Will The Packing and Preparation Ever Stop?

    Well, it's 3 days until my flight to Paris, 6 days until I start my walk on "The Way of St James". When I first decided to walk the way, I started reading all I could about the routes, the weather, the history and forums where pilgrims past, present and future posts their knowledge, experiences and opinions of the best routes, equipment and places to stay. Literally, thousands points of data to sift through and decide what will work for me.

    Most of the information shared on these forums is accurate, but what works for one person may not work for everyone or me. You just have to give it your best guess, pick one and try it out under simulated conditions and make a final decision as to take it or not.

    I ended up buying, NEW backpack, poncho, socks, shoes, underwear, T-shirt, shorts, convertible pants, new first aid kit, sewing kit, waterproof stuff sacks, i-pod, guidebook, sleeping bag, small keychain flashlight. I bought these for 2 reasons: lightweight and fast drying. Both reasons very important. The weight is self explanatory, when you are carrying all your belongings you must live with for 42 days on your back for 500 miles, you want your pack to be as light as possible. The second is fast drying. Well two reasons for that, while walking the way, you can't pick the days you walk and sit out when it rains. So, if you get wet, you want to dry off quickly. Also, every evening, you have to do that day's laundry and you need it dry by the next morning. Even though, most albergues ( places to stay) have clotheslines, with the number of other peregrinos there, space may be limited. I'm carrying an extra set of boot laces and clothes pins. The boot laces will double for a clothesline and spare bootlaces.

    So with only 3 days before I leave, you would think I better have the list finalized and packed! Well, last night, I thought I had. Then a quick look at the weather of North Spain, realising I will be going through the mountains sometimes in early morning, I added to my pack, a pair of light weight gloves.

    Today, I'm going to unpack my pack, compress the clothing/stuff sacks one more time and carefully repack to make sure the pack is as compact as I can get it because I am carrying it on the plane. I want to make sure it will fit in the overhead storage.

    Once I get to St Jean Pied de Port, France, I will organize and repack it. It will be important to have certain items easily accessible like my poncho needs to be quick and easy to pull out of my pack. You don't want to unpack your whole pack to get to certain things like, poncho, first aid kit, food, etc.

   It may seem like I have put a lot of thought and effort into planning this. It is my nature to plan things down to minute details and I have been criticized for being so nit-picky since my retirement. Well, working in Radiation Protection for 27 years, where other peoples health and well being were at stake, there is no room for mistakes, even small ones. It is hard to just turn off the switch after many years of paying attention to small details!

  One of the things I am going to work on The Way, is letting a little of this perfectionism go in my everyday life. During this walk, I will wake up, eat, walk, wash clothes and start it all again tomorrow. along the way, I hope to meet and share all the scenery with interesting people from all over the world and come away, humbler, wiser, and a lot fitter.    Buen Camino!