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Camino de Santiago

August - November 2016
A 81-day adventure by Mme Read more
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  • TravelerCamino de Santiago
    1
    Day 1

    Day 1: Reims - Rilly-la-Montange

    August 13, 2016 in France ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Distance: 10km (a slow start)
    Weather: 28C, sunny
    Mood: Emotional to start, now quite calm and lazy
    No. of Pelgrims encountered: 0
    State of body: 🙂
    Highlight of the day: Receiving the lovely symbolic necklace from Marc at the Reims cathedral
    Lesson of the day: start earlier, afternoon is too hot    Read more

  • TravelerCamino de Santiago
    1
    Day 2

    Day 2: Rilly-la-Montagne - Epernay

    August 14, 2016 in France ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    Distance: 21km (+ 4 extra off-route)
    Weather: 28C, sunny
    Mood: Cool and a little exited
    No. of Pelgrims encountered: 0
    State of body: No blisters... Yet! Starting to feel a tad tired though.
    Highlight of the day: Receiving a bottle of water (after I had desperately asked for one) Diving (OK, maybe more like falling off the slippery slope) into the cold water in the Lake at the campsite.
    Lesson of the day: Don't expect a boulangerie to be open during the summer holiday and don't expect all roads to be open either (needed to do some trespassing at a building site...)    Read more

  • TravelerCamino de Santiago
    Day 3

    Day 3: Epernay - Montmort

    August 15, 2016 in France ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Distance: 25km
    Weather: 26C, sunny
    Mood: Missing the spontaneous meetings with lovely people (sofar most are bit moody and oblivious to pilgrims)
    No. of Pilgrims encountered: 0....
    State of body: First tiny blister and collar bone sore from backpack (it's still feeling rather heavy)
    Highlight of the day: Long hot shower at my first hotel stop
    Lesson of the day: Don't try to outsmart the prescribed route (my little detour left my legs covered in scratches)    Read more

  • TravelerCamino de Santiago
    Day 4

    Day 4: Montmort - Sezanne

    August 16, 2016 in France ⋅ 🌙 24 °C

    Distance: 31km
    Weather: 29C, felt like 34!
    Mood: Good, bit more social
    Blisters: 3 (2 new!)

    The "unwinding" road

    Time for something different today. My day started with 5 kilometers along a grassy straight path through farmlands with absolutely nothing else around. The Beatles song The long and winding Road came into my mind, though this road was anything but windy and I realised that the hiker-me is different from the everyday-me. Usually I love shortcuts, the quickest way to get somewhere in the most efficient manner, but the hiker-me likes the bends in the road, the corner that may bring something interesting to see and the turn the guidebook describes is coming up soon. It keeps the journey interesting and straight roads are just a bit... boring. But I manned up, counted steps and marched on and finally I saw the end of the road (see pictures below) and the funny thing was that the road on the other side was pretty much the same, long and un-winding. In fact, most of the long route today was like that! It's almost like this camino gives you what you don't desire, so you can meditate on it. Let's see how unwindy the roads are tomorrow.

    Oh and, I did meet some really lovely Scottish people who offered to heat my food and I sat with them for most of the evening, hence why this post is later than usual!    Read more

  • TravelerCamino de Santiago
    2
    Day 5

    Day 5: Sezanne - Algure

    August 17, 2016 in France ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Distance: 22.5KM (111.5/1888.5)
    Weather: 29C, too hot to hike
    Mood: A little tired...
    Blisters: 5 (2 new!) It is starting to become uncomfortable

    Finding the pilgrim in me

    First of all we would like to apologise for the outrageous spelling error in yesterday's entry. All has been corrected now.

    The roads remain long and straight and too be frank, rather boring. Farmland after farmland and a few wildflowers, a tiny bit of hill or there and that sums it up. I think this is finally starting yo awaken the pilgrim in me. The repetition and the long stretches of road create a rhythm that put my busy mind at ease. I'm starting to feel like the walking at times is almost automatic.
    And then at times it feels like the opposite of automatic, the blisters have come, despite all my amazing prevention efforts and they hurt. The backpack is too heavy, especially after yesterday's shopping spree (I wanted to eat everything in the super, asked yesterday after surviving 32 km on one baguette and a Snelle Jelle) and I slept too short. I think a bit of suffering is almost a natural part of being a pilgrim. And because of that, I need to find a rhythm, keep going, counting and remembering that I don't want to give up!    Read more

  • TravelerCamino de Santiago
    1
    Day 6

    Day 6: Anglure - Mery-sur-Seine

    August 18, 2016 in France ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Distance: 11.5KM (123/1877)
    Weather: 25C, wet!
    Mood: Good! Short and pretty walk
    Blisters: 5 (bought lots of things to treat them)

    Here comes the rain...

    After five days of relentless heat, I genuinely thought that I would love a fresh and rainy day, so when madame told me it was really raining quite a bit I smiled and said I would be fine and rain was "bon". Well, I was wrong. When you are walking for hours on a day, rain is never good, maybe a 5 min interval, but not a 2 hour intense one! First of all, my jacket isn't 100% waterproof, secondly you cannot sit anywhere and put your painful feet up to rest.... I hadn't quite thought about that yet. Luckily, I was saved, by my neighbour Martin's favourite place to have a break. I found an actual bus stop. A non-smelly, completely covered (it was more like a little house) space, where I could rest a bit and dry out my coat. I never saw a bus, and I won't tell you about the state of the toilet at the back, but I was grateful regardless.... And even now, I am at the campsite typing from inside my tent, which is kind of cozy, but really wish it will be dry when I have to pack up tomorrow and head to Troyes.

    P.s. Sorry, I can't help myself with the Beatles references 😀    Read more

  • TravelerCamino de Santiago
    11
    Day 7

    Day 7: Mery-sur-Seine - Troyes

    August 19, 2016 in France ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Distance: 30KM (153/1847)
    Weather: 25C, sun and clouds
    Mood: Feeling strong
    Blisters: 5 (the only thing stopping me from walking more)

    I can't believe it's already day 7!

    No deep thoughts today, just the exciting news that I met two fellow pilgrims yesterday night (Dutch even) and it was great to share pilgrim stories and receive some greasy cotton wool and Gewohl cream to treat my feet and prevent more blisters. The walking was much easier today than my last 30k and I'm now sleeping in the old seminarie of Troyes (pic three).
    I'm starting to feel stronger, so let hope those blisters will sure soon (so I can walk even more in a day...)    Read more

  • TravelerCamino de Santiago
    11
    Day 8

    Day 8: Troyes - Sommeval

    August 20, 2016 in France ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Distance: 23.3KM (176.3/1823. 7)
    Weather: 18-24C, cloudy with patchy rain and sunny spells
    Mood: Started out a bit down, ending on a high
    Blisters: 4 (recovery mode)

    When blue turns yellow

    It was one of those days where everything was bound to go wrong. Packing up took ages, despite me waking up spectacularly early and my feet felt painful and heavy from the very first step as if I hadn't given them any rest. Of course I took a few wrong turns, the hot chocolate I made was pretty much disgusting and after that it started to rain, so when I felt one of my blisters pop within less then 3k I thought I was going to give up early today. I thought, well clearly after each good day comes a bad one.
    And then it struck me that I was initiating this negative chain of events by negative thoughts and energy and what if I decided to make this my best day yet?
    When a woman offered me lunch after I sat down in the grass at about 15k, without really needing to, I started to believe a little in the magic of the camino. After lunch my feet felt light and I walked the next 9.5k within 2 hours. I arrived at a little pilgrim gite which the community of Sommeval keeps clean and ready for free. I decided to stay the night (even though I'd set my mind om reaching a campsite 8.5k further along) and within 30 minutes it started to bucket down with rain. Today was as it was meant to be and it felt a little bit magical...    Read more

  • TravelerCamino de Santiago
    2112
    Day 9

    Day 9: Sommeval - Ervy-le-Chatel

    August 21, 2016 in France ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    Distance: 20KM (196.3/1803. 7)
    Weather: 18-24C, cloudy and windy (honestly!)
    Mood: Relaxed and confident
    Blisters: 3.5 (number 4 is pretty much gone)

    Easy day, the feet are definitely getting better which is really great. I'm planning on walking to Vezelay in the next three days, with around 30k each day, so need to rest up (and have foot baths in my cooler bag :-))Read more

  • TravelerCamino de Santiago
    11
    Day 10

    Day 10: Ervy-le-Chatel - Chablis

    August 22, 2016 in France ⋅ 🌙 20 °C

    Distance: 35.4KM (231.7/1768.3) I found a shortcut, which saves me 2k though...
    Weather: 27C, mostly sunny
    Mood: Relaxed and a little tipsy...
    Blisters: 3 (!)

    Apologies for not publishing this yesterday I'm case anyone worried about me. I arrived in Chablis around 5.30, caught a lift to town with the local policeman (no, he didn't think I was a criminal, I just asked 🙂) and then... Well, I basically tried to make friends with next doors dog (not the one the pic) and ended up staying for dinner and a lot of rose. Of course they were English (Yorkshire) and I didn't get to bed till 22.30, which is very late for pilgrim-me. So, another good day and night, making the big miles and new friends and most importantly... the feet really seem to be getting better!Read more

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