5 more days

It just happen that I almost did not make the trip.  Last Friday I had a routine exam at the Hospital. Saturday I was back in the Emergency Room with a pretty bad infection.  In the end I spent 4 days with intravenous antibiotics.  In any case they finally sent me home today.
So here I am, pretty tired trying to make a list of the things I have to do this last five days.  I have follow up doctor appointments, a postponed dental appointment, banking to do, etc, etc.
Very excited and a little scared...will I be able to do it?
If everything else goes well, a week today, at ths time we will be in Pamplona on our way to our starting point:  Roncesvalles.  The present weather here today is -7C going down to -14 C tonight.  The forecast for Roncesvalles for Tuesday and Wednesday next week is sunny with low of 2C and high of 13C for both days.  Truly T shirt, shorts and flip-flop weather.
Oh;  I am so ready for that.

Two weeks to go

Only two more weeks.  The time seems to slow down when you are waiting for something.

This weekend we had two friends over for lunch and a hike along the Credit River.  We met our friends at a the Canadian Company of Pilgrims meeting.  They are going to el Camino in May.  It is so nice to talk to people who are as obsessed with el Camino as we are.  I think the "others", family and friends, are fed up with my constant chat about the pilgrimage.  We had a really nice day.  You can see from the picture that the day was quite a bit warmer, it went all the way up to -5C and sunny.  You will notice that neither Brenda nor I were wearing our toques or balaclavas.

We discovered recently that the dates for our trip are very meaningful.  The day we arrive to Roncesvalles will be Ash Wednesday and the days we had planned to arrive at Santiago de Compostela is Easter weekend.  It could not have worked better if we had planned it that way.  Is the Holy Spirit getting into my life already?  I have not even started to walk.

I keep planning and planning.  I checked on the accommodation in Roncesvalles, it seems that when we get there the only beds available is in the winter albergue which has only 16 beds.  We will have to trust that we will not be left out in the cold.  The first day we are going to walk only 12 km.  I figure we are going to be still jet lagged so we are going to stay in Biskarret, there is a casa rural there that seems very nice, La Posada Nueva.  The next day we will walk only as far  Pamplona, another 15 km and then we will really have to start walking farther.

I also found another video that I found of interest to pilgrims like me.  It is of Pablo Coelho, the author of The Alquemist, in El Camino de Santiago.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lSyWAMk8LI

I really expect that El Camino will have an impact on my spiritual life.

Vaya con Dios y Buen Camino

Only two more weeks

24 days to go

Training continues to be difficult.  We were out yesterday in 20 cm of fresh snow and the white stuff kept coming.  It took us 1 hour in a stretch that we usually walk in 20 minutes.  It was also cold.  My hydration pack house  was almost plugged with ice despite the fact that I had filled it with warm water.  Still, it was very beautiful.  We are going to try a longer hike tomorrow with full packs.  We;ll see how we do.
It is amazing how wonderful the world that God has given us is.

There are more and more things to do before we go.  I had a doctor appointment today, at my age there is a lot of maintenance, she changed some of my medications for the pilgrimage.  But I still have a test at the hospital, a couple of dentist appointments, I need to arrange my financial situation to make sure that everything is paid on time while we are away, I have to prepare the tax return, it will be due when we come back, and on and on the list goes.

I am still working on backpack weight.  We unpacked everything once more and left a few more things behind.  It is incredible how you can save weight.  My flip flops (for the shower) weight 180 grams.  I found a pair of ladies flip flops (they are not very girlie) at the dollar store that weight only 75 grams.  I am going to carry them and share them with the wife.   I am taking 2 pairs of Merrel slacks but I have one more.  It occurred to me to weight the pair of slacks that was in my backpack and compare it with the one in the closet. It just happened that the one I was taking weights about 60 grams more than the one I was leaving behind.  I thought the only difference was colour (one is brown, the other one is khaki).

We are getting more and more impatient.




 

35 days to go

Almost a month is gone by and we have not had a chance to train any more.  We had the ice storm before Christmas that took down trees and power lines in all the region.  one half million homes without power (that means no heat) for up t 10 days.  The ice storm was followed by a mass of polar air that brought temperatures down to -25C and with windchill of -40C (or -40F).  And we got  bad cold that kept us home for a week.  Then 2 weeks in Mexico City visiting family and that bring us to today.

We finally went for a short 2 hour walk yesterday.  The temperature was up to a relative warm of -9C.  We were surprised to see the damage the ice storm left behind.  Huge trees broke in half, downed branches everywhere.  Fortunately the path has been cleared by city crews (this trail is in city of Mississauga grounds).

As for preparation we keep reading and planning, but now is time to get busy.  There is lots to do at home before we go.   We probably will not have to walk a lot, may be just 10 to 15 km twice a week if the weather permits.  After all winter has another 2 or 3 months to go.

On the spiritual side we had a chance while in Mexico to go and visit the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe and ask for her protection.  We need a very special favour from Her and from St. James and after all, we know that miracles happen in El Camino.

Only 60 days to go

It is hard to believe that we are now in 2014 and there are exactly 60 days  left before our flight to Madrid.

Training has become more difficult, December brought us snow, then an ice storm that created a lot of hazards and closed many trail and conservation areas and finally the last few days we had to cope with very cold weather.  We had a few 10 Km walks in -12 C (as in the pictures).  We have been walking with our day packs only, no load,  But we have accepted that it is more difficult to walk in snow and in the last walk we found a very slippery layer of ice under the snow.  Luckily this Christmas we got  spikes that we used in our last hike.   They really help.   The last time out in addition to the -14 C it was very windy.  It is the first time that I cannot drink any water because the hose of my hydration pack got frozen solid.

The last couple of days the temperature has been down.  It is -17 C going to -22 C (that is -7.6  F)  in the evening and we are expecting another 10 cm of snow during the day. Also,  I got a pretty bad cold so I have stayed home the last two days.  By Saturday the temperature is expected to go up to -5 C.  That we can handle so we may be able to get our packs and go out again.

Our luggage is pretty well ready.  We plan to go over it in detail again to see if we can eliminate a few more items.  We want to keep the weight under 7 kg for me and 6 Kg for her.

The other part of the preparation is the spiritual part.  As Roman Catholics we are going to try el Camino de Santiago a a religious pilgrimage.  How do I do this?  It is a good question.  My approach has been to start going over the readings of the mass of the day.  I found an app for my android phone ( it is called "Laudeate") that not only has the readings but also meditations and if I get more ambitious it also has the daily liturgy of the hours.

I don't think I will be writing in the blog for a while.  We are to Mexico City for a couple of weeks and our walks there will be urban walks, without a car is very difficult yo get up to the mountains.

Training and waiting

Only 96 days to go.

I got obsessed with the weight of my backpack and I managed to trim one more kg.  I am down to 6 kg (without water or food).  I traded my sandals (560 grams) for ultralight shoes (New Balance minimum, 396 grams).  I traded my Columbia pants (with zippers to convert to shorts) for my one piece Merrill slacks and saved another a 160 grams.  So with a bit here and there I reduced the weight one whole kilogram.  That is almost 15%.

So we got a sunny day, a bit cool - around 0C, we loaded the backpacks and added water and food for the day bringing my pack to around 9 kg and we managed 20 Km in 5 hours.  We walked on the Hamilton to Brantford trail which is an easy trail with a gentle slope.  It was not very taxing so I think we are close to ready.  We also have to think that we are going to have to do this day after day after day.

Now that the snow is here it may get a bit more difficult to go hiking.  We may have to get the cross country skis out.

Trip preparation

Progress!!

A couple of days ago we finally figured that we have everything we need to walk in March.  So we did a trial packing.  My pack fully loaded weights 6.8 kg and the wife's 5.5 kg.  That includes only one change of clothes plus an extra t-shirt and an extra pair of socks.  That is also before we add the 2 litres of water of the hydration pack.  So the answer is, we have to try to loose 3 or 4 kg before we start walking (I can certainly afford that).  We have to keep training and with fully loaded packs.  I am pretty sure that walking in Ontario in the winter will be colder than walking in Navarra in March.  If anybody  want a complete packing list please let me know.

We also bought our flight tickets.  We are leaving on March 3 via Lufthansa.  I was surprised to see that the tickets were a lot cheaper than what we paid this year; perhaps is because we bought them so early.  We are flying overnight to Frankfurt and from there to Madrid (another surprise, there are no non-stop flights to Madrid).  We arrive in Madrid shortly before noon.  We figure we can take a bus from Terminal 4 to Pamplona leaving at 1 PM or if we miss that one there is another one at 3 PM.  Arrive in Pamplona 7 or 8 PM and next day we can take the only bus to Roncesvalles at 6 PM.  That gives us one day to recover from jet lag in Pamplona.  In Roncesvalles we arrive on time for the Pilgrim mass and we start to walk the next day.  Cannot wait!