Camino Day minus one! Here we go again!

 If you hang about on any of the (many) Camino Facebook pages and if you can get past the judgemental posts about the ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to walk a Camino, you will see the Camino equivalent of a pre-race flat lay.  This is the contents of someone’s backpack laid out neatly for all to see (and comment on).  These photos will be accompanied by a comment saying ‘I’m walking the Camino next week/next month/whenever,’ and they always make me feel a bit panicky.  Who plans and packs that far in advance?  

That said, I would normally start getting my kit together a couple of days in advance, just to make sure I have enough of those Lilliputian toiletries to last me for the first few days.  I’d planned two whole days at home between trips.  Ample time to do laundry, organise kit, repack bags and say ‘hello’ to Husbando, the children and the cats.  Storm Floris had other plans!

I’d been helping out with a Duke of Edinburgh Gold Residential for the Army Cadets on the wonderful, but fairly remote, Isle of Tiree.  It takes two days, including a four hour ferry crossing to get there.  But the ferry won’t sail when the wind is gusting at speeds of over 80mph, so we were delayed by about 36hrs.  In my 32 hours ‘at home’ I managed to unpack most, but not all, of my Tiree kit, so several loads of laundry, have breakfast out with friends, drive to Oxford to help my middle child move his ‘stuff’ for a house move, had lunch with him and his friend and get my nails done.  I also threw a change of clothes and a few pairs of knickers into my back pack. Total mass:5.4kg which is about a third of the size of last year’s backpack.  What could go wrong?  ‘The Camino provides’ is an oft repeated phrase - so let’s see what happens!

Camino magic is already in evidence.  Asturias airport is about 40k from Oviedo and the busses take hours to get there.  Taxis are available, but will be pricey.  At the gate I got chatting to Sarah, also walking the Camino Primitivo, we’ll be sharing a taxi into town, and looking out for a third person to share the bill!