Guidebook & maps!

[shirley]

I've read a few first-person accounts of walking the Camino ... people refer to checking their guidebook & maps along the way ... but I haven't been able to find out where one can get these resources? Are they provided when registering at the start? Or should they be obtained in advance?
Shirley

[Dan Elliott]

There are a lot of guides available. Two of the most popular in English are byJohn Brierley and Alison Raju (oft mentioned in previous posts by others) and need to be purchased before getting to your start. I think though that Giltlitz and Davidson's THE PILGRIMAGE ROAD TO SANTIAGO, THE COMPLETE CULTURAL HANDBOOK, while not a guide book per se, is simply unparalled. It is written with wit and wisdom. It is thick but not really that heavy to carry. It is simply the best companion to have at the end of a day's hike while preparing for the next.

[Judy vd Meulen]

We used John Brierley's "A Pilgrim's Guide to the Camino de Santiago" from St Jean Pied de Port - Santiago de Compostela. It was ordered via the local book store. We found it most helpful especially for determining where we would spend the next night.

[Karla]

Hi Shirley

I ordered several of the books, John Brierley's was good. The one I like the best is
Walking the Camino de Santiago
Bethan Davies & Ben Cole It's wayyyyy lighter to carry and just really wonderfullly done. You can order it at pilipalapress.com My friend carried Brierley's book and ended up ripping out pages as she walked because it was so heavy.

I can't wait to begin my Camino in August of this year. Blessings to you.

[Covey]

I have walked the Camino Frances four times in the last five years and have never carried a guide book or a map.

You just follow those little yellow arrows!! or the person in front!

I have seen Pilgrims carrying so many different guide books and maps they looked like a travelling library, but all these books come at a cost in weight.

Read all you can before you leave home, and forget about the maps etc.

Just open your eyes, look around you and enjoy.

[Leslie]

I agree completely. Apart from a list of hostels no guide book is required.

[Karla]

That is amazing..... did you have any past life recollections as you walked? I do plan on carrying the Ben Cole book....it has more than just the maps... it tells info about the refugio's and the region, festivals. I can't wait to begin the trek.

[Covey]

My first trip on the Camino was when I joined my son who was doing StJPdP to Santiago, and I joined him for the Sarria to Santiago leg. When we arrived in Santiago he asked me how did I enjoy my Camino Lite!!

That did it.

The next year I walked SjPdP to Santiago and it gets a bit like a drug. The more you do it the more I enjoy it. And so you come back at do it again and .............

My rationale is that my doctor charges me a fortune for an annual health check, so if I can do the trip in 30 days, I will probably survive another year!!

At the age of 60, I am a fully paid up member of the Grey Haired Grumpy Buggers Club and it gives me a certain satisfaction to keep up with the younger guy's and girls, and for some strange reason, it is the younger ones who seem to pick up most of the injuries.

Maybe age and experience does have an advantage in this strange world of ours, and I get my biggest kick in helping those who find the going hard at the start.

Last year there were three members of the International Grumpy Buggers Club who gathered a number of faltering pilgrims of all nationalities under our wings and got them through the first week.

We were then tagged with the title of The Camino Grandfathers!!

Rather nice really.

[reikidan]

Please tell me what the Grey Haired Grumpy Buggers Club is. I am 59 years young and will be walking the Camino for the first time this April and May, 2009. It sounds like a club i should belong to,though i am not grumpy.
I practice reiki and will be willing to give reiki to people i meet along the way.
I am looking forward to the experience. I am an american living in northern germany at the present time.
Namaste
reikidan

[Covey]

It's an invitation only society for men of a certain age and closely aligned with the Bah Humbug I Hate Christmas Club!!

Members of both clubs can usually be spotted on Christmas Eve at around 3pm wandering around the shops doing their Christmas shopping, and trying to look as they are enjoying the prospect of all the relatives eating and drinking us out of house and home for the next few days!

During non festive periods we have a dislike of anything to do with young people under the age of 21, rap music and in the case of the British Members, anything to do with the French!! (except the Presidents wife who looks a bit fit!).

We like looking at smart sexy ladies as long as they don't belong to us, as this ensures we have the pleasure, but not the expense.

[Covey]

PS....

We also don't like being called Sweetie as it implies that our days of romancing Da Ladies are finally over and we have been firmly been put back in the box labeled Bag Carrier and Odd Job Man.

As we arrive in our 60's we naturally believe that we are in our prime and that for the first time in our long and distinguished lives, we can actually afford to enjoy life for a bit, before the sun finally sets!!

We have suffered bringing up children for what seems for an eternity, suffered having our cars crashed by said children who are apparently never at fault in said write offs, and have suffered years of penury brought on by having to accept that all those loans (Dad, can you lend me ?100!!) are in fact outright gifts, never to be repaid. I had hoped that when my two sons finally left home (a strange concept to them!) I might actually be better off. No such luck!

However, when I am invited around to their homes for meals and festive occasions, I do feel at home surrounded by my possessions which they have looted over the years with the active connivance of their Mother!.

[irlandaamigo]

Yeah, I think I'm doing it without a guidebook, makes it a little uncertain and unpredictable...if I plan to the last then it becomes a formality and monotonous tbh.

[Covey]

A good plan! (or actually no plan which is even better)

You often see people who have planned every step, marked every building they wanted to look around, and even written a detailed daily plan, but my personal view is that they start missing the point of the Camino.

It is not a route march to be completed in set times, but a destination you arrive at in your own time, in your own way, and for your own reasons.

I have met pilgrims who have to walk 40kms a day to complete the Camino in the short time they have available, and others who just walk gently along, take a little siesta, a long lunch and maybe only do 12kms a day. I know which ones have the smile on their face at the end of the day!

Have fun!!

[irlandaamigo]

Being Irish, I plan to do around 25-35km a day, do it quick, and head to the pub for a few jars. Get all the pilgrims drunk, bring dem to the disco and have a laugh into the middle of the night, that will be my reason for doing the camino

You couldn't be more right when you say it's the destination and not a formal route.

[Covey]

I am sorry to advise that the party plan has a few holes in it!!

As for the dancing in the disco's you might have to substitute The Pilgrim Shuffle.

This is the ancient dance performed by pilgrims of all ages! Instead of your dancing shoes, you wear flip flops (any color permitted) and is usually performed on the stretch of road between the albergue and the pharmacy.

It is best done after your shower on arrival at the albergue and after you have contemplated the carnage on the soles of your feet. At this point you will have estimated the amount of bandage and Compeed necessary to carry you through the next day, and will join the painful line of pilgrims hobbling up the road to the pharmacy.

You will quickly learn that sitting down consuming beers is a double edged sword.

Cold beer tastes very good after a 25km wander through the countryside and after your second beer, you begin to feel that life is pretty good on the Camino. Even your legs and feet appear to have stopped hurting quite as much as they did, and you are beginning to think that maybe 30kms tomorrow is a good target.

It's when you leap to your feet that the problems begin. Whilst you have been relaxing in the sun with your cold beer chatting up Da Ladies, your body from the waist down has decided that it has finished moving for the day and all your muscles have tightened up and your feet are no longer flexible, and nothing wants to move! When it does move, the pain is worse than before you sat down!!

At this point you are ready to give a Master Class in The Camino Shuffle!

Have fun

ps. Walking at 7am with a hangover is not much fun!