HI KinkyOne - we meet again (virtually).
No, am setting off from Seville to Santiago, Finesterre and finally Muxio, or at least, that's the plan if the body holds up. I'm flying into Malaga 31st March, then train to Seville and setting off the next day outside the Cathedral after breakfast. Looking back, the Madrid Camino last year was great fun so thought I'd do another one this year as I've plenty of time. This weekend is dedicated to getting the plans done, but not too much planning, though. The rucksack is ready and more or less packed. I've got a few guides to each stage, an accommodation list, a few notes from this forum and details of where to get the Credential in Seville. Just got to wait for 12 more days.
You've done this route? Some of the stages look very long on this route, close to 40km, which may be at the extreme of what I can do in a day! I think I will be planning a few 'sleeping rough' nights. What did you do for the long stages, or are there ways and means ...
I've got a GPX route loaded onto my Garmin GPS now (thanks Peregrina2000). If anyone else needs some info on making a gpx file smaller and then splitting up it up into 500-point files (the size most GPS units will work with), here you go:
a) Download Basecamp on your computer and set it up (free).
b) Download a GPX file from wiciloc covering the whole route.
c) FILE - IMPORT INTO MY COLLECTION. You'll see the gpx route appear further down in the 'My Collection'.
d) Double click on the file in My collection. A dialogue box pops up showing you the thousands of points in the gpx route if you scroll to the end! Mine had 32000 points!
e) First job is to reduce the number of points. Select 'Filter' in the dialogue box. I selected Distance - 300m to show one point every 300m. This now gave me just less than 3000 points. Scroll down to see this.
f) Next, scroll down to point 500. Right click on this point and select Divide. A new track will pop up in 'My collection'. Rename it 'Stage1'.
g) Go back to your dialogue box with the 3000 points in (double click the track again if necessary). If you scroll down, you'll see it has been reduced in size by 500.
h) Repeat f and g above and rename each new stage appropriately, so you end up with Stage1, Stage2, Stage3 etc.
i) You've now filtered the original file, and split it up into chunks of 500 points.
j) Highlight each of your new files in turn, and then FILE - EXPORT. You've now got new your new GPX files, ready to upload to a GPS.
k) You can also email them to yourself, then go to a smartphone, open the email, download the files to a folder, download a GPX reader from the store like "GPX Viewer" and view each track individually.
l) You can also download Google Earth and open your GPX file from there.
m) The above sounds more complicated than it is! And remember, a GPS is just there for a bit of extra insurance. It shouldn't be used as the sole navigation aid!
I knew I should have got the plane this weekend. As soon as I start thinking about it, I want to be off ....