Mr_Ross_Duncan
Via Gebennensis, Portuguese, Via Francigena, GR65,
- Time of past OR future Camino
- Via Gebennensis, Portuguese, Via Francigena, GR65,
I've been hesitating about posting this thread. The risk of sounding like a cranky old so and so is too high, stirring up the community and getting nasty responses, (even in capitals) but here goes nothing.
Deep breath.
My wife and I have just finished the GR65, along with the short Via Francigena section through Switzerland, they are our fourth and fifth "Camino" walks, so we have a few kilometres under the boots now.
One of the continuing annoyances we seem to strike daily is the overtaking étiquette.
We have a policy, if somebody comes up behind us, we stop, say hello, smile, make a bit of small talk and (this is the important bit) pause, count to 30 as they move off, then continue on our way.
It's amazing how far somebody can get ahead in those 30 or so seconds.
Certainly far enough that we can all enjoy our walks in our own space.
The etiquette issue arises when we come up behind somebody, a group or single walkers, and they don't follow the same courtesy of letting us past.
The extra physical effort needed of passing through and getting a comfortable distance ahead can be surprisingly high.
On the recent GR65 we had multiple times when we would slowly slowly slowly catch up on a group or a couple of walkers only to finally join up and have to add in some quite difficult exertion to pass through and get a decent gap.
On the worst case scenario's, we ended up in a dreadful conga-line of walkers, everybody jostling for position on the path.
There's always going to be somebody walking faster or slower than you, so please, for everyone's sake, if someone comes up behind, show a bit of courtesy and let them through, smile, say hello, count to 30, then continue on.
If you do it half a dozen times a day it's only going to cost you a few minutes.
Deep breath.
My wife and I have just finished the GR65, along with the short Via Francigena section through Switzerland, they are our fourth and fifth "Camino" walks, so we have a few kilometres under the boots now.
One of the continuing annoyances we seem to strike daily is the overtaking étiquette.
We have a policy, if somebody comes up behind us, we stop, say hello, smile, make a bit of small talk and (this is the important bit) pause, count to 30 as they move off, then continue on our way.
It's amazing how far somebody can get ahead in those 30 or so seconds.
Certainly far enough that we can all enjoy our walks in our own space.
The etiquette issue arises when we come up behind somebody, a group or single walkers, and they don't follow the same courtesy of letting us past.
The extra physical effort needed of passing through and getting a comfortable distance ahead can be surprisingly high.
On the recent GR65 we had multiple times when we would slowly slowly slowly catch up on a group or a couple of walkers only to finally join up and have to add in some quite difficult exertion to pass through and get a decent gap.
On the worst case scenario's, we ended up in a dreadful conga-line of walkers, everybody jostling for position on the path.
There's always going to be somebody walking faster or slower than you, so please, for everyone's sake, if someone comes up behind, show a bit of courtesy and let them through, smile, say hello, count to 30, then continue on.
If you do it half a dozen times a day it's only going to cost you a few minutes.