What became of your plans?

domigee · Aug 23, 2016

This is written after reading Alex Walker's thread : 'A few tips for new pilgrims'....

It wasn't my first Camino. Still, I booked a hotel in SdC before leaving and my flight back. Just for 'peace of mind' I told myself. Fear, more like!

Ended up having to cancel one and change the other

Fortunately, that's as far as my planning went.

Did you find you had to make changes or did it all absolutely... go to plan?

SYates · Aug 23, 2016

This year I booked my flight back whilst still at home, arrived 10 days earlier then my last possible arrival date ;-) So I just enjoyed Santiago and Porto for a bit longer ;-) Buen Camino, SY

november_moon · Aug 23, 2016

domigee said:
Did you find you had to make changes or did it all absolutely... go to plan?

My first Camino didn't go according to plan. There was a family emergency at home about a week in, so that was the end of that. Switch gears, figure out how to get home as fast as possible.

My second Camino went absolutely 100% according to plan. The plan was to fly to Madrid, bus to Burgos, stay overnight and start walking the next day. The rest of the plan was to walk west to Santiago, arriving there about 3 weeks after arrival in Burgos. Then fly home. We did that

Bradypus · Aug 23, 2016

Plans? I try not to make any definite plans beyond the first night of any pilgrimage. So many things change without warning from day to day: small accidents, chance encounters, surprising sights. My fitness and motivation come and go like the tides. So I try to relax and just go with the flow. I know that for some people the uncertainty in that would be difficult but it seems to work for me.

Albertagirl · Aug 23, 2016

domigee said:
Did you find you had to make changes or did it all absolutely... go to plan?

On my first camino, I gave myself way too much time, to allow for rest days, side trips, sickness, sore feet etc. So I had to hang around in Santiago, Muxia and Finesterre until time for my return flight. But given that I could not predict my own walking pace nor change my return flight without great expense, I feel that I planned appropriately for my first camino. Next month I am going again: walking further and giving myself less time. But I am still going to have extra time. And I think that having time enough to walk my own pace and detour to Santo Domingo de Silos, Mazarife and Samos was a good idea for last year.

dougfitz · Aug 23, 2016

domigee said:
Did you find you had to make changes or did it all absolutely... go to plan?

In 2010, I walked with a friend who had a detailed day by day plan. He stuck with it, but it didn't work for me after the second day. He has now walked the CF and CP again, still sticking to his detailed plan. This year, I had a 'plan' that demonstrated the feasibility of the pattern we planning to use, but it was never something that I never expected to follow strictly, and didn't.

My view is that it is not the plan that is important, but that you have done your planning. It will give you the basic understanding that you need to be flexibly in your approach when the unexpected happens, you feel like walking a bit more, or a bit less, etc.

Telelama · Aug 24, 2016

For the Portuguese, we bought flights arriving and departing Lisbon. Not for a moment did we consider that getting back to Lisbon from Santiago would either take too much time or cost too much $. We "assumed" we could get a cheap flight or overnight train, like we could to Madrid. We started looking at it about four days from Santiago, only to realize it was going to take nearly an entire day to get to Lisbon. At least that was all we could find on our phone in the albergue at the end of a long day. It left us with too few days to walk to Finesterre. We had a GREAT time in Santiago with our new Camino friends though!

Things have a tendency to work out, just not as you might have thought they would.

Angie94 · Aug 24, 2016

My first camino was May/June of this year. I booked Orisson, Roncevalles, a room in Santiago and my flight back in advance. I arrived in Santiago 2 days early and just hung out until my flight was scheduled to leave. Having those 4 things prebooked helped me not to feel so anxious, even though it may have not been necessary.
www.angie-carter.com/camino

Wokabaut_Meri · Aug 24, 2016

On our Camino last year we booked fully flexible return flights from Australia, accommodation at our base in Bordeaux as well as SJPdP and our first Camino night at Orisson. We fully intended to carry our packs and 'wing it' all the Way to Santiago and then onto Finisterra.

All these plans went out the window on day 1 enroute to Orisson. Our walking compañero turned out to be totally unprepared and decided that she would not be carrying her backpack anymore. This meant that we had to book ahead each night for the courier service and that made a huge difference to how we walked.

Our focus on the Camino was to help an old friend achieve her dream. We had done some training walks together and spent many hours assisting her with buying and organising gear. It turns out that she ignored all that advice, undertrained and overloaded her pack.

As I discovered many months later, I also broke my foot helping our compañero over the Pyrenees. It was an odd injury and believing that it was just a twinge, I managed it but at a lot slower pace than usual. This had my distance estimations out for a while and made for some long days.

We all completed our Caminos and arrived at Santiago.

I agree with @dougfitz that you need to do your planning so that you have a reasonable overview of the Way but remain fully flexible in adapting to how your journey unfolds.

Christian Hiriart · Aug 24, 2016

I made reservation for Valcarlos for this September, not sure why but I did. The rest including St. Jean I'm in God good humour. My plan is no plan, I'll walk until I don't want to walk no more. Hopefully I will find a warm shower and a cold cerveza at the end of each day.

Donna Sch · Aug 24, 2016

I'm with Doug. I researched all the usual stages plus alternative stops for the VDLP because there are some tricky bits where you can end up with very long stretches interspersed with crazy short ones. And I also looked up all the recommended touristy things, foodie places in the area just in case there was anything amazing that I would regret not seeing. And that was the plan. To not have regrets. My first couple of nights in Sevilla were booked and my airfares home out of Paris and I wanted to get to SdC in time to see the fireworks on St James' Eve. I had to cover at least 20 km per day in order to make the flight home and I allowed for 3-4 rest days. Ended up using them in Merida, Salamanca, Galisteo and Ourense. Otherwise it was a case of winging it re accommodation although there were some refugios that I definitely did not want to miss.

SabsP · Aug 24, 2016

The First Camino : all new to me so I had a vague outline of how to walk/ where to stop etc... . But for my doing I was not getting freaky sticking to the " schedule "

Planning my second small Camino in 2012 , the Ingles , my dad died that spring so I did not walk but helped out my mum.
My third one in 2013 I walked part of the Ruta del Ebro and then Frances but my heart wasn't in it. So stopped. Had to take some buses back to my point of departure.
2014 , finally the Ingles where I got ill 15 k before reaching SdC and got there by taxi. Three days rest in a nice private hostel.
2015 and the Portugues : still did my research but it was only in the back of my mind....That was really my most relaxed Camino....everything felt in place : the road itself, the lovely people,... .
This year : the awful bombings at Brussels airport and no flights ment that I had to fly somewhere else from Santiago. So instead of Brussels , it became Lille in France. But that was just a luxurious problem because my heart went out to everyone affected while I was away walking.