Practicing, practicing, practicing

As days go by faster than we could have imagined, the practicing goes on! Yesterday we joined a group that organizes nice hikes on a weekly basis. Before even starting, we were warned that they had a very good pace and that this was not the right group for anyone who likes to stop frequently to take pictures or smell the flowers.. "It's OK if you wanna take a picture or a bathroom break, but you'll have to catch up"! Actually, this felt very right for us. And it was!

We walked 30km in something less than 7 hours, including one small break for snacks and a bit longer one for lunch. It was a first for us, walking with a crowd - there was about 30 people walking. No time to take of our socks and letting our feet breath, but actually things were just fine! I stuck to the finger taping and vaseline routine, and no blisters or hot-spots. And my little toes are fine!

I think another think that has done the trick regarding my feet is the new pair of socks that was wearing: Techwool by Quechua, with 60% merino wool. They felt extremely comfortable on my feet and cushioned my little toe very well all day long, so that didn't bother me at all. The boots have also done very well. We were walking on wet grass for most of the hike, as well as crossing some river streams, and our feet never got wet.

Let's hope things keep going well!

Following yellow arrows!

Last weekend we wanted to go on longer walk, and ended up doing part of first stage of the Camino Português that starts in Lisbon. It's a trail that we already knew well, with no elevations and barely no tarmac, mostly dirt roads. That means we we're actually following yellow arrows! So that was kind of a mental preparation for the real deal!

We're already walking towards Santiago! 

Detail of the above picture.

We walked about 25km. It was a good practice walk, I used walking poles and I prepared my feet as I'll do on the Camino: proper socks, taped toes and lots of vaseline. We made one stop halfway through to have a rest and I aired my feet, rubbed them and dried them out. Would have smeared vaseline again, if I had it with me at the time, but I forgot it at home. On the other hand, Luís prefers to do it as we have always done our walking: no breaks (not even to eat), not to much worries about his feet or anything else, really. But The Way won't be a ordinary walk, so he better get used to the pace!

Conclusions: I hated the socks we bought. Although I have bought the same size I usually buy, and the same brand, they are far too big on my feet and feel too stretchy. I felt that if I had walked an extra 5km I would have got blisters for sure. Therefore, note to myself: to buy new and different socks next time.

Overall we felt very tired at the end of the day, but the truth is that we walked at a very fast pace (we did it in about 4h30min, mean speed of 5.5km/h), but no major issues on the next day, although my feet felt kind of tender; I would like to try and walk slower next time, but I know this is the pace we're used to walk and I don't think we'll slow down until we have full packs on our backs. Next time maybe we'll tackle some nearby elevations to get our leg muscles into the equation.

One last thing: on our way back, we stopped at a little café we know. I left the walking poles outside, and after entering and ordering a bottle of cold water, the owners looked at our day packs and asked if we were walking to Santiago! We really feel like pilgrims now. :)

Oh no, feet problems!

As part of our training (well, we actually did this even before deciding to go and walk the camino) we've been doing regular walks of 8-11km during the week (about 2-3 per week), and some a bit longer on weekends (around 15km), and everything's been fine regarding my feet and the newly acquired boots.

The problem arrived a couple of weeks ago, when we decided to walk about 25km from Paço de Arcos (where we live) to Cascais and back. We weren't carrying any packs, but we walked mostly on hard surfaces (paved walkways). I started feeling some pressure on my little toe midway, but didn't pay much attention to it. I'm used to get calluses and even blisters on both my little toes, as they stuck out a little bit and almost every piece of footwear I wore so far have a pressure point at this particular spot.

But after having walked the 25km my pinkies really hurt! I got a bit scared at this point, but I thought that maybe it would be a matter of breaking in the boots and the problem would be resolved.

Well, the next day we started another 11km weakly walk and I couldn't manage to walk past 8km. My little toes were hurting like hell. It even hurt when slipping my feet under the bed covers. So it was time to look for a solution to this haunting problem.

Browsing through the forums I found that some people with sensitive little toes used medical tape (Mefix, Medipore) to tape the little toe to the one next to it, and it seemed like a good idea. Also I decided to use leather conditioner on my boots to get them a little softer, and then applied some pressure on the spot that hurt me from the inside of the boot with an bottle of sun blocker (it was in this case the handiest thing to fit the purpose) and left it there for a couple of hours on each boot, while drying after conditioning/waxing.

For the time being, it seems to have worked! Last week we made a couple of 15km walks and everything went fine. By the way, Luís also bought his pair of Lowa's last weekend! So let's see how things go when we increase the distance.

From Lisbon to St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port

The early bird gets the worm, or, in this case, the early pilgrim gets the cheapest flights! And as any Portuguese would say, cheaper is always better (we're in a crisis, after all!). So here's how we'll get there:

- First we fly by Easyjet from Lisbon to Bordeaux. These tickets are really cheap, specially when bought in advance: we paid €16,84 for each ticket and an extra €15 for luggage, as we'll check-in our walking poles; they wouldn't fit in our packs and we don't want any trouble with security at the airport.

- We arrive in Bordeaux at 14:20. Then we'll take the train leaving Bordeaux after 18:00, switch trains in Bayonne and then a quick trip until St.-Jean! With youth card discounts, these tickets will cost us a little over 50€ for the both of us.

One concern we had is that we'll arrive in St. Jean after 22:00 and we were not sure if it would be possible to get a credencial (the pilgrim passport) and a place at an albergue (without a credencial) at this late our. But we contacted Accueil Pelerin, the municipal albergue that gives out the credenciales and we were told that they always wait on the last train to make sure every pilgrim gets a place to spend their first night.

So, our plane tickets are already bought, but we'll have to wait and buy the train tickets at the train station, as we don't own any credit card required to buy these tickets in advance through voyages-sncf.com. But in low season we don't expect it to be a problem!

First big purchase: new boots!

I confess that I'm a bit obsessed when it comes to buying new things: whatever technical equipment I intend to buy, whether we're talking about cameras, laptops or a birds guidebook (!), I spend days searching the web for the most efficient and high quality affordable item (this always seems to annoy Luís). Quality-price ratio is something I value very much, and that applies to everything, including hiking boots. And when you're planning on walking 800km in little over 30 days, you better get good footwear!

The thing is that when you want to buy a laptop, things are pretty simple: I look for the best specifications I can get within my price range and buy it wherever it's sold cheaper. If I need to order it from another country, that's fine (as long as it comes from within the European Union, as to avoid paying some unfortunate tax). The problem with boots: you have to fit them. You cannot buy boots without trying them, just because a lot of people share a good review. As they say, the best boot is the one that fits your foot, so it is very important to test them first.

So, here's my problem: in Portugal we don't have many specialized stores that sell hiking boots. We have Decathlon, that's a big sports store, with a great price range for many articles: you can buy boots from 20€ to 200€. But unfortunately, as this store covers so many sports (over 60) it doesn't offer many variety within each price (and quality) range. And other existing places selling outdoors equipment are very small, offering a very short variety of products (usually all high quality), and usually at very big prices! Either way, we didn't have many boots to try on.

We finally tried on the Lowa Renegade's. These boots felt very comfortable, both on my feet and on Luís'. We read some reviews about these boots saying that they lasted over a decade, and also some folks saying that they walked El Camino Francés in them without a single blister! So we were sold. And we bought them (first a pair for me, then we'll buy a pair for Luís)!

Next step: breaking them in.

From St Jean-Pied-de-Port to Roncesvalles in February?

When we realized that there was a possibility to walk El camino in February/March 2014 we first got very excited! But when the first rush of emotion wore off, I started thinking in a more practical way: would it be bearable (or even possible!) to walk the route between St. Jean-Pied-de-Port and Roncesvalles in this time of the year?

As this would be the big deciding factor, I immediately started searching for some answers on this matter. Every website stated that the best time of the year to do the pilgrimage would be on late spring or autumn, some of them referred March or April as the earlier advisable months to start. Nothing said about February!

Next I sent an e-mail to the Albergue in Roncesvalles asking if it was possible to cross the mountains on this time of the year. They told me that probably we wouldn't be able to cross through the peaks due to snow, but that there is a detour through Valcarlos that may be used is such case.

Lastly I turned to the forums and got convinced. This forum was one of the most helpful, and every time I browse around I found a little bit of useful information. Here I found lots of statements of people who walked El camino in winter time (January, February and March) and also some helpful tips on the matter.

So that's it then, it's possible to do it in any time of the year. But of course, winter carries a handful of difficulties inherent to the season. The cold doesn't really scare us, but we have to bear in mind the possibility of storms and snow, doing a lot of walking in the rain and having to carry some extra weight to face all of these.

 But doubts put aside, let's start planning!

Introduction

Hi there!

So this is where everything begins! Most say El Camino starts at your doorstep, but I think the journey begins with the planning. Buying equipment, arranging travels, preparing your body and mind. Every one of these steps gets you closer to your goals and, in this case, to Santiago de Compostela.

So from now on will start sharing our journey with whoever feels like reading this blog. If you want to know a little something about ourselves, read the section entitled "About this blog".

Buen camino!