The wrong shoes!

[Sukydee]

Six of us have just returned from an amazing two weeks walking our second 100-mile stretch of the Camino Frances. The weather was amazing, the scenery breathtaking, the company stimulating and the hospitality outstanding. When one of our party slipped on a wet floor and gashed his head everyone was incredibly kind and helpful. However, we had one issue that caused distress for my friend, Caroline. We were a little later leaving an albergue than most of the other guests one morning. Caroline could not find her shoes - the shoes that she had spent weeks selecting with insoles to support her misshapen feet (from previous surgery). There was no option but to take the very worn pair that were left on the shelf and then buy a new pair in the next city. Obviously, she had no time to wear the new ones in and she finished our walk in a great deal of pain as a result. We would like to believe that her lovely shoes were taken by mistake, so can I ask you to check your shoes / boots carefully before you leave and not let this happen to anyone else.

 

[Anemone del Camino]

You are a kind sole to want to assume this was a mistake.

 

[domigee]

We would like to believe that her lovely shoes were taken by mistake, so can I ask you to check your shoes / boots carefully before you leave and not let this happen to anyone else.

Sorry to hear this, very harsh for your friend, shoes are so important....

I once met a lovely lady who eventually told me what she had done, completely unwittingly: she had taken someone else's shoes and only realised her mistake after many kilometres, the shoes were too big! She never found the other pilgrim whose shoes she had taken and was horrified at the thought of that person walking with shoes that were a bit too small Sad story.

I hope everyone heeds your advice, I know I try to be very careful each morning. (On my 1st camino I took my friend's sticks and she took mine and neither of us realised until the evening )

 

[SYates]

One additional tip to avoid this from happening: Put the shoes on a spot on the shelf (if a shelf is provided) that is difficult to reach, exchange the laces that came with your shoes for more distinctive ones (glowing rainbow neon colors f.e.) and tie said laces of both shoes together with your own special knot. Hope that helps, Buen Camino, SY

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

Another tip: Tie one of your boots to one of your walking partner's boots. Repeat. No accidental loss happens and they are easy to find.

 

[jmcarp]

One additional tip to avoid this from happening: Put the shoes on a spot on the shelf (if a shelf is provided) that is difficult to reach, exchange the laces that came with your shoes for more distinctive ones (glowing rainbow neon colors f.e.) and tie said laces of both shoes together with your own special knot. Hope that helps, Buen Camino, SY

Good advice, @SYates. I think most of the scenarios described by the OP are, in fact, cases of mistaken shoe identity, but the wearer of the wrong shoes doesn't realize it until they've gone too far to return and rectify the error.

 

[SYates]

I think @Rebekah Scott wrote a very good (blog) post about this and what has happened to here - I just spend half an hour looking for it - to no avail. Perhaps somebody here knows how to find it? BC SY

 

[Hiawatha]

Someone took my underpants off the line at Atapuerca yesterday evening .
I would like to think it was a mistake, but then would the person who took them really want to know they weren't really their own ! Or I suppose their need may have been very great.
Seriously though the loss of your friend's shoes is dreadful .

 

[MichelleElynHogan]

Charles, maybe it was Captain Underpants.......

 

[SYates]

Someone took my underpants off the line at Atapuerca yesterday evening .
I would like to think it was a mistake, but then would the person who took them really want to know they weren't really their own ! Or I suppose their need may have been very great.
Seriously though the loss of your friend's shoes is dreadful .

Somewhere here on the forum is a post of mine where I outed myself as an 'accidental knicker thief' it can happen, in my case it was due to a combination of not being fully awake/not enough coffee/panic to forget something ...

BC SY

 

[trecile]

Some people remove their insoles from their shoes before putting them on the shelf in the evening.

 

[Bumpa]

Some people remove their insoles from their shoes before putting them on the shelf in the evening.

We can only expect and hope that the loss of shoes results from a mistake. I believe that to be the case, however, I spent considerable time, in dim light, one morning looking for my shoes. Someone had taken them from the shelf and left them in another room, after trying them on I guess.

I remove my expensive orthotics and take them to my sleeping area now. I slip one end of a carabiner into one shoe's eyelet and then through an eyelet of the other shoe. Hard to take by mistake.

 

[Anniesantiago]

Did you see this thread?
https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/salomon-shoes-wm-size-8.48543/#post-522360

 

[piggyhinton]

Six of us have just returned from an amazing two weeks walking our second 100-mile stretch of the Camino Frances. The weather was amazing, the scenery breathtaking, the company stimulating and the hospitality outstanding. When one of our party slipped on a wet floor and gashed his head everyone was incredibly kind and helpful. However, we had one issue that caused distress for my friend, Caroline. We were a little later leaving an albergue than most of the other guests one morning. Caroline could not find her shoes - the shoes that she had spent weeks selecting with insoles to support her misshapen feet (from previous surgery). There was no option but to take the very worn pair that were left on the shelf and then buy a new pair in the next city. Obviously, she had no time to wear the new ones in and she finished our walk in a great deal of pain as a result. We would like to believe that her lovely shoes were taken by mistake, so can I ask you to check your shoes / boots carefully before you leave and not let this happen to anyone else.

I get around this by replacing the original laces with some brightly coloured ones, like pink or bright green! No one can take them without standing out like a sore thumb,

 

[Deleted member 56069]

If I need to put my boots by the door when checking in at an albergue, I always go back later and but them in a plastic bag and take them back to my room. I never, ever leave them out overnight.

Same with my poles, always have them collapsed and attached to my bag when checking in. I have an expensive carbon fibre set, so no way I leave them in a bucket by the door.

So I avoid any chance of either poles or boots either accidentally or intentionally taken.

 

[Jeff Crawley]

Could be a coincidence but the ad under the OP was this:

 

[Tio Huero]

Someone took my underpants off the line at Atapuerca yesterday evening .
I would like to think it was a mistake, but then would the person who took them really want to know they weren't really their own ! Or I suppose their need may have been very great.
Seriously though the loss of your friend's shoes is dreadful .

At least the person took your clean skivvies.