2 weeks to go to my big solo adventure and starting to lose my nerve!

[Twodogsonthecouch]

My brother died very suddenly in his early 40’s 12 years ago. Before he died he had done a number of long solo walking holidays including the Camino from St Jean Pied de Pont to Santiago, so 500 miles.
Ever since it has been my dream to do the same route.
Now I’m 58. My youngest child is in University. I am a partner in work and have very supportive colleagues who will work up while I’m away so on a whim a few weeks ago I decided to go for it. I have booked a single ticket to fly to Biarritz after Easter and have told work I will be gone for 8 weeks. Im going by myself and planning to carry a backpack and wing it because I don’t want to commit to a particular distance each day. I have various friends and family who are coming to join me wherever I am at different times so it should be fantastic and I am very excited.
I’m also getting a bit terrified though. Mainly about the walking. I’m reasonably fit and have done a few 16-18 km hill walks in the past few weeks to prepare but I’m overweight and have menopausal aches and pains and scared I will not be able for it. I have allowed myself an extra 2 weeks to the usual but that still means an average of 15km daily for 8 weeks. I’m telling myself that I will get fitter as I walk.
Am I mad? Reassurance needed 🤯

Huge congratulations on finishing! Inspiring.

Coincidentally my son has just been to Santiago and saw lots of people finishing the Camino at the weekend.

Ok say chilling out at the airport so will try and answer some questions.

@BishyBarnyBee specific questions

-creaming and taping feet: Vaseline morning and night including in between toes as a preventative measure. I wasn’t clued in until I had bad blisters but the advice is to stop immediately if you feel a hot spot and cover it with gauze and strap up with moleskin tape. If you use compeed (and I used loads) do NOT pull it off or it will de roof the blister and you will be in trouble.
lace up your shoes very carefully from the bottom up so that your feet move as little as possible in your shoes. Take off your shoes and socks if possible at each rest to let them cool down

• leggings, I had three pairs, depending on the weather. One full length, one 3/4 length (wore these the most) and one short, cycling shorts length.
• pretty much used everything I had. Bought trekking sandals which I wore a lot to change my shoes and reduce pressure points.
• not sure what I want to do next. Mainly I think to keep hold of what I learned and to believe that I am capable of much more than I think, both physically and mentally, so if I have something I want to do to look at how I can do it and not let it drift
• tge pilgrimage aspect meant a lot to me, much more that I thought it would. I’m not religious or even particularly spiritual but it certainly for me was much more than a physical test or holiday. Perseverance even when it was tough, sleeping in different places every night, communal living, meeting really interesting people, all these aspects really became a special part of it.
• it actually really puts me off doing another because I don’t know if I could ever recreate it

@Higgeldypickeldy top tips for the Camino Frances (because that’s all I know 😀)

the best advice I got was to walk my own Camino. That means not listening to too much “chatter”. There’s a lot of different ways to do it and everyone has to do it the way that works for them. My advice would depend on how long you want to walk for and how important the Compostela is to you. If you only have a week and want a Compostela you have to walk the last 100km and on the Francés that means starting at Sarria. If you do that I would say don’t start at a weekend (all the big groups do so much busier) and book your own accommodation off stage where again you will be either before or after the crowds. There’s lots of lovely Albergue’s in this part away from the main stops and it can still be lovely.
if you’re not too fussed about a Compostela do a different stage. My favourite was Navarre, so st Jean to past Pamplona, or the mountains past Leon into Galicia.
Personally I would strongly advise not going with a company. You will have much more flexibility to learn your own distance, you’ll meet new people all the time so you’re not stuck with the same people every day and you will meet up again and again with people you met earlier and have lovely mini reunions.
The biggest thing though is don’t over think it. Don’t listen to the horror stories about bedbugs and crowds and accommodation shortages. None of that happened to me

@Twodogsonthecouch thank you! Great, informative answers. I've been a bit put off by some of the stuff I've read on line, but following your journey has been very reassuring - it feels daunting but possible, which I guess is where you started out 7 weeks ago. I hope to follow in your footsteps next spring. Thanks for sharing your journey so honestly and generously.

Thank you @Twodogsonthecouch! This is great, thanks for sharing. Hope you got home safely.

@Twodogsonthecouch I don't even know you and I'm so proud of you. This has been so heartwarming to follow - you are amazing and I'm absolutely sure many of us will do things in our future that have been inspired by this thread. Thank you!

@TheBossOfMe thanks so much for those lovely words and I love that this thread has been followed by so many and that it might give others the confidence it gave me to just do it.
I really, really am not amazing though, you would not believe how ordinary I am, maybe quite stubborn, but other than that very ordinary. So the really inspiring thing is that a very ordinary person can do it, or do a lot of other things we might think are too much for us. ❤️

Love that!