Norte Route - click to enlarge
Its been nine months since my last blog from the Camino del Norte, but I will be back on the trail again starting on Saturday May 29 from Santander, Spain. The walk will last till, well, I don't know when exactly. Suffice to say I have about 500km to cover and a return ticket to Vancouver on June 19; we'll see how it goes. I began this walk last August, but returned home when my step-father became ill. Happily, he is well again and I am ready for another break - if you call walking up to 30km a day over hill and dale, in weather of all kinds, with a 10kg backpack strapped to my back, a break. Yeah baby, bring it on!
The Camino del Norte is a walking route to Santiago de Compostela, Spain much less travelled then the Camino Frances, which I walked in 2008 to the same destination. On the Norte route there will be fewer walkers - at least I am hoping that will be the case. For those of you who aren't familiar, 2010 is a Holy Year for the Catholic church, and during these times, the pilgrimage routes tend to draw big crowds. I almost decided not to go for this reason; visions of sleeping on park benches, in the rain, have been running through my head. Still, nothing ventured... and I do have a Plan B - a nice Club Med in Cannes - but I hope to not use it (just kidding, I don't believe they allow backpacks at Club Med).
I will attempt to make regular postings, but given the sparseness of accomodation on the Norte route, I also expect less internet access than I had on the Camino Frances, so they may be somewhat sporadic. I believe if you have gmail you can sign up as a follower and it will alert you to postings as they happen, if you are so inclined. Also, computers in Spain can be painfully slow and as such, uploading photographs are not always practical - but I will get them on as I can. Thanks for reading and to all of you, 'Buen Camino'!
