Camino France is calling me!

Today is 13 June 2012...about a month ago, out-of-the-blue and un-related to what I was doing at the time, I remembered this short story I read long time ago. It was written by a woman who did a walking journey--somewhere over in Europe. I was intrigued because I pay attention to things that come to me out-of-the-blue. A few days later I found the short story and saw that the walk was in Spain - the Camino de Santiago. I did not read the short story then. I thought 'how synchronistic' as I would be traveling with a friend later this year to Rome, Lourdes and Paris. Perhaps a walking journey would be in order as I would be so close to Spain (and I am thinking a week).

Little did I know (LITERALLY)!

For the past three weeks since I began reading about the Camino de Santiago and specifically Camino France, I keep saying NO - probably because this is NOT a day-hike (I've not hiked more than a few hours) AND I will be "backpacking" (NEVER backpacked) AND I don't want to spend money on new gear AND what other reasons can I come up with :-). Camino and Source are saying YES! AND if not now, then when?

They keep calling me to journey. So if all goes ease, easy, flow, then I will leave Paris when my friend returns home and begin my journey to the starting point of the Camino France. Actually the journey began when the short story came to me out-of-the-blue :-)

This is my first Camino, first walking journey, first backpacking. I'm sure there are other firsts in there...LOL

Much appreciation and gratitude to http://www.caminodesantiago.me forum and other sites for the wealth and sharing of information. The pilgrims' insights have helped me tremendously as my body, mind, and spirit prepare for this.
http://www.csj.org.uk/
http://amawalker.blogspot.com
http://www.santiago-compostela.net/

Thank you Source for telling me on 28 May to get out my hiking boots and start wearing them the next day, every day. My feet were fine until yesterday, when they were not happy in the hiking boots. I pay attention to my feet and shoes since I urban walk a lot to do errands (no car). So I'm ISO of different shoes. And the Keen Targhee II Mid might be the ones. Mailordered several sizes from REI. The Salomon XA Pro 3D Ultra Mid 2 GTX Hiking Shoes are also a possibility. I use Salomon trailrunners every day for my urban walking.

And I'm weighing my backpack & stuff with a goal of 12 pounds or less. My urban walking has taught be over the years that one pound can feel very heavy very quick after one hour of walking.

Camino France is some 778km long, starting either in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port (“St. John at the Foot of the Pass”) on the French side of both the mountains and the border or 27km later in Roncesvalles (Roncevaux in French, the “Valley of Thorns”) in Spain. It passes through Pamplona, Puente la Reina, Estella, Logroño, Burgos,
León, Astorga, Ponferrada and Sarria before it reaches the “City of the Apostle” in the western reaches of Galicia.

All Good!