58 lines
3.4 KiB
Markdown
58 lines
3.4 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: A short look back on my Camino de Santiago journey
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tags:
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- life
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- camino
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- caminodesantiago
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category: camino
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---
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A year ago tomorrow I began the most gruelling, yet immensely satisfying, journey of my life. I set off from my home in Buchholz in der Nordheide Germany, to fly to France to walk the Camino de Santiago.
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Ostensibly the point of the walk was to find myself, to seek out something that had been missing in me for a long time. But it was also about trying to make a decision about what I was doing and my relationship with my wife.
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I kinda failed at the latter point. I found while walking that often my brain zoned out and I wasn't thinking about what I should have been. I did however find something that (mostly) made me feel good.
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My original intention was to take time along the way to stop for an extra day here and there to see places that I was walking through, but it never really happened. I kind of regret that, although the point of the walk was not to be a tourist.
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I had fully intended to go back on the Camino this year (2020), but the unthinkable happened and the world entered a state of lock down that for now has no end in sight. The intention was to walk (mostly) different routes this time, because there are a heck of a lot of them.
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I didn't want to end when I did, I wasn't ready to back and quite honestly, I'm still not ready to.
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## Some Stats, Dates, and Figures
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- I walked 2 camino's. The Camino Frances & Camino Portuguese (Porto; More Costal Route + Espiritual Variente)
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- I flew from Hamburg to France on the 28th of May 2019
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- I started the Camino de Santiago, leaving Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port on the 31st of May 2019
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- I finished the Camino on the 8th July 2019, when I arrived in Santiago de Compostela
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- I left the next day for Finisterre
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- I arrived in Finisterre on the 11th of July 2019
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- I start the Camino Portuguese on the 18th July 2019
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- I arrived in Santiago de Compostela on the 31st of July 2019
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- I flew back to Hamburg from Porto on the 6th of August 2019 (walking 14km to the airport from Porto)
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- I took 3 rest days (3rd, 8th and 23rd of June). The first 2 where not because I actually needed to rest, but because I had the wrong shoes and they where messing my feet up. (which gave me a couple of nasty blisters)
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- I bought a new pair of shoes on the evening of the 7th of June, which I then used the rest of the way.
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- I sent roughly 2kg of stuff home on the 8th of June, stuff I thought I needed but didn't
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Originally I was track my steps / distances using a Fitbit HR and my iPhone 6S. However because of issues charging the HR (connector area broke), I gave up using it on July 6th.
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In total I walked at least 1643km. This was a combination of the daily Camino walks, plus any extra after I arrived at my destination.
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| Section | Stage Distance Walked | Total walked that stage |
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| ------- | -------- | ------- |
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| Camino Frances | 793.04km | 972.3km |
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| Santiago to Finisterre | 96.16km | 105.9km |
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| Camino Portuguese | 299.14km | 402.9km |
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| **Totals:** | **1,188.34km** | **1,481.1km** |
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The remaining 160km was days walking around Finisterre, Muxia, Santiago and Porto.
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## Photos
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Over the next little while I am going to post photos from my journey, more than I did at the time on Instagram (which had a limit of 10 per post).
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I'll try and add context to them, and a bit about where they where taken.
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Anyway, enough for now. I intend, body willing, to locally repeat the Camino distances over the next 2 months. |