sojourner2settler

WARNING: The mention of private parts is unavoidable. Photo: Not my bra We all need underwear. Some comments are for everyone and other comments are specific to biological differences, all will be made clear. What is underwear? On a man, it’s underpants and an undershirt/t-shirt. On a woman, it’s knickers, bra and an undershirt/t-shirt. For everyone: you will be walking for about 5 / 6 hours a day for 35 days. Underwear on a long-distance hike is a purely functional bit of cl

You NEED good footwear, boots n socks. Photo: Often albergues will have a special place to leave your boots, it's in a shed or by a window because the smell from twenty pairs of sweaty pilgrim boots is eye watering. This is not a suggestion or advice it is a command. On my second Camino I weighed in at 92 kilos, and walked about 870 km and that means each foot hit the ground approximately 500,000 times. All that weight transferred from my hips down through my knees in to my h

The perfect way to organise a Camino is to choose a route and then make everything else fit around it. Here are some questions to consider before you look at the options Questions to ask yourself How much time do I have? Don’t forget, it’s your Camino, you can start and finish wherever you want, there are no rules but knowing how much time you have is a crucial bit of info. What type of Camino am I looking for? There is no “solitary” Camino, there will always be other people

Welcome to the circle of decision making. This is a conundrum faced by everyone who plans a long, linear journey (a trip which has a different start and endpoints). To help you through this I will plan a theoretical journey and you will have to substitute your details to make it real. Just so you know, “The Camino” should be thought of as a network of paths leading to Santiago de Compostela. When people talk about “The Camino” they usually mean the most popular route, Camino

"As we've lost this idea of pilgrimage, we've lost this idea of human beings walking for a very, very long time. It does change you." Robyn Davidson, Tracks. What does the Camino offer you, the hopeful pilgrim? For over a thousand years men and women have walked from home to Santiago de Compostela, and back again. Today, we may walk different paths but the ghosts of those travellers still haunt the way. You can witness their journey in the polished and worn away stone step

This page is basically a contents page for the following 16 blocks of information (approximate). The idea is to make each block short and simple, and to follow a logical step by step progress, starting from the big questions and moving to more detailed. CAMINO PREPARATION Approximately 16 blogs Introduction The Circle of Decision Making - using the Camino Frances as an example When to go, how long will it take, where to start and end The journeys to and from the Camino Traini