"The Cure" for feet

[Kanga]

i'm just re-reading, for the umpteenth time, my favourite walking book, by John Hillaby, written in 1972, the book that first got me interested in long distance walking. It's the record (and musings) of his walk from Holland to the Mediterranean, avoiding roads along the way. He was a journalist, a naturalist, a self taught scholar, with a prodigious and eclectic knowledge and a great sense of humour. The book is out of print sadly.

Of specific interest, I've just come across this passage:

"About feet there is something that few but infantrymen and long-distance walkers know: that is, by continuous pounding they become flattened. They splay out, plantigrade, like the feet of a bear. In my experience the process is most evident after about two hundred miles, the distance from Land's End to Bristol, where, some years ago, I thought a walk through Britain had come to a stop. Now it so happens I had again walked just about that distance from the sea and it was about time I took the cure.

A simple matter. You bathe your feet. I dangled mine in the canal for ten minutes. You dry them, carefully, and put on thin socks, or none at all. Sockless and comfortable, I walked on...."


Might be worth a try.

 

[Anniesantiago]

I've cooled my feet often in horse troughs, canals, and rivers.
Also at pumps and fountains.
It feels sooooooooooo niiiiiice!

 

[bystander]

...and I remember reading John Hillaby's first three books (Britain, Jade Sea and Europe) as they were published in paperback by Paladin in the early 1970s.

Very inspirational and well worth searching for.

Secondhand copies are available on the interweb (Amazon.co.uk for example).

 

[Stephen Nicholls]

I remember enjoying pure bliss when I dipped my feet into the cooling waters of the river at Zubiri. I even enjoyed the little fish nibbling around my feet.

Crumbs!
I hope they weren't piranhas or those awful fish which swim up men's nether regions

I wish you all a happy, fish-biting free camino!

 

[Deleted member 22638]

I was advised by experienced pilgrims to get some ice under my arch ( or roll a cold can of drink) to help with what I took to be developing plantar fasciitis

I asked for a little ice at a bar but was pointed in the direction of a horse trough fed by mountain water - it felt unimaginably wonderful until the cold quickly became too much to bare and the last few seconds were through gritted teeth and I looked like a Galician hyena

The next hour or so walking was greatly improved.

 

[Rebekah Scott]

aah, the Galician Hyena. Yet another beast for the pilgrim to beware!

 

[Xandrae]

I really love to soaked my foot in cold water because it makes me relaxed.

Foot Care Vancouver

 

[sue-loves-cats]

i'm just re-reading, for the umpteenth time, my favourite walking book, by John Hillaby, written in 1972, the book that first got me interested in long distance walking. It's the record (and musings) of his walk from Holland to the Mediterranean, avoiding roads along the way. He was a journalist, a naturalist, a self taught scholar, with a prodigious and eclectic knowledge and a great sense of humour. The book is out of print sadly.

Of specific interest, I've just come across this passage:

"About feet there is something that few but infantrymen and long-distance walkers know: that is, by continuous pounding they become flattened. They splay out, plantigrade, like the feet of a bear. In my experience the process is most evident after about two hundred miles, the distance from Land's End to Bristol, where, some years ago, I thought a walk through Britain had come to a stop. Now it so happens I had again walked just about that distance from the sea and it was about time I took the cure.

A simple matter. You bathe your feet. I dangled mine in the canal for ten minutes. You dry them, carefully, and put on thin socks, or none at all. Sockless and comfortable, I walked on...."


Might be worth a try.

Thank you for that info Manga ...fyi I have now bought the book on Amazon for 1p and eagerly await its arrival

Buen camino

 

[sue-loves-cats]

Thank you for that info Manga ...fyi I have now bought the book on Amazon for 1p and eagerly await its arrival

Buen camino

Pesky predictive text sorry x