Walking the Camino de Santiago
Getting ready physically for the Camino.
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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This morning, halfway up a hill in downtown Tacoma, we arrived in virtual Oviedo. We have been walking our virtual Camino del Norte for months, and we have now arrived at the place where it transitions into the Camino Primitivo. Of course, in a little over three weeks we will fly to the real city of Oviedo to walk the […]
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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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With our Camino Primitivo adventure just 55 days away now, Francine and I have made some adjustments to our walking schedule. We walk 5 – 8 kilometers most days, and on weekends we usually plan for one longer walk in the 12 kilometer range. The big change so far? We’re doing those walks with fully loaded packs now. It’s definitely […]
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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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Near the beginning of our virtual Camino, February 2020 Yesterday my beautiful bride Francine and I finished walking our virtual Camino from Lourdes to Santiago, a distance of roughly 957km. You’ve heard of staycations? This was a staymino. It took us just over a year. At least I got one thing accomplished during lockdown! We mostly walked around our neighbourhood […]
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Over the past few days, Francine and I have been hiking with our friend Callie out near Leavenworth in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. We hiked 16 kilometers over rough ground at altitude on two back-to-back days. It’s been awhile since I’ve hiked 32km! Needless to say, this has had an enormous effect on our “virtual Camino“. In fact, we almost […]
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You may have noticed that I’ve not been posting our “Camino Photo of the Day” recently. There’s a story behind that. We’ve been in South Lake Tahoe in Nevada. Oh, not for any vacation – well, not really. We were there to complete our training as hospitaleros. But I’m getting slightly ahead of myself. Prologue: Virginia City We arrived at […]
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On this, the memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, it seems opportune to post an update on our Camino plans, or lack thereof. Back in 2018, we started making plans for a 2020 Camino. The basic idea is that I would start in Saint-Jean, and Francine would rent an apartment in Burgos or, more probably, Santiago, where she could do […]
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