G'day Brisbanegee,
Just thinking of what else I can add.
I didn't carry either a GPS or a map other than that in the truncated version of
Brierley's guides. Saint Mike is correct - I walked in the dark for an hour or two most mornings and only turned my headlight on when I came to a crossroads or divergent track or when, on the road, there was traffic in the vicinity (very seldom). There is something magical about the sunrise on the Meseta, but aside from here and La Rioja it was snowing/hailing/raining/sleeting/blowing on most days, even those with glimpses of fineness (a bit like Eric Oulthwaite in "Ripping Yarns" telling his mum that even the white bits in her black pudding were black).
I did keep a very careful watch out for way marking, but still got lost a few times. The only significant ones were at a T-junction west of Ponferrada where I turned right instead of left and headed some K down the road to A Coruna I think before being put right by a local (who then kindly carred me back to where I had gone wrong) and at another T junction out of Vilaserio on the way to Fisterre where after looking at the rather compromised arrow for about five minutes I turned left instead of right and only realised my mistake some k down the track when the sun emerged through a break in the clouds and I realised I was heading due south. The other seven or so times I got lost were insignificant, except for the wrong turn up a dirt road a k or so before the Cruz de Ferro, which added about 5k onto my day.
Re gear, I haven't had any success with Goretex. I tend to think also that the Kathmandu prices, even when they have their half price specials are a bit high. Recently, Aldi, for around $99 had a very good ski deal on a well-designed jacket which appeared to be of a Goretex-style fabric and for which exactly the same specifications re waterproofing/wicking etc were being made as for the Goretex ones. (I'm not sure how serious you can take any of these claims incidentally; certainly the three Goretex jackets I've had were useless in any sort of rain). It also had zips for ventilation under the armpits and you are going to perspire a lot irrespective of the weather. Somewhere else on this site is a reference to a poncho-like item which combines a pack cover with it, and something like this, with some sort of drawstring at the bottom to stop the thing blowing everywhere in the wind, and/or ripping to bits (as some did) would be my choice next time. I hope I haven't breached the site rules by saying this stuff.
Re other gear, all I carried pants-wise were a pair of lightweight Kathmandu travel pants and a pair of shorts. I discarded my waterproof over pants at Valcarlos on the first day out as they were useless - another problem was that the bucketing down rain off the Goretex jacket (that portion which didn't go straight through), went down onto my trousers, so I was wet from head to toe. Happily it turned to snow a bit up the hill from Valcarlos.
With cold weather, your heat loss is going to be mainly through your head and your hands. Get a good beanie (make sure it's wool - mine is a Nepalese one) and a good set of woollen gloves, or preferably a set of mittens made of the tightly woven stuff almost like felt. The old adage that no matter how cold and wet it is, wool is always warm and dry, still holds (incidentally, I spent thirty odd years wilderness XC skiing the Snowies). My beanie did shed a bit of dye in the rain which must have added to my grim appearance. Think about a set of walking poles. I didn't carry any (they would be a menace in Australian bushwalking conditions) but would have been invaluable for the walk down from Alto de Perdon which is steep with lots of loose stones. I slipped and nearly fell here and wrenched both my thigh muscles which meant I didn't really enjoy things very much when I walked 44k into Burgos a day or so later(I was sore and quite stuffed). There's been some conjecture on how to use these, but basically you stick your hand up through the strap so when you grab the thing your hand is bearing down both on the pole and the strap (like a stock in XC skiing). You can strap them to the side of your pack when you don't need them.
Re carrying water, I had three aluminium containers, but other people bought a plastic bottle of around one and a half litres to carry and just replaced this along the way. This seems a better idea in retrospect. I stopped for a swig about every two and a half hours, also stopped at various places for an orange juice/hot chocolate (ask for Cola Cao) so I consumed a lot of liquid. Re other gear such as boots and socks, I just bought a pair of boots, decided they were comfortable enough but still walked about 50k in them, and just wore my normal day to day socks. I'm lucky I have never really had any trouble with my feet, so the replacement boots I had to buy in Ponferrada didn't bother me either (they were worn out by Muxia). When you get to Cruz de Ferro, think about walking down the road rather than the track. I took the track and it was diabolical. There's far more risk of serious injury on the track. At this time of the year there was virtually no traffic on the road, which others took in lieu (they knew something but didn't tell me - I sort of thought vaguely about adding their crosses to the ancient and poignant wooden ones on the fencing remains, but they all looked bigger and stronger than me). The other bad spot was on the first day up the road about 7k beyond Valcarlos. There's a track leading off the road to Ibanez pass which cuts off around a k and a half, but you lose an awful lot of height which you then have to regain. Don't do this if the weather is vile and you are aiming for Roncesvalles on your first day.
Re the
Brierley stops, I ended up there around five or six times, and there were quite a few people around even in winter. In some, the facilities were better than others - in some, particularly if you have to wash/dry clothes, things may be a bit tough, particularly in Burgos, where someone had comandeered the only available drier and had left their clothes in there while they wandered off downtown for a feed (I emptied them out for mine). In the smaller villages there were very few people staying, and most days I walked entirely alone. For example there were hordes of pilgrims in Sarria but my first night out of Sarria, in Hospital da Cruz, there were only three others, and the two nights after that, in Castaneda (Pension Santiago) and Lavacolla (Hostal San Paio) I was alone. Both times very wet! For the three days I saw only four other pilgrims on the track, and about another half a dozen at breakfast/lunch stops. Incidentally, at Vilachia, a few hours walk out of Sarria, there was a refreshment stall (donativo) run by an Australian lass from Newcastle NSW, so stop for a hello and a chat if she's around.
The other thing is some of the
Brierley detours which he recommends which veer off the main waymarked track. If you're alone, first time with no one around to ask or go with it might be safer to stick to the well-waymarked ways. A young couple I met took one of these detours to avoid a bit of road work, and ended up getting thoroughly lost. It took them quite a bit of time to then find their way back to their original turn-off.
Which gets to the whole walk. I was scared witless reading about it all before I did it. It turned out I had no cause so to be. So don't be overawed by it all - it's long but not really hard unless you want to make it so.
This is all a bit long and possibly boring, but I hope it helps. Others may have advice which adds to or differs from this of course.
De Colores
John
,
