Hi Renee,
...freaking out...things I don't have...dogs...what to do when I land...unknowns...fear of doing this alone...stuff...am not alone in this...need to be...have faith I'll be fine once there..."the crazies".
That's pretty much how I felt prior to my first Camino. Matter of fact, I'd say that's how many of us felt.
Doubts and fears are two of the things of what this adventure is about. The thing is to meet up to them, or not. Personal choice the Caminos present us with.
U seem to have done ur research and have been training well. Now, as u say, it's a matter of doing it.
Re: "doing it alone..."
I've always done it alone (though in a spiritual way I've never walked alone; as u say, u won't either).
I like to carry a pocketbook with me, a novel or whatever. Yes yes, added weight, am ok with it. Once I finish it, I buy another one, and so on. The book, along with my pole, have always become my best friends. To give u an idea, this time around I'll probably start out with one of Isabel Allende's young adults' novel, don't want reading to get 2 2 deep...
Keeping a journal is a good way of facing that pervasive loneliness hard to deal with at times, physically alone or with company. There r so many times one can be alone with people around...Though it's always happened that I start out writing one and then towards the middle of the Caminos or so, I get too tired to think/write & cease it altogether, or write sporadically!
When I've been walking by myself in the middle of nowhere for days, feeling my mind going going gone, I sing, have this incredible monologues, meditate, dance with my pole, look for company, absorb the environment, talk with folks along the way, have awesome "mind" conversations/discussions with people back home, and come up with all kinds of imaginable/unimaginable things.
Am sure u'll come up with ur ways of coping, too.
You'll be fine, peregrina!
Buen Camino :arrow:
xm 8)