restricted mobility - using walking aids/frames

[thea]

Hi there

Lots of people seem to have posted about not being as fit as they would like to be when they start their el Camino walk/pilgrimage but are there any past pilgrims reading who have undertaken the walk who use mobility aids (crutches/walking frames or wheelchairs ... or something else?) to get around???

Would be super interested to hear about your experience.

Thanks

[Covey]

I walked with a Canadian lady 2 years ago who had an artificial leg and she walked every step of the way from St Jean to Santiago.

I met a guy last year who was using a three wheeled buggy contraption which he pushed along and which helped him walk. He had been in a serious car crash and had smashed his pelvis and needed the help of the buggy.

The buggy looked rather like a supermarket trolley, and he placed his pack in it whilst walking. It had cycle brakes on the two rear wheels and the wheels were around 50cm diameter. It looked like a factory produced item, so I suspect they are available through specialist mobility shops.

[thea]

Oh further to this - just wanted to add, that I have since walked the last stage of the camino using a walker/rollator (and a crutch with me for backup too).

I did swap to the crutch for the time spent in Santiago dC, a city of cobblestones! And it was tricky in places, it got me lots of attention(!) and I cursed (not very pilgrim-y ) that rickety thing quite a lot (duct taped severely after day one) but no doubt about it, it was 'buen camino' and was a boon to overcome my fear about getting out and about for fear of being too wobbly.

A few pics here and lowdown here for anyone who fancies a glimpse of what it was like.

Hope to go back and do another section now.

buen camino

[Covey]

Your "walker" looks like a smaller version of the aid I saw a couple of years ago. His was larger and had three quite large wheels and his pack used to travel in the basket part of the contraption. All he needed was a couple of husky dogs and he would have been well away!!!

[thea]

wow. Hm, husky dogs now there's an idea!

Might have been the 4WD in walkers, the Trionic All Terrain Walker: all terrain but it's the $1000 price tag that I suspect is the steepest part (also comes in a golf version, who'dve guessed).

Mine was just bog-standard Made in China and a couple of hundred dollars - second hand ones available on ebay even cheaper.

(The Scandanavians tend to design a better product - easier to transport and better stability - and a price tag somewhere between the extremes of the two above.)

cheers

[Covey]

Last summer in Boadilla I saw a German couple and they had a strange contraption to carry their kit which was a mono wheel trailer which each of them pulled. They had a harness and the trailer bit had two poles which clipped on to their waist belt. It got the weight off their back and on long wide paths seemed fine, but I suspect it might have been more trouble than it was worth on the steep rocky paths