Three days before my planned start date, I figured it was as good of time as any to crack open the guidebook I had carried with me for the past three months to see what this Camino business was all about. I was lucky, had I opened the guidebook any sooner than 3 days before starting, I probably would’ve talked myself out of going.

Now I am not much of a hiker to begin with, and can actually count the number of true hikes I have been on with one hand. I prefer a bit faster method of transportation, either horseback or cycling, and though I had a fairly good idea of how many kilometres I could cycle a day, I had no idea how what was a doable daily walking distance with a large backpack. The first leg of my Camino from Lisbon to Santiago in total would be just over 600km, which the guidebook had divided into 23 days of walking, around 25 km each day. The first few days of walking were close to or over 30 km in length. Taking into consideration that I knew I could cycle 30 km in a couple hours, it seemed reasonable that I could hike 30 km in 8+ hours, and I even began to plan a little bit how I could get to Santiago in 21 days instead of the guidebook recommended 23.

The guidebook also recommended to carry about 10% of your body weight, with an aboslute maximum of 10 kg. I had dumped a fair bit of stuff with my sister when we met up in Spain, and when I had my final bag weigh at the airport to fly to Lisbon it was 13 kg. Really, how much could 3 kg (closer to 5 with food and water) matter I thought, dismissing my knowledge that in horse racing every pound can slow down a horse significantly, and that’s over a distance that is 1/30th of what I would be walking. As I was sitting contemplating the weight of my pack, a flash of brilliance came to my mind. The guidebook said 10% of your body weight… Soooo, if I just gained some weight in the coming days it could be within the recommendation value. Though I quickly dismissed this flash of “brilliance” as idiotic when some quick mental math revealed I would need to double my body weight for my pack to be close to 10% (not to mention the fact that the additional body weight would only add to the problem). Regardless, I went to McDonalds that night and bought a McFlurry.

The first day I began my Camino was with a 28 km leg, with literally no places between to stop and sleep if I so desired, unless I was willing to spend my first night stealth camping in the industrial o and somewhat sketchy outskirts of Lisbon. With my previously mentioned estimation of my hiking ability and speed, I didn’t see the need to start off from the Lisbon Cathedral until around 10AM. Walking the Camino was part of my “holiday,” and I have a thing about not setting an alarm or getting up before I want to when I am on holiday. Just before stopping for lunch I caught a glimpse of another pilgrim, and the Camino app I had downloaded had kilometre tracking which said I had walked about 14km so I figured I was making really good time! I would soon realise that the app had a major bug, that resulted in its tracking overestimating the traveled distance by almost double! By the time 6PM rolled around I was sore and exhausted, and google maps indicated I still had 5km to go! Those last 5 km might as well have been 100 km for as long as it felt it took me to finish them. It was getting dark as I neared the hostel, two cars stopped to ask if I needed a ride, but I was determined to finish the day. I rolled into the hostel at 8:30PM, just as the other pilgrim I glimpsed earlier in the day was checking in. We both had severely underestimated how long that day was going to take.. She was a bit better off though, as her backpack was only 9 kg!

The next day was another 28 km day, and seeing as I clearly did not learn any lessons on my first day, I started out only marginally earlier at 9:30AM (to my defence I did beat the other pilgrim out)! The day would prove even more challenging than the previous day as a) I had a lot less energy and my muscles were a lot more sore than my first day, and b)it decided to pour rain the entire day. I quickly found out that my “waterproof” hiking boots were not waterproof at all, and should have been labelled as water absorbent for how wet my feet were in a matter of minutes. This slowed down my walking considerably. It seemed that the day was taking a toll on other pilgrims as well, in the afternoon at a remote train station, as I searched for a bathroom I crossed paths with an Australian pilgrim who was calling it quits for the day and taking a train to the next town. I was determined to walk the whole thing and could not be swayed into hopping on the train, though if it had been a few hours later in the day I probably would have! Funnily I would run into this pilgrim a few days later and end up hiking almost the entire way to Santiago (at times unwillingly) with them.

 At 6PM I arrived into a small town 6km before the next hostel in the guidebook. Soaked, exhausted and starving, I stopped at the first restaurant. Knowing that another 6 km would take at least two hours, before I decided to order I asked in my broken Spanish (close enough to Portuguese right?) if there was a hostel in the town as the guidebook did not have one listed. They pointed across the street and from what I could understand, told me the third building down had rooms. With that knowledge I settled in for a meal and a hot tea. After an hour I had built up enough energy to walk to the other side of the road and find the hostel, but to my dismay it didn’t exist!! In hindsight I realised that they may have been giving me directions to the other restaurant not a hostel, but why they would tell me where their competitors were I don’t quite understand. Getting a bit desperate as at that point there was no way I would be walking another 6 km, I began to ask people on the street if there was somewhere to stay in the town. I would finally have a bit of luck on my side that day, as one person I asked ended up having keys to the community hall. Though it didn’t have a bed or shower it was shelter, and I got to test out my immensely heavy -7 sleeping bag and thermarest ground mat that were taking up most of the space and weight in my bag! I had quickly learned two important things in my first two days on the Camino, 1) there was no way I would be hiking 30 km every day, and 2) only stop in towns that have at least two hostels listed in the guidebook! I quickly changed my attitude about getting to Santiago in 21 days, and in the end it would actually end up taking me 27 days!

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