The First Leg

Had a good day the 1st getting oriented and prepared for the beginning  leg on  the 2nd. Left the hotel yesterday at 6:30 am and the climb to the first milestone, Our Lady of Guadulupe church, was brutal, even though it was only 4km or 2.4 miles. It was very steep. As you left the church and got back on the pathway, there was a sign that said alpinists straight ahead  and the other route, take a left. I had always planned to take the more scenic steep path with a beautiful view overlooking the coast. Maybe in the future I'll give greater consideration to the less scenic, easier option. Even though I carried 2 bottles of water,  I ran out and there was no water available during the 10 1/2 trek. This is unusual and there should have been a warning in the guide. Would also have been nice if the guidebook had warned that the last 5 or 6 km were somewhat dangerous especially for those of us whose pack is too heavy. By this point my legs were rubbery and I was close to dehydration. I was in no mood to walk along a narrow trail, where if you slipped to the left, you would roll down in to  the valley, never to be found or if you slip to the right, you get the sea option. It was nice of them to have a few sections where cable was attached to rock to hold on to as I was also trying to balance my trekking poles in my left hand. Did I mention the trail was very rocky and several times had boulders in the middle of the trail to navigate. I did manage to take a couple of pics, but frankly snapping pics was not a priority . I will post some pics when I find better wifi. Anyway, I finally made it and found water at the bottom of the mountain. I've never experienced anything like this on the last two caminos. I decided to take an early day off today to recoup, and hit it again tomorrow.

Arrived in Irun

After a 10 hr flight to Madrid via Tampa and Dallas, a train ride from the Madrid airport to the town center, followed by a 6 hour train to Irun, I am finally at my starting point, kind of.  I am taking tomorrow off to shake a little jet lag, get a Spanish SIM card for my phone and find exactly where the trail starts.

With only around 48 hours until departure, I guess there is no "get in shape in 48 hours program" available, so I'm on to Plan B, get in shape as I go. Today and tomorrow I will be loading my pack and making sure that everything fits, making decisions to eliminate things that I "might" need and to try to get my pack (without water) down close to 20 lbs, which is still about 4 lbs too heavy, but an all time low for me. I seem to forget every year how much time it takes to make sure that I am mentally,
physically, organizationally, etc prepared to be away for 4-5 weeks. Once I start the trek, my life becomes very simple......get up, walk, eat, walk, eat, find place to stay for the night, wash clothes,
eat, journal & halfway prepare for the next days trek, go to bed and then be prepared to do it all over again the next day and so forth for the next 30 days.

Pack Weight

My old faithful backpack. This year I thought that I had it down to a record low of 20 lbs, but I just weighed it and it came in at 25 lbs without water. That's about 9 lbs heavier than it should be, so I'm sure that I will be throwing stuff away at the end of the first day. It's all part of the annual ritual and a meaningful part of the "simplify" therapy. Maybe if I took some of the patches off, I could knock off a 1/2 lb, but they're badges of honor, so they will stay.

T-24 to Camino del Norte

Less than 24 hours to take-off. Ready mentally and everything organized at home for a 31 day absence. Let's not talk about my "physical" readiness. Nothing that I can do about that now. Will just need to listen to my body for the first 7 days and make sure than I am disciplined to follow my own Camino. The Camino del Norte starts in Irun, Spain just East of San Sebastian on the French-Spanish border and travels along the coast for about 630 km (380 miles), then drops down SW for about 150 km (90 miles) to Arzua, which is located on the Camino Frances, the trail I walk in 2012. Then it's about another40- 50 km's into Santiago de Compostela, the final destination. The total distance is about 500 miles.

Panic setting in

Three days to go and as usual, panic is setting in. Last minute packing issues, the normal home maintenance emergency ( koi pond filter is leaking) and don't won't to leave Barb with the prospect of  50 dead koi to deal with, and the overall concern of whether I'm in good enough condition to pull this off. My first week on these caminos is always " what the heck have I got myself into...again". For me, the first week or so has always been the toughest. This year I'm doing the Camino del Norte, about 530 miles across the northern coast of Spain. I will probably have to take a shortcut to pull this off in about 29 days of walking. It should normally take about 35 days. This means that I will probably only walk about 500 miles, which has actually always been my target. Will leave Tampa at 2:45 PM on August 30th and arrive in Irun, Spain, the starting point, at 9:43 PM  August 31st.