Can i get away without wearing gaiters on the CF in November

[mikevasey]

Hi everyone,
Im due to start on the 27th October from SJPDP to hopefully Santiago, however due to the quick nature of the decision i have made, i only had 10 days so far to wear and break the boots in i have bought(fabric +hard soles) and my trial walk yesterday (about 13 miles) didnt go to well, i was left limping into my final destination in the dark. This has left me looking at the mid ankle shoes i walked the Camino Del Norte in earlier this year, the only problem is they dont have a heel so they would rule out gaiters and on top of that i know they only have 250-300km left in them, but i know that if buy a new pair i can more less start walking straight away in them, which is what happened on the norte and i could send the new pair on to Burgos for me to collect them when i pass through. But are gaiters essential, someone suggested to me i could wear seal skinz waterproof socks, for some reason im not too keen on this idea, wouldnt they trap all the moisture in and your feet would eventually become cold anyway, and also there is the issue of blisters from the trapped moisture.

Any help or pointers will be gratefully received.

mike

 

[Rebekah Scott]

you can wear whatever you want, wherever you want. Nobody cares, long as you behave yourself and pay your own way and you don´t scare the children.

Good to know you respect your feet. Wedge a couple of tennis balls inside the new boots to help stretch them out a bit. Pour a cup of water in them and let them dry that way, then ship them that way so they´ll be good and opened-up by the time you get there. (this is how we "broke-in" new cowboy boots when I was tiny.) But don´t expect miracles from tennis balls. Miracles are St. James´ bailiwick.

Rebekah de Moratinos, feeling contrary.
btw, you can ship the boots here if you want, and pick them up when you pass by. We have TONS of boots here.

 

[mikevasey]

Hi Rebekah,

I think what i had in mind with my new boots was packing them with a couple of sticks of dynamite with very long fuses. Not sure if i could send them overseas then, but if they made it they probably end scaring a lot more people than just the children.

 

[Rebekah Scott]

you just never know about boots. I have a pair I bought in June that fit beautifully through the summer, but when I hit the camino trail in September turned my feet to mincemeat.

As for the dynamite, we´ve had a couple of pairs of boots abandoned here that approached biohazard territory.

 

[mikevasey]

Im going to give them one more run out tomorrow, this time, setting off earlier, taking some money for a taxi if the need arises, and taking my torch just in case. There is nothing pleasant about being lost in the english countryside at night, thankfully there wasnt a full moon so the need to 'keep to the path' didnt arise.

mike

 

[CaroleH]

Ya gotta love this Forum!!

Still hasn't sorted your gaitor dilemma Mike, and I'm not much help . . . I haven't done the Frances and I wore my gaitors on my hands more than my feet!! .... (Well . . . mine are just little bits of waterproof fabric and elastic), . . . it hardly rained at all on the Madrid and the hands needed sun protection.

However . . . other people have commented in detail elsewhere on the Forum about "to- gaitor- or not"......worth a look. When my boots don't keep out the rain, I get blisters on toes, so will take some sort of gaitor next year. If it's going to be raining often on the CF then I'd say yes.
Good luck. Buen camino.

 

[mikevasey]

Hi Carole,

Not sure what i am going to do yet about footwear, went for a walk in my new boots yesterday and they were excellent with some things(going uphill and down and going over very rough surfaces) but on long flat bits(soft or hard) they killed me, i think i will give them the tennis ball and hot water treatment(at the very least i will get my own back on them).

Im not going to bother with gaitors, theres a mixed response to them on other pages and for me whatever happens with the boots it takes the worrying down a notch, i can always reverse this along the way if it does get too much. Thanks for your reply.

Mike