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Walking with grandmother gear plan

D

debra

Active Member
Time of past OR future Camino
VdlP 2010, Frances 2010
Via Francigena 2014 bicigrino
Way of St. Francis 2017 bicigrino
Hello

I am planning on walking with 84 grandmother. She has had both shoulders replaced in last 5 years. We plan on walking between 7 May and 17 June 2018. We plan on walking the Camino Frances route at 10-15 KM starting Burgos a day with bus for hills, rain days and other problem days. Planned 25-28 walking days.

Will you please look at gear list and carry plan with suggestions?

Grandma carry

2 water bottles
Camera
Medicine (diabetic and take about ten pills a day at home)
Rain poncho
ID and wallet
Use walking sticks daily

Debra carry
All other items

Grandma gear list
2 or 3 sets clothing
1 nightclothes
1 light jacket/sweater
1 walking shoes
1 shower shoes
1 rain poncho
Camera
Sheet/light blanket
2 water bottles
Walking sticks
towel
Medicine

Debra gear list
2 skirts, 2 shirts, 1 leggings, 3 sets underwear 4 pairs socks
1 light jacket/sweater
1 walking shoes
1 shower shoes
1 rain poncho
Camera
Sheet/light blanket
2 water bottles
Walking sticks
towel
1 knife
2 spoons
1 shared set of shower goods
ipad
travel Spanish guide
8 wooden clothespins

Please note one set clothing to be wore at all times

Debra owns a nice 50L hiking backpack to be used on trip

Grandma looking at buying Osprey Tempest 6L Waistpack-Women see image

Do you have a better suggest?
 
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1 water bottle + water weighs less than 2 bottles with the same amount of water.
Diaper pins are lighter than wooden clothes pins and useful for other things.
If all the socks are the same you may find that you get by fine with 3 pairs but if some are liners the story is different.
 
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MinaKamina said:
Hi Debra, why not let Jacotrans transport your combined luggage and carry only a daypack?
Click to expand...


May great fear from my past camino is that every day we may not walk the planned distance and I have not want to be looking for the pack by walking forward and then back or trying to carry a daypack and main pack forward as we want to walk more. I in way want grandma to be trying to walk farther then she wants because the pack is then.

IF two many pairs of sock I can toss some.
 


Hi Debra, I think I could relate to this if an albergue would magically appear at any moment that you would want to stop. And no doubt, sometimes this will happen. But usually, the albergue will not come to you, you will have to go there. Or stop before you want to, because the next hostal is too far. So your planning will depend on the albergues too. And somehow you will have to find a middle ground.
The freedom to stop when you want is only relative, and I would swap some of it readily to get the weight of my back.

I'd leave the two cameras at home, plus the I-pad and take a mobile phone instead.
 
I have no clue if it works better than it did in 2010 when I last walked and tried the bag services which was a total disaster for non spanish literate, very hard time in finding bags walking up to 4km trying to find the bags and alberages bags sent to never had beds close to Santiago. The only non spanish literate were people that had prepaid for the service to Santiago. I have high hopes the baggage service is better but need to see it with my own eyes.

I know went I walked before the ability to walk as wanted was a major benefit of the France route over the Via del la Plata, which was used a lot mostly with alberages avery 2KM to 5KM.
 
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I used the jacotrans and other bag transport services on the CF stages we walked in 2015/16 Burgos Leon Santiago Finisterra. All absolutely fine, hospitaleros always willing to help with this.
I suggest you book accommodation ahead but on a day to day basis , again ask for assistance . If your grandma can't walk the distance use a taxi or bus.
 
Debra
You've walked before so you know what you can manage. I speak now as someone who carried 85yo Grandpa's gear so that he could walk last year (actually, he's my father-in-law, my kids' grandpa - and the kids helped carry some of his stuff so I didn't have it all)
I understand your reasons for preferring to carry it all with you (and perhaps the fact that it's cheaper) - they were our reasons and turned out to be well-founded.
I would recommend:
* lighten the load where you can (as suggested, pins instead of pegs, ditch the ipad and camera - I compromise by taking a teeny foldout keyboard that allows me to type with my phone....Grandma might even consent to sleeping in daytime clothes as a help - our Grandpa took *two* pairs of PJs the first time we walked - and none last year!)
*train with the extra weight in your pack to get used to it - and work on core strength!
 
I have thought on the thought of using the bag forward services as I see from other post that what I ran into in 2010 is no longer the case on how it is done.

Can am one tell me about jacotrans, Correos and others, both pros and cons for each.
 
Let us pick up your suitcase once you arrive in Europe....
...and ship it to Santiago for storage. You pick it up once in Santiago. Service offered by Casa Ivar (we use DHL for transportation).
Jacotrans good for us. We also used others if recommended by hospitaleros but I can't tell you the names. Honestly on the CF I really don't see that you'd have problems.
I don't speak Spanish.
 
Hi Debra
I have walked the Camino Francés with my mother twice, she was 79 the first time and almost 82 the second. We used pack transport services both times, and they really made all the difference. She could not have carried all her own gear and I could not have carried hers as well as mine. We used Jacotrans the first time and Correos the second and both were great. Correos worked out much cheaper for us because they have a different pricing system which happens to advantage slow walkers like us if you book a few days ahead as we did. But it's also very easy to use them day by day as with Jacotrans, and we had zero problems with either company. You only need to know where you'll stay the next night, and as others have said I think you'll find it quite easy to decide a day or two ahead where you want to stop - you will get to know how far you and your grandmother can/want to walk each day, and will want to check that there is somewhere you can stay that is roughly at that distance. I think a lot more albergues as well as other types of accommodation have opened since 2010, so you have more options. In our experience, just based on our preferences and physical limitations, it was better to walk slightly shorter days than we probably could have managed, than to push on to our limit and possibly overdo. But either way, the transport services enabled my mother to walk the Camino, simple as that.

Buen Camino to you both!
 
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