walking with a toddler

[nicola]

Hi,

I did the Camino Frances with my baby on my back last year. Lo & behold, he has now grown & continuing to do so. I'm thinking, with some freinds of doing the via de la plata next Spring 2011. My lil boy will be nearly 3. Any hints ideas greatly welcomed - maybe a donkey / mule/ cart may be needed, I'm unsure. Please advise if you've walked with a toddler - any pre camino prep? how long will they walk for on their feet? how did you carry them? ANY advice welcome! Big thanks in advance

[Sil]

Nicola, I have put a page on my blog called 'Suffer the little Children' which is about walking with children. (Thank you for your contribution!) If you would like to get in touch with any of the people mentioned on the blog let me know.
Happy planning!
Sil

[Covey]

El Burro mmm............ An extract from my son's Camino diary of 5 years ago.

When I eventually got to the refugio, I was actually hoping to go on further as I was feeling "Strong like a Bull!" and we had only covered 20 kms. Unfortunately, my 2 travelling companions had run themselves into the ground by covering the 20 kms in 3? hours and had collapsed in the dormitory. I was forced to hang up my stuff and contemplate an evening in Hicksville whilst they slept like babies after a long day out. On the Camino, the old adage of the tortoise and the hare really does apply and, tomorrow, if they burn themselves out again, I will go on alone - I want to make sure I am out of the mountains and only 100 kms from Santiago when my father arrives.

The one good thing about staying here is the fact that I saw my first "burro" on the trail. Burro is donkey in Spanish and a French couple had been conned into purchasing a very shaggy and unco-operative specimen in Leon 2 days before. As I sat nursing another coffee, they appeared round the corner, red faced and exhausted,
followed by Spain?s most mangy beast! For sheer comedy value, it was priceless to see these 2 middle-aged Parisians trying to drive this obstinate animal up the pathway. The problem, as it transpired, was that the donkey refused to walk through shadows - a bit of a dilemma when you are walking in the middle of the day on tree-lined pathways. My suspicion is that the novelty of el burro is fast wearing off for these 2 intrepid travellers, and the afore-mentioned beast will probably be found munching its way through some Spanish senora?s vegetable garden, abandoned, before another week is through!

Horses tend to do as they are commanded. Donkeys are very different.

[geraldkelly]

I met a guy in France who was walking with a donkey, not for any practical reason, the donkey was his pet and he liked to bring it with him on the Camino. He told us he even goes to the supermarket on it at times.

Anyway, this donkey was a grand animal, placid and easy going, no biting, no kicking, great with kids, etc. There was only one small problem: he wouldn't cross water.

So he would refuse to cross any kind of a stream, or even a puddle on the road. If there was a small bridge he could usually, using some fairly sophisticated distraction techniques his owner had worked out from long and bitter experience, be coaxed across it. But any standing water was a no-no. When he came to a stream he'd just stop and that was it. In the absence of some kind of heavy lifting equipment, there wasn't a hope in hell of getting him to move.

His owner explained this by saying that when he sees water he just thinks it's a sheer drop.

I don't know about that. I have the impression that donkeys are pretty smart animals. Smart and lazy. They would much prefer to be just left in their field with a couple of other donkeys for company. So, in order to discourage their owner from taking them on walkabout, they come up with some psychosis or neurosis (water, shadows, electricity lines, etc) designed to make life on the road difficult to the point that their owner will seriously consider leaving them at home next time.

That said, last year near Jaca I met a French family who were walking with two donkeys and a dog - as well as their two kids. They got on fine, they had already come from Brittany. So it is possible.

I think the best advice if you're thinking of buying a donkey is to treat it like buying a car and take it for a test drive. Then ask the owner a lot of questions and listen carefully to what they say and how they say it.

A donkey that won't cross streams on the Via de la Plata is not worth having.

Ger

[Covey]

I read an interesting book written by a journalist who bought a donkey near St Jean to walk the Camino Frances. I think it was called Travels with a Donkey or something similar.

I thought the best bit was the fact that you had the pleasure of buying the donkey in France, at which point one was probably not too concerned with the "what happens when I get to Santiago" bit. The reality was that you were able to hand back the beast when you got to Santiago FOR FREE whereupon the purveyor of donkeys transported the beast back to France, no doubt to repeat the process all over again. Nice business if you can get it!!

I am told that horses and donkeys are hard work on the Camino Frances, mainly due to the fact that all the land is owned by someone, whose permission you need to camp and graze your horse. In 2008 on the day after I arrived in Santiago, a group of 10 riders arrived outside the Cathedral having completed their Camino. It looked very picturesque, or it did until the staff in the Council offices rushed out to complain about the amount of manure being deposited on the square and the police asked them to go.!!

At least us baggage mules don't usually have that problem!!