An update on where I am at for the long walk coming up fast. I leave here on 13 April for Paris, spend a day there with a friend and a couple of relatives, then by train to Bordeaux to stay overnight with friends whom I haven’t seen for about 20 years. The next day will be a long train ride to Le Puy, where I will spend another day, then meet with Karsten Moss, my young friend from Berlin with whom I walked the last two weeks of my pilgrimage to Santiago. And off we go.

My training has been going pretty well. I would like to have walked up more hills, but where I live that isn”t easy. In compensation, I have walked a lot of kilometers since last February – over 2500, to be more precise. Most of them I have walked with a backpack loaded to about 25 pounds, using two big jugs of water, more weight than I plan on actually carrying on the walk from Le Puy to Pamplona.  All of them I have walked with the boots I will be wearing. These are the same boots I wore four years ago, so they have stood up really well.

For foot comfort I am using little gel toe separators. There are two different kinds.  The narrow gel inserts fit in between the smaller toes.  There is also a  larger gel insert that can be lodged between the two larger toes. These have resolved my problem of friction between the toes, mostly due to bunions pushing my toes together and are worth every penny.

Once these are in place, I put on a very fine polypropylene sock designed to wick moisture away from the skin. Over that goes a good wool sock. Then on with the Lowa light hiker boot and that’s it for the feet.

Today it’s cold – about -10C and blustery, so my plan of walking 18 Km has been adjusted to be about 13 Km, starting in Carp and walking home. That way the wind will be behind me most of the way. And yes, I will be wearing my longjohns and my fleece and my winter Tilley hat. More soon.