted here about my “nervousness, elation, and even fear” as I got ready to fly to Spain to walk our first Camino. To my great surprise, 137 days from today I will fly to Lyon, France for another adventure. From there, I’ll take light rail from the delightfully named Aéroport de Saint-Exupéry to the train […]
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After last year’s short, sharp Camino Primitivo, we’re already planning for what I am calling “the long Camino” in the spring of 2024. Like our original 2013 Camino, Francine is planning to only walk part of the route, most likely the first ten or so days and the last week or two. I’m planning to begin in the French city […]
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Yesterday, Francine and I reached a crossroads on our continuing virtual Camino del Norte. I should explain that we have been recording the distance of our daily hikes into a tracking sheet – one square for every kilometer on the Camino del Norte, which begins in the Basque city of Irún. By my count, we’re at 478km. This was a […]
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Back in December of 2019, I posted some noodlings about the call of the Camino and where we might walk next. While both of the options I discussed there are still very much in our future plans, a more immediate Camino adventure calls: the Camino Primitivo. Francine and I have been talking about this particular Camino for close to a […]
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