Home from 10 days on the Camino

[katej39]

I have been home for a couple of weeks now from doing the last leg of the Camino - from Sarria. Absolutely loved it and already planning my return to do another leg of it next year! My little "bits and pieces" to share:

The thing I loved absolutely the most about the whole experience was the pace that I walked it in!! Slowly! I did around 12 to 15 ks a day, with just one day of 22kms, and was so glad that that is how I planned it for myself. Physically due to many back, knee and foot issues, that was a no brainer for me. I know that for many, they want to do more daily kms in order to see more and do longer etc, but for me, that was the best way. I had time, and took every ounce of it, to literally stop and smell the roses.

Now for the 'blister talk' ... I wore Wright Socks and can highly recommend them. I also used Trekkers Wool on one toe and one heel as I knew from experience that they were two spots that I was likely to get blisters. I used the Trekkers Wool daily regardless. Didn't feel a hot spot. Didn't score a single blister. Phew!! Also I'm sure that the lower kms would have helped me there... as well as the luck I had with weather.

End of May - beautiful time to walk. Cool days, fresh morning starts, loved it. Flowers everywhere, lush scenery, felt super lucky in so many ways. Only rained once during the day - the rest was at night, so just straight out lucky with that bit.

I had my luggage transferred, and stayed in guest houses or hotels, and was glad for that too. Met some amazing people along the way, had the little "camino family" thing happening which was beautiful! There were 7 of us, all unknown to each other, all going through the Australian company "Raw Travel", but self guided. Was lovely to have solitude whilst walking, and meet others along the way, and then our little "camino family" meeting up at night and sharing the day.

I learnt a little Spanish prior, and loved that I had done that, and found it really helpful. However for my next trip, I'm hoping to learn a lot more Spanish - not because I feel I needed more as such, as everyone along the way were so wonderful and you can easily get by without Spanish, but I feel that with more Spanish, I'd definitely get more out of the experience and would be able to soak up more of the culture.

I used Polar Steps for photos etc and a kind of diary, and was able to share it super easily with my family and friends at home. Can very much recommend it - a brilliant and super easy to use app.

Now that I'm home, I definitely have the Camino bug that many of you talk about! Now to plan my next trip. Looking at this one starting from Logrono, staying on the camino for a bit, and then walking off it and venturing into the Rioja region for a "walking side trip". Have any of you combined a Rioja tour with the Camino? mmmmm... sounds too good to not do!!

 

[t2andreo]

I recommend www.duolingo.com to learn Spanish. It is FREE! I have used it since last August and my Spanish is much improved. I can actually communicate, shop, give directions and order off menus. While I am not fully conversational yet... I will get there.

For maximum effect, plan to spend 30 - minutes to an hour each day talking back to your computer. They also have an app for smartphones, but I find using my laptop much easier.

I also have a Pimsleur 30 - lesson course I bought on CDs. Once they are 'ripped' to my laptop using iTunes, the lessons are easily copied as audio files to my iPhone for listening whenever I choose. That gave me a big assist to learning sentence structure and an accent. The format is listen and repeat.

Hope this helps.