Camino Preparations

So, here’s a fun fact: in two months, my friend Steph and I will be arriving in France to begin our Camino adventure. We land in Paris and then catch the train to St Jean Pied de Port, where we begin our 800km+ walk on the Camino Frances. Since everyone has been asking about our training & preparation, I felt as though I should provide an update here. It’s not much of an update, I’m afraid – last week, our ‘preparation’ consisted of Steph coming over to my place, where we ordered in Thai food, drank wine and watched a bit of ‘The Way’ (the movie about the Camino featuring Martin Sheen and, albeit briefly, his son Emilio Estevez).

I had bought a new pair of hiking boots for the big walk, but as they have not been nice to my ankles on some experimental walks around Sydney lately, I have decided to stick with my trail shoes. So, these shoes will become my new besties – at least from now until the end of September, when I will probably not be able to stand the sight (or smell) of them.

I haven’t yet bought my backpack, but have bought some more cool things to put in it. Apparently, you’re meant to keep the weight of your pack to 10% of your body weight, which should be a bit of a challenge. Although, I am looking forward to having limited choices when getting dressed each morning: it will come down to which of my alternate pairs of things (trousers, undies, socks) is clean and which shirt is closest to the top of the pack. No dithering in front of the mirror with a wardrobe dilemma on the Camino!

I’ve bought some travel shampoo and travel body wash for the trip. Both in paper form, which is intriguing. I mostly bought them to feel like an astronaut or extreme adventurer – just need some of that dehydrated ice cream in a bag and I’m good to go. The good folk at Kathmandu seem to be suggesting that these paper soaps will help me to ‘live the dream’. I will report back on the truth of that post-September!