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Excellent list. I’d suggest one thing in addition to what others have said. Instead of sarong and microfibre towel, I take a lightweight but full size Turkish towel. It works as: scarf, sarong, towel, picnic blanket, bed blanket (albergues are sometimes too hot for sleeping bag, too cool...
...about the joy of finding a (rare) hairdryer in my bathroom; she leaned in and whispered that she had one in her bicycle pannier...and that it was *wonderful* for drying wet shoes!
(Full disclosure: I used mine for its intended purpose before heading out for dinner. It was Astorga. It poured...
Oh, those thermal pools in Ourense! Totally worth a night’s stopover en route to Madrid!
This was my feet at the end of a hot - and ambitious - walk from Ribadiso de Carretera to Lavacolla last year. Felt like I was carrying all the topsoil of Galicia that day!
I really do...if it’s lightweight, you’ll use it in the evenings and maybe early mornings as the autumn sets in...I recall a very cold and foggy morning out of Ponferrada in mid October when I was very glad of mine. That said, a good merino hoodie also does the trick...
I saw (and used) a hairdryer in the Albergue at Villatuerta (Casa Magica), and at Via Trajana in Calzadilla de Los Hermanillos, the owner brought me hers one afternoon and insisted I borrow it. They’re rare, but occasionally el Camino provides...
There’s also a shop on Rua do Preguntoro that I found (after I bought a much more expensive one outside the old town, somewhere near Zara). If you find The Last Stamp Albergue and then walk down this street away from where it crosses the Camino, it’s on the right.
(There’s also an excellent...
I did exactly this last year. Checked my poles (and some toiletries) in a yoga mat bag wrapped in plastic - it looked like I was checking in withFred Flintstone’s dinner! Qatar marked it “fragile” so it came offthe plane in Paris before I did, and waiting for me when I arrived in baggage claim...
Mine is a full size towel, very light cotton that’s kind of like a kitchen towel. They wash and dry easily, and get more absorbent with use. Big enough to wrap around you or use as a picnic rug or bunk curtain too.
I’ve carried both on various Caminos and my preference is the Turkish towel, without a doubt. Light, dries well (and dries itself quickly), robust and gloriously multi-functional. No more microfibre for me...!
For what it’s worth, my experience with bamboo is that it takes much, much longer to dry, even in a tumble dryer. I take merino (though I get why you may want to avoid it) because the bamboo top I carried never actually got completely dry after any wash. It was fine to wear, and warm enough in...
It’s a fine cotton/linen style towel, full size but very light and absorbent. Dries very quickly. I wouldn’t travel without mine now, and in fact I use them all the time at home now too. Easily found online.
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