Sunday 21 October 2007

Preparing for the Camino

The preparation phase of our 2,500-mile walk to Santiago de Compostela in Spain is getting serious. We spend hours leaning over maps and lists of accommodation, aiming to log every possible stoppping place along the way to avoid being caught out with blisters, aching bones and still another 10 miles to the next bed.

Worse, we've told so many people about our plans and given up so much (our flat, our client projects, our possessions) that we really do have to do it this time. Next week we will step it up a gear - we plan a 7-day walk carrying the full packs for the first time. Everyone in the Camino community warns that it is one thing to walk on consecutive days carrying a raincoat and a picnic, and entirely another to weigh your body down with everything you might need for months on the road, and then expect it to get up and carry on walking then next day. And the next. And the next. But we've chosen to test ourselves on part of the Thames path. Not many hills to cope with there.