Camino – Page 6 – everydaysparks

The Camino Diet

Posted on July 24, 2013 by Cate

As I’ve mentioned, it’s only around a month til my friend Steph and I leave for the Camino. A lot of well-meaning peeps have been giving us tips and hints, as well as remarking on how they can’t wait to see how fit and thin we are on our return. (Not that we are super unfit and ginormous now, I might add.) I remind those people that one of my favourite lunches on my last trip to Spain was a potato omelette on a giant bread roll – now that’s carb loading. And then there’s the wine – I am sure that it’s culturally insensitive to refuse.

So, we really don’t know what impact the 800km will have on us. Sure, it’s a lot more walking than we’d normally do each day in our office jobs, but then there are the delicious (and not always healthy) foods along the way, undoubtedly an important part of the journey. So maybe it’ll just even out and we’ll come back looking EXACTLY THE SAME. Just warning you now – it’s definitely a possibility.

One of the many books that I’m reading is ‘Guide to the Camino’ by an Australian lady, Trish Clark. Trish includes local delicacies in her book – food and drink that walkers should try in each town. As I read the list for one town, I felt the weight stacking on:

Fried bread with garlic and ham? Yes please! — Fried bread with garlic and ham? Caramelised custard & sponge cake? Yes please!

And then I read about another town and realised that – at least for me on my bull-free diet – this stop might be a lean one:

So, looks like there will be lots of exercise and lots of fried bread and pancakes (and bull hoof stew) – life is all about balance, right?!

Travel sparks

Friday Foto – Camino style

Posted on July 19, 2013 by Cate

And the countdown to the Camino is well and truly underway – just around one month to go now! I have most of my gear sorted (backpack, sleeping bag, hilarious walking poles etc), which is great. But I am still experimenting with socks and haven’t yet found the right fit – comfy, not scratchy, not too hot for the Spanish summer, nice colour and all that. And every book or forum post that I read stresses that socks are VERY IMPORTANT. They are also VERY EXPENSIVE at around $30 a pair, but that’s another story.

Today, I am trying something new. I really bought these just because they look funny and made me laugh. And they have a cool name.

Once I took the time to arrange them on my feet (much trickier than putting on normal socks, I tell you), they actually feel pretty comfy. Weird, but comfy. Like my toes are all arranged in a neat order in their self-contained little sockettes.

I am not sure if they make my feet look weird or if it's just that I've never really taken a photo of my feet before... — NB, the sock toes are square-shaped – my actual toes are not. Nor are my toes puffy, as they appear here. These socks do not help me put my best foot forward, I tell you.

So, there you go. Some weird looking alien sock feet for your Friday. Now I have to go and try them out. Hope that you have a great weekend!

Travel sparks

Camino Preparations

Posted on June 19, 2013June 18, 2013 by Cate

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).

Those boots weren't made for walking in, so hopefully these shoes will do the trick... — Those boots weren’t made for walking in, so hopefully these shoes will do the trick…

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!

Sparks in the wild, Travel sparks

Whistle While You Walk

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Cate

This isn’t really a book club, I just wanted to show you this excerpt from the book I’m currently reading on how to pack for the Camino de Santiago. I hadn’t expected there to be so much to learn about the topic, but it’s quite a long book. Like a lot of the reading I’ve done about the Camino, it’s super-informative, but parts of it are slightly disturbing.

Just look at that dude on the cover, trotting along the Way, with a little bird helping lift the burden of his (already tiny) backpack. Happy days on the Camino, yes? Well, not every day, if page 106 of this book is to be believed. I’m off to buy a whistle. Or a high-tech sound device.

Sparks in the wild

Friday Foto – Things I never thought I’d own…

Posted on April 5, 2013 by Cate

Happy Friday to you! I was very excited to receive a package from Kathmandu this morning. (That’s the big Australian outdoor retailer, not the capital of Nepal.) We started our Camino trekking training last weekend with a fantastic 18km round trip from The Spit to Manly. I wanted to take photos of the bzillion beautiful spots along the way, but I didn’t want to mess with our momentum. Next time.

Anyways, this walk made me realise that I need some more outdoorsy trekking gear if I want to do this thing properly. So, in the first of what I’m sure will be many, here’s a pic of something that I have bought that I never thought I’d own in this lifetime. It’s a 2 litre water bladder. So I don’t have to carry pesky water bottles and stop to drink – no way man, now I can just suck water through this tube and KEEP ON TREKKIN’.

Now I just have to work out how to fill it and make sure it doesn't leak through my backpack... — Now I just have to work out how to fill it and make sure it doesn’t leak through my backpack…