nodgecamino2019-blog

[nodgecamino2019-blog]

2 weeks to go

Welcome to our little blog site where you can follow our ups and downs (quite literally!) as we start our 500 mile walk along the Camino de Santiago - an ancient pilgrim route from St. Jean Pied de Port in France to Santiago de Compestela in the far north western region of Spain, known as Galicia.

If all goes to plan, we’ll have 4 weeks of walking in May this year to get the Camino started. We hope to get as far as Leon within that time - some 300 miles. At some point in the future we’ll aim to get back to Spain to complete the final 200 miles to Santiago; and indeed go beyond there to Cape Finisterre where the Atlantic Ocean meets Spain.

Lots has already happened to get us to the point where we are very nearly ready to travel. We’ve had to buy a fair bit of kit to cover all eventualities - Cate the Quartermaster thinks we’ve got virtually everything! You all know that we walk quite a lot already, but we’ve still done some targeted training - namely walking with our backpacks (weighing c10kg) on; and taking on some deliberately steep and hilly terrain. Our first one of these was roughly 8 miles from Ibstone (near Stokenchurch) down in the Hambleden valley to Turville, and then back again. This included the horrendously steep climb from Turville (most of you will know it as Dibley!) up to the windmill that stands on the hill above the village - famous for being in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. That was followed by a long slow climb back up to Ibstone. Our next session was really about distance (with packs)- 15 miles through the countryside north of Oxford, from Long Hanborough to Charlbury; via Blenheim Palace. Absolutely beautiful scenery; and more importantly no blisters or issue with packs.

We then did a 12 mile walk with packs from home across to Wendover. this proved to be a great test of our equipment, as it rained for about 80% of the time. Lord knows what people thought of these 2 idiots carrying big backpacks and wearing brightly coloured poncho’s. But they did their jobs admirably - we are expecting to get a few soakings, especially in the first few days as we go up into the Pyrenees Our last training session was the opening section of the Ridgeway (near Marlborough) and then on a circular route taking in Avebury, Silbury Mound and West Kennett long barrow.

I’ll put some photos of those walks up shortly - not least to help me understand how to operate this blogging thing.