The long walk

I'm slack on the blog writing, aren't I? Well, I'm going to give it another go, this time to document a walk I'm taking from Le Puy in France to Finisterre in Spain. It's known as the Camino Trail, or the Road to Santiago, or the Way of St James, or an insane bloody thing to be doing, depending on who you talk to.

My walk is starting in Le Puy, which is around 4 hours train south east of Paris. Right at the moment there are public transport strikes all over the place, so I'm either going to be starting a little later than expected, or walking a little earlier than expected, or hitch hiking for the first time in my life. From Le Puy I walk roughly south west for around 800km until I reach a town called St Jean Pied de Port, which is the most common starting point for this long pilgrimage, then a more westerly direction for just under 800km more to get to Santiago de Compostela, the official finishing point. I'll then, providing my legs are still holding me up, walk the extra three or four days to Finisterre on the coast, which was once considered to be the edge of the world. I can't go all that way and not go to the edge of the world, right?

After that it'll be a hopscotch across to Barcelona to see a friend and fly out, and a quick detour through Frankfurt so I can spend my layover hours seeing just how much German I've learnt. I find it funny that I've been learning German for a little while, then decide to go to France and Spain - two languages I can barely even say hello in. Fortunately I have phrase books with me and a good sense of humour that may see me through.

I'm hoping to keep this blog fairly regularly, partly because it will be a good way to keep track of what I'm doing, partly because my friend Kate McAwesome is going to Thailand and some other places and promised to keep one if I did. I like her blogs, so this will be the only way for me to read what she's up to as well.

I haven't ever posted a photo in here, nor have I ever used my sister-in-law's camera, so here's an experiment to see if it works. I present to you, Dear Reader, the only bag I'm taking on this three month journey overseas:

Well, that seemed to work okay. Good, this means I should be able to post photos on my travels then, available computers and internet connections pending.

I head to the airport in a couple of hours, and just need to figure out how to fit one extra little bag of kindle/iPod/journal goodness into this very tight pack. Hmm, it seems that it doesn't fit very nicely. Can you believe that the bag (sans little bag with kindle et al) only weighs just under 7kg? This means that unless I get a jerk at the check in, I'll only have carry on luggage - whoo hoo!

Okay, time to finish off the chocolate Matt & Tab gave me for the flight, then I'm ready to go. Wish me Buen Camino!