Michelle and I first learned of the Camino in watching Emilio Estevez wonderful "The Way" https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1441912/
Inspired we were to eventually do some of the Camino ourselves. Michelle engaged in another 4 over 5 so as to have a planned sabbatical in 2025/2026. Interestingly Michelle's Mom and Dad, Donna and Mike wanted to see Spain for a 3rd time. They recommended we travel together with Senior Discovery Tours https://www.seniordiscoverytours.ca/ on a 1 month Costa del Sol based all inclusive. The trip started on March 5 at the end of the Spanish winter. The timing was perfect for a Camino journey for us after Mike and Donna fly back. We pulled the trigger on the Seniors tour in December. It might seem expensive at $7000 CAD per person for 1 month in Spain but I think door to door service, flight, insurance, tours and support are a bargain. Especially when it's full board with 1 free drink at lunch and dinner We paid less as we booked our own flights.
We both knew nothing about the Camino so we finally connected with Liz of Sojourn in Barrie https://sojournoutdoors.com/ Liz has done 9 Camino's and offers monthly Camino nights for free https://sojournoutdoors.com/pages/camino-information-nights
As Liz works for Sojourn as an expert hiker, she is well suited to advise on equipment. We contacted Liz for a 2 hour consultation at a Tim Hortons local to her. We were armed with many questions and learned so much. We also visited Sojourn for at least 3 Camino nights. It was soon we decided to do the El Camino del Norte departing from Irun Spain. Departing early April, it's cooler, less busy and quite beautiful. It's also 900 KM's with a gnarly day 1 over the Pyrenees.
We needed to find and acquire a bunch of stuff. I purchased most of the critical stuff from Sojourn with Liz's help. My Winter camping Merino wool warm layers were helpful to already have. Michelle had acquired a bunch of items on Amazon for her Peru trip. The quality was great especially considering the price. I purchased some pants, wicking shirts and other non critical items on Amazon. Liz advised your backpack and contents should weigh no more than 10 percent of your body weight. This 10 percent rule required finding lighter power banks, power plugs, headlamps, sleeping bag ... I'll include a picture of our current stash below.
We did need to book a flight from Malaga to Irun. That was easy. We did need to lose 1 day with departing our Seniors Tours trip getting a much cheaper Thursday flight. A quick Airbnb search on Irun for a few nights found nothing affordable. Thankfully France is a short walk away and plenty of places are there. I booked 3 nights to give us time to explore and prep before our Camino started. We would still need to book our return transportation from Santiago to Malaga but that can wait until a solution presents itself.
Our last few days in Canada involved a little running around, preparing Airtags, weighing, packing and repacking. As the first part of our journey was vacation, I decided to bring some extra stuff that would not travel on the Camino. These items need to make it home or be stored. That's another solution waiting to happen.
Our KLM trip to Malaga departed at 21:15 EST. We decided to depart Dudley at 04:30 PM which would give us plenty of time to chill. Once last chance to rethink the extras, do the final pack and walk out the door. My Dad drove us to the airport. I showed him the Viscount station pickup area for convenience and we said goodbye for 3 months. I hope he is not too lonely and chooses to reach out the friends while we are away.
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Here's Michelle's Pile. Wow, way better than me
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Love it! Can't wait to see more. :)
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