Wheelchairpilgrim
Wheelchair pilgrim, in annual stages to Santiago.
- Time of past OR future Camino
- NL to Rocamadour. Hope to arrive 2025 in Santiago
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... I am not sure yet where I want to start, when one day I have enough time I'll walk/roll from home but I think it wil be a month or even less.
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Thanks for the info and links. I did not knowhow thema and will check. I can not read spanish but I am sure with translation I can read it!
Hi and welcome, you have gotten great advice from the others, but I just want to add one point. If you are dreaming to start from home you could do that in stages. Each year a month or so closer to Santiago. That has also the advantage that you get used to more hilly terrain gradually. Buen Camino, SY
Hello Wheelchair pilgrim,
If you can read german, have a look to:
http://www.felixbernhard.de
The guy has already "walked" the Camino several times...
Buen Camino, Jacques-D.
I met a woman, double amputee from Holland, sometime near Sept 12, 2015 near Villavente. I don't have her name or contact info but maybe there's a way to find her through a local area Camino group near you. She was in a wheelchair and traveled with a German guy, a paramedic all of the time. Actually there were two paramedics... one would walk with her and push or help over obstacles, the other drove a van and they would all meet up when they could connect with the van. They also had a complete medical and surgical kit.Hi Everyone,
Let me first introduce myself.
I am a female wheelchair pilgrim from the Netherlands, but at this moment I do only short (one day) pilgrimage walks.
I dream about doing the camino and hope that one day that dream will come truth.
I can roll in my sport wheelchair (with special electric wheels / e-motion wheels that you can compare to the e-bikes and I use a big offroad frontwheel) around 25-30 km a day without problems. but I am not used to hills/mountains because we do not have them here.
I am not sure yet where I want to start, when one day I have enough time I'll walk/roll from home but I think it wil be a month or even less.
Now I am wondering how steep the hills / mountains are that I will pass during the camino France,
I did 10% hills on a holiday and that was ok, but I am not sure about steeper hills/mountains.
And are there other impossible obstacles? I can do normal roads but also unpaved pads (except soft sand and wet mud) and even a few km grass is fine, but on some footpads there are fences with steps you have to climb over, that is a real impossible thing for a wheelchair
How are the albergue or other places to sleep? I can walks short distance (around 100m) and I can sleep in a normal bed and use normal badroom/toilet so that will be no problem, and when my wheelchair can stay somewhere downstairs I can even climb up stairs when the bedrooms are there. but are the front doors of the albergue wide enough for a wheelchair (65 cm) and do they have stairs before the door?
I normaly love to walk on my own, but for this long distance I am wondering if it is save and practical enough to do it on my own because of my wheelchair.
and are fellow pelgrims and other people on the way helpful (like to help me uphill on a very steep place) and can I ask that kind of things.
for me it is sometimes quite difficult to ask people to help because I do not want to be a burden for someone and special in this case I do not want take energy from an other pilgrim that also need his/her energy to walk.) should it be beter to find an other pilgrim friend to go with me?
I look forward to hear the opinion of more advanced pilgrims than I am or maybe even wheelchair pilgrims.
... You should consider doing the trek with a good strong care provider or paramedic or someone can fill that role to your satisfaction. ...
5. Consider doing a "Morse Code Camino." This is my personal phrase to describe a Camino comprised of walking / rolling, combined with strategic use of taxis and buses. This functionally resembles a dot-dash-dot sort of pattern, with walking dots, interspersed with mobile dashes. It works like this...
You know from research that a certain stretch of Camino is too rocky, steep, or muddy for you to navigate up to. However, the downside is freewheeling or level. So, in this model, you arrange for a taxi or bus to take you to the top of the hill. Then you wheel down the hill.
One good example of this is getting to O'Cebreiro, then leaving it. The ascent up can be treacherous and muddy. However the route from O'Cebreiro to the next stop is largely paved surface and cinder paths. There are many other such situations. Another, for example, is the climb upslope from Rabanal to Cruz de Ferro. Getting there would be challenging, but not impossible for you. The destination is definitely worth struggling to get to, and the ride down to Molinesca can be done on the verge / shoulder of oncoming traffic all the way, downhill, as an alternative to waling through the woods.
I still wouldn't recommend this bus business, even for a wheelchair pilgrim, except in cases of forced inevitability -- and O Cebreiro is hardly the only option !!
The Camiño de Invierno was the traditional alternative route when the O Cebreiro one was impassible, and it's just been officially recognised anew. Even so, the tarmac up to O Cebreiro is a heck of a lot easier than the normal route, and there's a fairly large town halfway up that way to stay the night in if needed (I walked down from O Cebreiro that way once), so actually I think your assessment of the terrain difficulties is a smidgeon pessimistic.
In good weather conditions, not even Astorga > Cruz de Ferro > Ponferrada should be too difficult on wheels and on the tarmac.
Bur then, not all wheelchair pilgrims are equally handicapped, so it's obviously hard to guess the OP's capabilities -- the fastest of them have a daily KM rate similar to a cyclist, whilst the slowest need the daily trudging of a friend to help them along and constant care & support.
In any case, I'm sure the OP clearly understands which advice is useful, and which to ignore, better than any of the rest of us
I finale made a decicion about my camino.
Hello Wheelchairpilgrim its great your considering a camion, you have received lots of good advise, gathering information is a very important part of any Camino every little bit you get will help to you get to Santiago.
Last year I met an Italian man with his Wife and Son on the way down from O Cebreiro and again in the Monastery at Samos, he was piloting a Genny ( the best piece of kit I have come across in years )
You might be interested in checking it out, there is quite a bit YouTube also.
http://people.gennymobility.com/it/
www.genny.co
Best, best wishes and Buen Camino.
Keep us informed
oldman
Wow. I am in awe of your spirit and strength. You will have help along the way. That’s the essence of being a Pilgrim, knowing when to give help and when to accept help. You will reach Santiago... you already have the spirit of the camino in you.Yes, I read that and I saw the movie. And it is a great story, specialy because of the special friendship between them. My trip is completely different because I do it on my own, I have no one to push me, but I also like that. I love to roll on my own to quiet places, have time to think (or not think at all and just enjoy nature or pray) and it challenge me to reach my goal and it teach me to ask for help.
Thanks. I just go for reaching Santiago. It only will take some more years before I am there, one day I am in front of the Cathedral.
At this moment I am preparing for September for the next stage from Reims to Vezelay.
A lot in my preparation is different than for walking people, I do not really mind about counting grams but I do mind about the space things take in my (35l)bag. For example, I always have an airmatress with me and for me it is better to have a heavy but small packing airmatress than to have a light but bulky sleeping mat.
And my backpack have to fit my wheelchair and not my shoulders.
Also I always check the roads and make my own route. A mix between walking and cycling roads is the best, bus sometimes it is not possible to avoid roads with cars and than I need things he be visible (I always have a yellow flag on a flagpole in back of my chair)
I do plan to keep posting here once in a while. And otherwise you can follow me on my website.
it is in Dutch, English and France (but English and France are at the moment automatic translated).
Www.rolstoelpelgrim.nl
You can also register than I send you an email when I start my pilgrimage again (or when I have other pilgrim updates)
I had many physical challenges also although I am not in a wheelchair. I was injured in the military. I wear a metal brace on my left leg and had several surgeries on leg and shoulder and head injury. many people told me I could not do the camino. Friends, Family even my doctor doubted my ability. But it was something I had to do for myself. I cannot say what drives me to walk I just feel that I must so I can see why you feel you must. Preparation is key and I also must prepare differently. I carry some medical equipment in my pack. But this year I will tackle the Del Norte. I will be slow and pain is always my friend but I will be deliberate and I will do it. Not a lot of Handicap accessible places in Spain but the people are wonderful and are very willing and almost joyous to help. The pilgrims you meet will never pity you. They understand because they have struggles of their own...but maybe theirs are sometimes emotional or not of a physical nature. Each pilgrim helps one another so you always have people at your back when you need it. I look forward to reading from you. I start the DelNorte in March and will post when I am on my way. Here is my post summery from the Frances.Thanks. I just go for reaching Santiago. It only will take some more years before I am there, one day I am in front of the Cathedral.
At this moment I am preparing for September for the next stage from Reims to Vezelay.
A lot in my preparation is different than for walking people, I do not really mind about counting grams but I do mind about the space things take in my (35l)bag. For example, I always have an airmatress with me and for me it is better to have a heavy but small packing airmatress than to have a light but bulky sleeping mat.
And my backpack have to fit my wheelchair and not my shoulders.
Also I always check the roads and make my own route. A mix between walking and cycling roads is the best, bus sometimes it is not possible to avoid roads with cars and than I need things he be visible (I always have a yellow flag on a flagpole in back of my chair)
I do plan to keep posting here once in a while. And otherwise you can follow me on my website.
it is in Dutch, English and France (but English and France are at the moment automatic translated).
Www.rolstoelpelgrim.nl
You can also register than I send you an email when I start my pilgrimage again (or when I have other pilgrim updates)
I start to read your blog. I finish 2016 was a nice journey .. I will read again tomorrow.Thanks for all you write. It is inspiring. I will be reading your story. (Mine is on www.rolstoelpelgrim.nl )
It is right that we can make it with the right preparation. A lot of (healty) people that start a Camino complete unprepared don't manage, get a lot of blisters, pain, or other problems. Because I know I have to prepair because I am in a wheelchair I maybe even have a better chance to reach my goal.
More and more we are recognizing that the disability is not in the person but in the environment that fails to accommodate their needs. As we are better able to remove barriers or assist the individual in overcoming them, more becomes possible.More and more the physically challanged are attempting and succeeding in breaking the barriers once thought to be impossible. On the trail last year I met two paraplegics one on bike and one walking and I saw one person in an electric wheelchair.
I really wish you the best of luck and with your attitude I’m certain you’ll have an amazing experience.No fancy word needed, however you call it it is fine for me. In dutch (my mother language) prefer handicap, but disabled is fine as well. I believe everyone have a disability. Some visable like me in my wheelchair, some not visible like learning disabilities, sometimes big (with giant e-wheelchair of bed) to small (glasses, hearingaid, etc). No one is completely healthy and perfect. And that is good.
The only thing people have to learn is to give help or to accept help, to get the right tools (good wheelchair, lifts, wide doors) and to be treated normal. That is what is needed to life a good life.
And when you have the right stuff and support even a camino is posible.
(And the best thing about being in a wheelchair during a camino is that I do not have to worry about the right socks, shoes and blisters on my toes! Also the weight of my backpack on my wheelchair is not as important and as when you walk. As long as the ballance is good it is fine.)
Please, in a few words - is there a way to do this with sensitivity? I sometimes hang back from offering help to people with wheelchairs, unsure of what is really needed - and not wanting to be patronizing or condescending. On the camino over a rough patch, I am guessing lending a hand to push/lift would be welcome, but in albergues?...The only thing people have to learn is to give help
Dank je wel, @Wheelchairpilgrim . This is a wonderful thread.
I love your attitude.
Please, in a few words - is there a way to do this with sensitivity? I sometimes hang back from offering help to people with wheelchairs, unsure of what is really needed - and not wanting to be patronizing or condescending. On the camino over a rough patch, I am guessing lending a hand to push/lift would be welcome, but in albergues?...
I found out a lot of walking roads are not wheelchair accessible. So 2018 I started to follow a mix between walking, cycling and car roads. And for me that works well.
I just ask the individual, "Can I be of any assistance?" I feel no real qualms about posing the question, as I would offer assistance to any person that appears to be having difficulties.
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