A bit more packing advice

An earlier post of mine had pictures of everything that I took on the Camino (or rather everything that I could find to take pictures of!). Here's a bit of advice on packing for you.

In general less is best; a lot of people take far too much and end up having to dump it or posting it forward to Santiago post office (who will then hold your items for 30 days ready for you to collect, many people have used this option and found that it works well for them but I have never myself done it). I was told before my first Camino to carry no more than 10% of your body weight which may work well for some people but as someone who weighs about 46 kilograms and is about 1m 55cm tall this is impractical – if you want to carry your own backpack all of the way then only carrying 4.6 kilograms is simply not possible. I carried a bag weighing 6-7.5 kilograms and found this to be a practical weight for me. I would say never carry more than 10 kilograms – you don’t need to and your Camino will not be enjoyable for you (plus is you are flying using a certain budget airline anything under 10 kilograms can be counted as hand luggage and so money saved!). With everything it’s worth paying a bit more to cut down on weight.

When packing remember that you’ll be carrying water for your day’s walking and that one litre of water is one kilogram of weight. Added to this you will always carry a snack of some sort – a piece of fruit or a cake maybe and some days you may well have to carry food for the meal that night (say some pasta, sauce and a tin of tuna) all of which will add maybe 1-2 kilograms of weight depending how much food you have.

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The Camino Primitivo

The Camino Primitivo (or the Original Way) is reportedly the very first Camino Way to Santiago in the 9 th century when most of Spain was under the control of the Moors and it runs from near the city of Ovideo in Asturias as it starts in Villavicosa (which also lies on the Camino Norte so many people follow this Way from Basque city of San Sebastian (Donosti in Basque) or in from the French border at Irun ( this route then hugs the Bay of Biscay passing through Guernica, Bilbao, Santander, Llanes before going under the Picos de Europa and then heads along the coast to Ovideo) before branching off onto the Primitivo which goes across the mountains and through the city of Lugo before joining the Frances at Melide. The route is 320km long. Image taken from https://viaalpina2013.wordpress.com/2013/04/14/camino-del-norte-camino-primitivo/

Symbols of the three main Christian Pilgrimages

The symbol of the Pilgrim to Santiago is the Scallop shell of which many can be found on the coast of Galicia and it is actually a symbol of the Pilgrimage (and has become a symbol of other Christian Pilgrimages too) partly because you could find the shell easily there and so could go back home and show it off as proof that you had done the Pilgrimage. It has also been included in carvings in some Churches.

Camino Mascot

Those who have walked the Camino will probably have seen one or more of the Camino mascots along the Way but do you know their names? http://m.elcorreogallego.es/xacobeo/ecg/xubi-jubila-pelegrin-mascota-xacobea/idEdicion-2010-06-08/idNoticia-555962/

On the Camino

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