Ramblings to Santiago

A bit misleading, that title. The first day was virtually dry. Discretion was the better part of valour for me, and instead of taking the high route out of St Jean Pied du Port I took the low "road" route. The weather forecasts that I´d seen before leaving showed rainy weather: indeed there had been a tremendous downpour while travelling on the (incredibly slow) train from Bayonnev to St Jean. But the weather was dry in St Jean when we arrived and the train disgorged its load of pilgims. Hospitality at the auberge was simply great - a nice 3 course meal awaited us, and we all introduced ourselves - there were three from Ireland, two from the Canary islands, three from Italy, one from Finland, one from Denmark and myself.

I had intended taking two days to get to Roncesvalles - breaking myeslf in gently, but the low route seemed so much less demanding that I passed up the opportunity to stop at the only hostel along the way and to push on to Roncesvalles. It was relatively easy going, until the last 10k which wentb off road and uphill - very steeply in parts. Becasue of the scenic appeal of the high route this one is not used much - and it showed, as the overgrowing gorse scraped at my legs. I was walking solo, but at one stage I did see another couple n the dstance behind me, bt they never caught up, even when I had to stop every 25 metres to let my breath fuel my pounding heart.

Finally I popped up out of the valley I´d been climbing, at a point where the low route meets the path coming off the mountain, and followed other walkers to the monastery at Roncesvalles. Within a few minutes I met up with Kels (Dane) and Kimi (Finn) who´d been staying in the same place in St Jean, and we met most of the others as well, including the Dutchman (Henk) who´d walked all the way from home. Everyone slept in a large dormitory, sleeping at least 80, and it quickly filled up. I chatted briefly with the two students I´d seen on the plane - they were aiming to do the whole walk to Finisterre to celebrate the end of their university studies. Me and the guys booked dinner at one of the two restaurants, at the 9Euro pilgrim menu. They have two sittings, one before the pilgrims mass is said in the monastery, and one after. The accommodation cost not much, either 4 or 6 Euro (I can´t remember) and that includes the shower.

Lights were out at 10.00pm, and on again at 6.00, when there is a frantic packing and rustling as people get ready to leave. And then everyone halted at the door - there was a torrentail downpour; but there is no point in delaying the invevitable, and off we went into the grey dusk. I very soon discovered that my waterproofs aren´t. Or at least, if they are, I was sweating so much that it was hardly relevent. My pack is too heavy!!

A walk of 45 minutes brought us to the first stop, for breakfast, a very poor affair, the boccadillo (sandwich) wasn´t so bad, but the drinks were lukewarm - and I desperately needed a hot drink. Not to worry, we pushed on again, into the still sluicing rain, stopping about 3 hours in at a bar to have some drinks that were happily a lot hotter. I took my soaked shirt off and changed into a dry top, but when we left again i decided to put the wet shirt back on again, there didn´t seem much point in getting another item of clothing wet. But the rain had stopped and my short gradually dreid out during the rest of the day.

My walk today was a good 22k again (yesterday was about 24k) and there were some ups and downs on the track, it was, in fact, like walking along a stream bed for a lot of the time. My boots were wet and so were my socks, although I´m still undecided just how much of that is water coming in and how much is persperation failing to get out. I changed my socks before the last descent, but they were wet agin by the time I stopped. The privately run refuge that I´ve checked into does a washing and dryng service that I´m taking advantage of. A good, late lunch, has now set me up well for the evening. I´m feeling pretty good, my foot isn´t bothering me unduly, I I´ll maybe try to make it to Pamplona tomorrow, putting me two days ahead of schedule.

All the recommendations are that you carry a pack with a maximum weight of 20lb, or 10% of your body weight.

My first effort ended up with a pack of 33lb. I have managed to slim it to 26lb, but I think that's as low as I can go. Its all the pills and potions that's doing it, I think. And that's without filling my drinking water bladder, which takes 2 litres which is what you are recommended to drink during the day. Oh dear, I think I'll be enjoying some rather sore knees and hips very soon. One good thing, it'll help me shed some of my surplus bodyweight more quickly.

My snazzy straw sunhat isn't going to be much use either, at least for the first few days - the forecast is rain. Which is a bit of a bummer.

But I'm still looking forward to it, after so much talk and practice its good to know that I'll be on my way tomorrow.

One of the causes of Plantar Fasciitis is obesity and or sudden increase in activity, or carrying extra weight, or a combination of all three. I reckon I got three in a row. I started trying to build up my fitness for walking last November, didn't do much in December and only started back to it in mid-January. Conscious that I needed to get a lot fitter rather quickly and only with weekends to do it, I pushed myself a bit too hard and ended up with a very sore foot. But it took an inability to remove my boot after one walk - because of the excrutiating pain caused when the support of the boot was removed - that caused me to visit the doctor. He thought it probably wasn't a heel spur but sent me for an x-ray just to check, and recommended I visit a podiatrist.

The podiatrist diagnosed plantar fasciitis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantar_fasciitis and I'll agree with Wikipedia, it hurts like hell first thing in the morning, but frankly I'm aware of the pain with every step of the day. Perhaps "my Camino" will be some sort of penance, with me suffering a little bit every step of the way. Hmmm, we'll see.

The treatment recommended by the podiatrist was firstly to get new boots, my existing ones being 10 years old. This was a bit of a blow for such a tight ba*tard as me ... I'd just splashed out on getting them re-soled! Ah well, I'll have some of the best gardening boots in the village! The next thing was to do some specific stretching excercises, then I had to get myself a foot roller (looks like cricket bails, available from The Body Shop) and finally he showed me how to use Low Dye strapping on my foot. This strapping process, using zinc oxide (ZO) tape takes a good ten minutes every other day. Between all of these treatments my foot is less sore, but it still hurts like hell after I've rested for a while and in the morning, and nags away like a gentle toothache the rest of the time. I haven't yet used the ice-pack treatment. I'm saving that particular torture for when it gets really bad, until then I'm relying on NSAIDS and painkillers to get me though.

Other than that ... I'm fine! But do you know how much ZO tape I'll be taking with me ... and how much it weighs!! I'll only take half the amount I'll need and I'll forward the balance to a post office address at the halfway point on the walk, along with some other bulky items.

I slipped up a bit with the replacement pair of boots, they weren't as waterproof as they should have been and somehow the receipt got mislaid, so taking them back to the shop was a bit difficult. It took me three or four weeks to realise they wouldn't do (in reality three or four walks) and then I had to hurry to get another pair, with only two weeks until my walk started - in other words only two long walks to break them in. This is not generally recommended, and most people (me included) see it as a recipe for blisters.

I've worn them around the house, and during the day, but yesterday was the first time I'd taken them for a walk, and we managed 15 miles without too much difficulty, however I am taking a tip from Bob S, who did this walk a few years ago and who, from all accounts, produced the most horrific blisters ever seen on the Camino; I took my boots and socks off at my lunchbreak and let everything cool down and dry out. Bob says it was air-conditioned hotel rooms that cured his feet.

Although these modern boots are leather, lined with "breathable, watherproof" GoreTex, I find them more sweaty (= damp) than plain leather + leather / fabric lined boots. Man made fabrics don't suit my feet, I guess.

I'll break off shortly to have a practice pack, to see if I can get the weight of my rucsack down below the 21lb it currently tips the scales at. It's Spring Bank holiday tomorrow and I'll be spending it in the office tryong to get as much work cleared away as possible before I leave - I've only got another three days of work left.

In one of the Camino diaries / blogs that I've read, the author mentioned that his pack was quite heavy, and said that he was carrying his laptop computer. The man must have been mad! However most of the walkers on this route seem to take notes and make diaries. I am aiming to make my notes the 21st Century way and I've got a tiny Sony digital voice recorder to use along the way. It also enables me to take some MP3 music tracks for my entertainment. I have taken an MP3 player with me on my training walks but must admit to seldom listening to the music - or the Spanish lessons; I'm content with my thoughts, which mostly seem to be of the "my feet hurt" variety, sometimes leavened with "my feet don't hurt so much now" or "now my ankle hurts, I wonder why that is?". Actually a lot of stuff pops into my head when I'm walking, way too much of it to do with work. Maybe once I've been on the road for a few weeks there'll be less work inside my head and I'll be more receptive to music.

A small problem with the digital voice recorder is that it is really intended to be used in an office, on a stand, and the built-in microphones tend to pick up the movement of one's hand on the casing, so I've dug out my old Sony mini-microphone which seems to work very well, but only records on one channel, the recorder is stereo, but the mini-mike is mono.

I could write lots of information about the walk, but frankly, its all been written before. This link http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A4044863 has most of the important information. But just a bit more for you. I'm not doing this because I'm in any way a gods-botherer, I'm doing it because I need to be less of a fat, unfit wheezer-geezer, I need to be fit for the next part of my life.

As you'll see, the routes to Santiago commence from all over Europe. I'm not (as some people do) sdtarting by walking from my own front door. I'm flying to Bayonne / Biarritz in southern France, then taking an hours train journey to St Jean Pied de Port at the foot of the Pyrenees. My first night's stay will be here: http://www.espritduchemin.org/

After 40 years of work, the last 20+ years being self employed, 15 of which have involved setting up and running the PCA I realised that unless I take a good break I'm going to run out of steam some time very soon. (Death is nature's way of telling you to slow down).

As a chap "of a certain age", whose life has been largely sedentary, whose enjoyment of a round of golf is not so frequent as to balance out his enjoyment of food and a round of drinks, my fitness is most certainly not what it could be. My generally sound health, as well as a slight touch of arthritis, I ascribe to my genes.

I've spend a fair portion of my career travelling at great speed above the surface of the earth, insulated from it by a car's tyres or by an aircraft's skin. I have enjoyed meeting people from other countries, learning about them, and one of the biggest regrets about my working life is that every so often I didn't take an extra day's break away and go exploring in a new city. It seems crazy now that I would spend all week working in Scandinavia, fly home at the weekend, and then fly out again a week later. Wouldn't it have been far more sensible just to stay in Helsinki, Copenhagen, Oslo or Stockholm over the weekend? The cost of accommodation would have easily been met by the saving in flight costs. However, my wife was at home bringing up three children, largely on her own. I have no doubt that there are many hundreds of thousands of business people who share the same dilemma.

Many years ago I half-formed the notion of "walking mty world", not the whole globe, but just something that I could envisage as just possibly attainable - perhaps walking the length of Europe, from Dover to the south of Spain perhaps. As time went on this idea coalesced, and became, it must be said, a bit more realistic, until I decided that I should attempt to walk the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, the old pilgrim's route that runs from all over Europe converging at Santiago de Compostela in Galicia in north western Spain - about 90 kilometres from the Atlantic coast. In fact, I decided that I should aim for Finisterre, on the coast, literally "the end of the earth"