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How much route planning is actually needed?

I am a planner. In my professional life I am responsible for huge projects and live with spreadsheets, milestones, finances, schedules, Gantt charts and more.

I also like to research the history and the area and am tempted to plan more.
However I found I enjoy letting go while on the Camino. Once I get over that initial discomfort that I don't have everything set, I find myself refreshed and more in the present. More child like when I used to just run out to play.

Being open allowed me to me to have experiences that I would not have otherwise.

@ils you said you are enjoying the planning so continue to so, that's a part of the Camino too. Find some great gear, look over the route and research. However try to be prepared to just accept some of what the Camino will bring to you that can't be planned.
 
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I am a planner. In my professional life I am responsible for huge projects and live with spreadsheets, milestones, finances, schedules, Gantt charts and more.

I also like to research the history and the area and am tempted to plan more.
However I fond I enjoy letting go while on the Camino. Once I get over that initial discomfort that I don't have everything set, I find myself refreshed and more in the present. More child like when I used to just run out to play.

Being open allowed me to me to have experiences that I would not have otherwise.

@ils you said you are enjoying the planning so continue to so, that's a part of the Camino too. Find some great gear, look over the route and research. However try to be prepared to just accept some of what the Camino will bring to you that can't be planned.
I hope you do not "over-plan". Was it John Lennon who said "life is what happens when you are busy planning," or something like that?
 
The 2024 Camino guides will be coming out little by little. Here is a collection of the ones that are out so far.
I hope you do not "over-plan". Was it John Lennon who said "life is what happens when you are busy planning," or something like that?
Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans -- Beautiful Boy. (1979).
Alternatively: “Mann Tracht, Un Gott Lacht” is an old Yiddish adage meaning, “Man Plans, and God Laughs.”
Then there's Proverbs 19v21: There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand.
 
Could someone please enlighten me ref : " lining up the ducks" ? I can remember many a chicken leg on the menu but nary a duck! the expression seems to have crept in recently. I have been a shooter in my time and can see a resemblance and a certain understanding but PLEASE what is it's relevance to us pilgies? :)
I don't know who said "lining up the ducks" but I would guess it's an allusion to the American idiom "having all your ducks in a row" which is slang for being organized. Has no connection to shooting. Another slang expression with the same meaning is "all your s*** in one sock"—which has no connection to laundry.
 
I don't know who said "lining up the ducks" but I would guess it's an allusion to the American idiom "having all your ducks in a row" which is slang for being organized. Has no connection to shooting.
See post #89. And #55. If it were anything to do with a mother duck getting her ducklings lined up, then surely the expression would be 'getting your ducklings lined up' or 'having all your ducklings in a row'. Or read this: https://www.infobloom.com/where-did-the-term-get-your-ducks-in-a-row-come-from.htm, where a bowling theory is given. However, as far as I know, bowling pins are not put in a row, but in a triangular formation or in a square formation.
 
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or just read "Of Mice and Men" from John Steinbeck....it might help to focus;)
 
The first edition came out in 2003 and has become the go-to-guide for many pilgrims over the years. It is shipping with a Pilgrim Passport (Credential) from the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.
If anyone can tell me how I can easily attach photos to a conversation – non-techy – please do.
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PS: I realise that this comment is off topic / thread drift ... but this thread is a wild ride. Ducks, imagined expressway infrastructure that actually does not exist in Spain, Steinbeck or rather Robert Burns, ... wow.

As to @ils: I have no advice for you that has not yet been expressed. Some people revel in not planning and think that this is the non plus ultra or the essence of their Camino experience, others look at this rather bemused and think, oh well, I'm going to do what I do. One thing I would not do: Watch too many videos and look at too many photos and read too many blogs. You can't unsee it and it takes some of the enjoyment away of experiencing and seeing something yourself for the first time.
 
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The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
it contains a fantastic quote: "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry" that's why I mentioned it ;)
I've not read the book, but I asked Google, and it doesn't think the quotation comes from that book. It seems that other people think it does too. However, the quotation is wrong. It should be "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men/ Gang aft a-gley." It's by Robert Burns in his poem "To a Mouse".
Nothing to do with getting ducks aligned, then.
 

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