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  1. R

    Bed bug bite HELP

    I was bitten on the hands and lower arms in Sarria. Being Australian I had no experience of bed bugs. Simple acidity was the most accessible remedy, as with so many bites and stings. Travelling with a bottle of vinegar for some days was awkward and nothing could have stopped the furious itch...
  2. R

    Are there snakes on the Camino?

    Nana, one of my diamond pythons a few years back reached 12-13 feet. Not sure, since I didn't feel like getting him to stretch right out. (Crocodile Moso: "Call that a snake? THIS is a snake!")
  3. R

    Are there snakes on the Camino?

    Found quite a big one, freshly squashed, after La Romieu on the Le Puy route. Here is the visual evidence: https://slowcamino.wordpress.com/2010/06/28/a-chai-in-armagnac/ Where I live on the midcoast of NSW I have lots of yellow-belly black snakes and too many browns (one brown is too many!)...
  4. R

    Smelly hipsters ruining the Camino

    The crowding and morals on camino got particularly bad during the 1200s. The warm weather brings 'em out.
  5. R

    Stranger than fiction...

    My first pilg walks were on the Via Francigena. I was taking the bus out of Siena so I could walk back along the VF. Had a copy of the Divine Comedy I'd been reading for a bit just to get in the mood and was up to the part of the Inferno where the giants are standing with half their bodies above...
  6. R

    Stranger than fiction...

    I had dinner one freezing night in Ruitelán with Rafael Nadal, and I saw him again for carnaval at Samos. We attended a big churrasco by the river. (Okay, okay...My Nadal moves a lot slower than the other one...but he's mine!)
  7. R

    Have any of you left the Camino and done long walks elsewhere?

    Long day walks on or off the Via Francigena near Siena were the beginning for me. I actually stumbled into the whole pilg thing when I ran into a group of young Sienese who were promoting the VF with tours around their city.Then, on my own, I did excursions on foot out to towns like Asciano and...
  8. R

    How slow is slow enough? And some other questions.

    I start after midday in Spain, bit earlier in France, and waddle. Cool weather only, plenty of double and triple rest days. No weight loss at all (gracias churros). Prefer private accommodation, easier to lie in and loaf. If anyone tells me I'm just a tourist I agree. They are right - or mostly...
  9. R

    Walking in February

    Careful of ice early morning. The few times I left super-early (8am!) it was still dark in Feb. The streets and even the dirt tracks were often like glass. I solved the problem by leaving late morning and walking less. I'm good at all that. Apart from ice (and blizzards and albergue closures)...
  10. R

    Best time of the year to go?

    Winter! (This suggestion will self-destruct in the event of severe weather or albergue closures.)
  11. R

    Feeling quite dissapointed and haven't even started my way

    caroleannelc, I too would like to express my admiration. I'm an unashamed posh/touristy pilgrim with no disabilities...and all I can say is: wow. I walked for a while with a French lady on the Le Puy route who was in constant pain from arthritis, extending to the legs. When I asked her...
  12. R

    Feeling quite dissapointed and haven't even started my way

    Cangab37, you are worrying about nothing. If there were any penalties for doing everything the easy way, I'd be serving life. I don't exert, don't suffer, don't rush and prefer private accommodation to albergues. (I love the albergue atmosphere, but love my sleep even more.) Many people like to...
  13. R

    November,December & January Camino

    Can't add much to the above excellent advice. One advantage of winter walking is that locals are in less of a rush, and encounters with other pilgrims can be a bit more personal. Stay dry, in freezing weather wear the contents of your pack don't carry them, take advice from locals in the know re...
  14. R

    Thin Places

    I walked with a group of French geobiologists who were very hard-headed types in the main but who took holidays together to check out geo-bio energies and lines. Dangling pendulums in churches was their big thing. They didn't seem to mind anybody's skepticism - one permanent member was a...
  15. R

    What is the silliest thing you have encountered on Camino?

    There's a relais, a truckie's stop also used by pilgrims, just below Montréal-du-Gers, on the Le Puy route. At a shared table full mainly of Swiss I applied dessert custard to my salad, thinking it was either very thin mayo or very thick vinaigrette. The Swiss were very politely amused. The...
  16. R

    Recommended blogs?

    The blog which got me going: http://kiwinomad06.blogspot.com/ I might have stumbled on any number of excellent blogs some five years back, but it was the nomad's which pointed me toward Le Puy. (How do you say "thank you" in New Zealandisch?)
  17. R

    Wild Medicinal Plants along the Camino

    In the rough country on the road to Viana, in late winter there were many sticky grapes drying on or near the road; and being detached from the vine they were keeping their sugar. (No trespassing required to get them.) I then noticed thyme, juniper, rosemary and bay, growing wild all about the...
  18. R

    Best Camino walk in February

    I like plogaw's idea. The Portugues will be chilly, but it won't do to you in Feb what the Aubrac Plateau might do to you. Rob
  19. R

    "It’s not the 500-mile walk across Spain, it’s the people"

    As a slow walker in cold weather - who prefers private accommodation - I find the company of other pilgrims to be a dispensable delight. Always happy to walk along with others, and I've had mostly great times socialising in albergues. If it weren't for my inability to sleep through others'...
  20. R

    What can I expect to find in a grocery store?

    Pontevedra. Along with Segovia, my fave town in Spain, so far. I'm told the nearby seaside towns are full of good fish cafes. Not that I just think eats all the time. I also...well, actually, I do just think eats all the time.

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