Question for the Camino Alumni: What would you have brought,

[tRKe]

Hello everyone!

My Wife and I have booked our ticket to france for our first Camino this May 28th 2012. We are very excited and reading all your great topics on this forum. As we are reading a lot of question from people who will be doing the camino for the first time, I would love to hear from the Camino alumni. So here is the Questions for people who have completed the Camino:

Packing Questions:

1) What did you wish you have packed? Something during your walk did you wish you had packed a particular item that would have definitely helped?

2) What did you wish you didn't bring? Did you pack something that was just a waste of space and weighed you down?

Sight Seeing Questions:

3) What detours/scenic route did you take?

4) Any routes to avoid?


I'm pretty sure these questions have been answered throughout the forum but I wish to have a collective topic from the Alumni. I look forward to hearing all responses and looking forward to returning to this topic after my camino.

Cheers

Robin

 

[mspath]

Hello everyone!

My Wife and I have booked our ticket to france for our first Camino this May 28th 2012. We are very excited and reading all your great topics on this forum. As we are reading a lot of question from people who will be doing the camino for the first time, I would love to hear from the Camino alumni. So here is the Questions for people who have completed the Camino:

Packing Questions:

1) What did you wish you have packed? Something during your walk did you wish you had packed a particular item that would have definitely helped?

2) What did you wish you didn't bring? Did you pack something that was just a waste of space and weighed you down?

Sight Seeing Questions:

3) What detours/scenic route did you take?

4) Any routes to avoid?


I'm pretty sure these questions have been answered throughout the forum but I wish to have a collective topic from the Alumni. I look forward to hearing all responses and looking forward to returning to this topic after my camino.

Cheers

Robin

Hello Robin,

Welcome to the CSJ forum! I am certain that you will find much helpful information here as you plan your Camino. Many of us pilgrim 'alumni' are very eager to share our experiences with others.

I learned so much during my first Camino Frances in 2004 that I have returned each year since to re-walk the route in its entirety from Saint Jean Pied de Port to Santiago de Compostela seven times. The terrain may have been the same but the realities were greatly varied. Although each Camino began with both anticipation and trepidation as I wondered how it all would go, each pilgrimage developed its own rich mix of old friends and new, realities of weather, stamina and health and, of course, philosophical musings and thanksgiving. Walking past extraordinary structures or humble abodes, breathtaking vistas or chaotic sprawl, magnificent sculptures or simple symbols the actual topography and weather often dominated my immediate reactions. Was the Camino going uphill? Sliding down on scree? Crossing water? How fast was the traffic? How thick was the mud? Was it raining? Would the ice melt? How deep was the snow? Could I see through the storm? What was tomorrow's forecast? When could I sit? Luckily this complex blend of banal and superb was often tempered by the gracious kindnesses of those along the way who offered smiles, hugs, water, conversation, help and hospitality. What a wonderful brew!

Such pleasant chance encounters and instant friendships are part of the Camino's serendipity! We pilgrims share our journeys, hopes and fears. We may stop at the same bar for a coffee and sleep in the same co-ed dorm but in no sense do we move as a single force! Each of us creates a particular pattern moving along.

And thus the Camino is composed of all these pilgrims' patterns; the multitude of these individual units together form a whole. We try to take it as it comes enjoying the good and bearing the bad. After all this is life. Thankful at the end of each day for simple shelter, a bed (preferably a bottom bunk for me), working toilet, hot shower, something to eat and if possible good companionship. Carpe diem!

Of all the detours that may be made for me walking to the splendid church at Eunate on the Argonese route near Puente la Reina has always been spectacular. It it a small church of eternal peace with a tiny, welcoming albergue. (See http://mermore.blogspot.com/2011/04/aaa-eun.html)

I wish you and your wife a Buen Camino!

Margaret

 

[Anniesantiago]

Packing Questions:

1) What did you wish you have packed? Something during your walk did you wish you had packed a particular item that would have definitely helped?

No. Nothing. In fact, I dumped a lot of extras along the way. First to go was my sleeping pad and extra jacket. I wished I had purchased an Altus poncho and then was able to purchase one second hand from a pilgrim I met along the way who was returning home. I also got rid of some extra clothes, a can opener, and a few other nonessentials.

2) What did you wish you didn't bring? Did you pack something that was just a waste of space and weighed you down?

Sleeping pad, extra jacket, extra set of clothes, books, iPod, see list above.

Sight Seeing Questions:

3) What detours/scenic route did you take?
Eunate was definitely worth seeing.
I detoured around Lorca via the road and saved a few k - got to the albergue 45 minutes ahead of my walking mates. The first trip I detoured around Monjardin - saw it the second trip and didn't feel I'd missed anything spectacular.

4) Any routes to avoid?