scruffy1
Veteran Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- Holy Year from Pamplona 2010, SJPP 2011, Lisbon 2012, Le Puy 2013, Vezelay (partial watch this space!) 2014; 2015 Toulouse-Puenta la Reina (Arles)
Leaving October 9, so I'm busy, here is my Countdown Checkoff list:
Well ahead of time:
1. Dig your passport out from under all the socks and the underwear in that drawer. Check that it is valid! Here we can get an extension at the airport a-n-d pay a large fine/fee. In America they tell me it can take weeks!
2.Check your boots for excessive wear, splits, heels, laces, wax them up with that gunk against water, will soften them up but if need be, there is still time to purchase new ones and to break them in.
3. Guide Book(s) and Credencial in hand?
2 Weeks previous:
4. Visit your dentist
5.Dig out that sleeping bag - godonly knows how bad it smells so give it a good airing and/or cleaning. Do the same with your water bladder – replace if needed
6.Check out your credit cards – still valid? No scratches on the magnetic bit? No cracks?
1 Week
7. Cut you toenails! If you are too aggressive it will heal before you go - on the Camino don't even touch them - if they don't hurt don't mess with them
8.Get a hair cut or walk triumphantly into Santiago looking like the Wild Man from Borneo
9. Lay out everything you want to take on the bed in the guest room but don't pack! Once it’s in the backpack you will pull everything out three times just to check and make sure you didn't forget this or that.
10. Supermarkets here sell shampoo in 2 litre bottles and monster tubes of toothpaste very hard to find small ones so look around
11. WD 40 your trekking poles and wipe them well.
12. Prepare your shower kit – won't even pretend to recommend what goes in there, different strokes for different folks bigtime!
13. A separate bag for medicines (blood pressure here) Traumeel, Advil, Elastic bandages for strains Band-Aids all easy to find in Spain except when you really need them, maybe something for indigestion or diarrhea if that worries you. Blister preventatives and treatment if that worries you. Most important, a roll of toilet paper without that cardboard bit in the middle or the FreshOnes stuff - none of it is very good if it gets wet in your shower kit.
14. A book to read.
15. Pocketknife and holster, won't help after settling down comfortably in the bottom of your backpack.
16. For those of you who think electronics are not that weird, all the cellular phone/ipod crap you need to make it work.
PS For our Anglo-Saxon Bretheren/Sisters: Leave the Ben Gay at Home! Even light use in public areas may lead to immediate expulsion from polite society. Radian B is a French product, in all ways similar, but has little if no aroma. You have been warned!
Well ahead of time:
1. Dig your passport out from under all the socks and the underwear in that drawer. Check that it is valid! Here we can get an extension at the airport a-n-d pay a large fine/fee. In America they tell me it can take weeks!
2.Check your boots for excessive wear, splits, heels, laces, wax them up with that gunk against water, will soften them up but if need be, there is still time to purchase new ones and to break them in.
3. Guide Book(s) and Credencial in hand?
2 Weeks previous:
4. Visit your dentist
5.Dig out that sleeping bag - godonly knows how bad it smells so give it a good airing and/or cleaning. Do the same with your water bladder – replace if needed
6.Check out your credit cards – still valid? No scratches on the magnetic bit? No cracks?
1 Week
7. Cut you toenails! If you are too aggressive it will heal before you go - on the Camino don't even touch them - if they don't hurt don't mess with them
8.Get a hair cut or walk triumphantly into Santiago looking like the Wild Man from Borneo
9. Lay out everything you want to take on the bed in the guest room but don't pack! Once it’s in the backpack you will pull everything out three times just to check and make sure you didn't forget this or that.
10. Supermarkets here sell shampoo in 2 litre bottles and monster tubes of toothpaste very hard to find small ones so look around
11. WD 40 your trekking poles and wipe them well.
12. Prepare your shower kit – won't even pretend to recommend what goes in there, different strokes for different folks bigtime!
13. A separate bag for medicines (blood pressure here) Traumeel, Advil, Elastic bandages for strains Band-Aids all easy to find in Spain except when you really need them, maybe something for indigestion or diarrhea if that worries you. Blister preventatives and treatment if that worries you. Most important, a roll of toilet paper without that cardboard bit in the middle or the FreshOnes stuff - none of it is very good if it gets wet in your shower kit.
14. A book to read.
15. Pocketknife and holster, won't help after settling down comfortably in the bottom of your backpack.
16. For those of you who think electronics are not that weird, all the cellular phone/ipod crap you need to make it work.
PS For our Anglo-Saxon Bretheren/Sisters: Leave the Ben Gay at Home! Even light use in public areas may lead to immediate expulsion from polite society. Radian B is a French product, in all ways similar, but has little if no aroma. You have been warned!
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