Clothes Labelling

Much to Hannah's amusement/bafflement, I decided to label my clothes before we head off. My reasoning is that given we'll be washing & drying them along with a dozen other people with similar hiking clothes, it'll probably help avoid someone accidentally grabbing some of mine.

I've learned a good lesson in the process:

Never label your clothes at night while watching a movie after a glass or two of wine.

It leads to labelling your name on the outside of some of your clothes.

Wee and me

So. Let's get it out there straight away. Urination. This post is about urination. Not in general and not conceptually - me, very personally, and my urination. Look away if you'd like to. I'll try to make my next post low on squeamishness.

When it comes to wee, boys have a level of physical freedom that us girls have simply had to come to terms with. It's not that we want to be boys; it's just a natural yearning to be unencumbered, devil-may-care; to roam long and far in any earthly direction without having that little bean of an idea tucked away in the back of your mind. You know the one. It's thinking, "I'm going to have to go to the bathroom at some point...and that means my pants at my ankles and my bare bot a few centimeters from a melee of animals, rotting plants and dung.

A couple weeks ago I became reacquainted with a thing called the WhizBiz. I'd heard of this some years ago, pre-Camino, when it was being marketed as a solution to really long toilet queues at music festivals. It's a ladies' wee aid, a device that allows a woman to wee whilst standing. It looks kind of like a specially adapted funnel:


It's hydrophobic, meaning liquid does not like being on it. It's antibacterial, meaning it is not an inviting place for bacteria to stay and breed. It's good to give it a rinse after use, but it's not necessary after every use. Just give it a flick and pop it in a ziploc bag.

This morning, I took my first real wee standing up. It didn't run down my legs. The lily (the wide mouth) didn't overflow. It felt perfectly comfortable. And the thought of free peeing was deeply, inexplicably exhilirating.

The Way: Camino De Santiago

There's a documentary video we've found really handy over the last few months called The Way: Camino Do Santiago. It's by a Victorian guy called Mark Shea, and it's a great insight into what to expect. He did it by himself, so it's a much more realistic insight than some of the travel documentaries where you know the presenter had a full support crew to carry their gear and bail them out of trouble.

There's a few reasons I found it so handy.

I think the Camino is a difficult thing to explain to people verbally. Saying "We're walking 800kms in about 5 weeks across Spain" just doesn't seem to do it justice. Showing Mark's video to family & friends has given everyone a better understanding of what we're undertaking and the physical & mental scale of it. It's interesting watching the evolution of the documentary as time goes by, especially seeing him become more comfortable in front of the camera.

From the point of view of someone about to walk the Camino, it was also handy from a practical point of view. Seeing what happens to someone's knees & ankles when they realise they've brought way too much gear has made us very weight concious (Mark had a 10kg pack plus 8kg of camera gear... the recommended total weight is 10kg). It also gave us an idea of what to expect in terms of people, walking terrain and sleeping accommodation.

I'll stop here incase this starts sounding like an advert. :-)

Here's the link to the video with a few short preview clips:

http://www.overlander.tv/camino/

And an interview with the filmmaker is here.

Rocket Man

Well, it's official. We now look like rocketmen.

During the last trip we discovered that we couldn't attach the walking poles to the backpacks without needing to assist each other -- the attachment points were right in the middle of the back. The guys at Backpacking Light (the place we've bought 90% of our gear) told us about quivers that could be attached to either side of our packs. With the poles stashed away, we both now look like Rocketman (or Rocketpeople to be PC).

We headed out to Bunyip State Park on Saturday, carrying the full packs (~10kg each). Here's the approximate route we walked. Once again we had a few map issues. We took the map from Parks Victoria, but found that it was no longer accurate (some trails closed long ago for revegetation, some tracks renamed, etc). The Parks Victoria map bears little resemblance to the GoogleMaps equivalent. Meh, it's all part of the adventure. :-)

A few highlights: meeting Enid Echidna; climbing over a massive fallen tree; walking for hours without seeing anyone (seems to be a common theme on the tracks we're taking); guessing how out of date & inaccurate the map was; waking at 4am to rub Tigerbalm into our knees.

Yesterday we headed out for a few hours of relaxed riding with Hong & Vy. It was good to get back on the bikes again, especially since we spent more time eating icecream than we did peddling.

Sweet Jacket Love

Last night we were half way through watching Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (one of my alltime faves), and we heard the sweet sound of heavy rain. We've been hanging out to try the new gear, so rushed out into the rain for a walk around the lake wearing only t-shirts and shorts, along with our new jackets and shoes.

OMG I'm so happy with them. :-D The jacket kept us warm & dry through the rain, and the shoes didn't let any water through. Once the rain had stopped, I deliberately sought out the deepest puddles I could find, and waded straight through. Not a drop came through. Woot!

We've got an outside work BBQ today, and it's been raining throughout the night, so I've got a feeling we'll get to try them out again today. ;-)

* KA-CHING! *

That was a sound we kept on hearing as we went on a huge weekend of purchasing hiking gear. We've got all the major items sorted now: backpacks, sleeping bags, shoes, sandals, socks, rain/wind jackets, thermals tops, etc.

Our biggest dilemma was who to listen to for shoe/boot advice. Some retailers were obvious n00bs, while others had had a lot of experience and strongly recommended one way or another. Some recommended the ankle support boots provided; others recommended the lighter weight of shoes with a solid sole. Some recommended the water resistance Gore-Tex provides; others recommended cooler non-Gore-Tex footwear. Nobody recommended leather. A mountain of discarded footwear later, we finally settled on some light weight water resistant Raichle hiking shoes.

We then got so sweeeeeet Montane jackets (our most expensive purchases to date). Now we're just waiting for some suitably shit weather to try them out in.

Oh, I'm mainly just naming the items we bought as a reference point for anybody else doing the same type of hiking.

We're supposed to stay well under 10kgs pack weight. Hannah is currently on 5kgs (including shoes & sandals); I'm on 6.7kgs (including shoes, sandals & DSLR camera gear). We've got the vast majority of our gear, it's mainly just toiletries we still need to include.

To try them out, we're heading up to the 1000 Steps in the Dandenongs on Saturday. I'm just hoping for some suitably shit weather. ;-)

A quick update

I can't believe it's been 3 months since we last wrote. Oops. So much has happened since then: we've been to Samoa & New Zealand; had shingles, the 'flu & various excercise injuries; and in the process have become the fittest we've ever been.

In the very first post I outlined a few things we'd need to do before the Camino, and we've made some great progress on some of those. As a summary:

• Get fit: we're averaging about 5kms every single day, and I'm putting in about an hour on the Wii Fit most mornings (if you ignore the trivial excercises, it's harder than it looks).
• Retire the car: for the most part, we've done this. A tank of petrol lasts a couple of weeks now. We're lucky enough to live within walking range of work & Fitzroy St.
• Learn Spanish: we did a 10 week beginner course with Tres Culturas Spanish, and we're half way through another 10 weeks of intermediate. If anyone is thinking of learning Spanish, I can highly recommend Luis!
• Research/buy the hiking gear: We got our lightweight backpacks and sleeping bags a few months ago, and still need to get the books and everything else. There's still quite a few months to go, but we'll make the boots a high priority.

Incase you're still reading, I'll put a few more stories in.

We were originally planning on doing the Camino when our lease expired in November. We've bumped it back by a few months and will now be heading over some time in April. There's a few reasons for this, but the main ones are that it'll save us from walking in mid-winter, and that we'll be able to save a few more dollars beforehand. Hopefully the Aussie dollar will be stronger by then too.

The first night that I had the Nintendo Wii, I played Wii Boxing for about half an hour. OMG! It was days before I could use my arm again! Hannah played it the following week, and ZOMFG I hope she never hits me! Those long arms can swing from a mile away, and her battle face is terrible to behold. After 10 minutes of frenzied mayhem, it was days before she could use her arm again. :D

We're absolutely loving living right next to Albert Park lake. We walk out the door, cross the road, and we're on the water. We're walking around it (~5kms) almost every day, and over the last month or two we've been watching the swans & ducks looking after their bambinos. They're soooo cute and fluffy, and they grow soooooo quickly.

I've named some of the ducks Red Curry and Twice Cooked. I'm yet to find a good recipe for the swans, but I've started feeding them spiced bread in the hope of having them pre-stuffed when we're ready to eat 'em.

Well, that's enough for now. We're off around the lake. Gotta spice the swans. :-)

Bag Of Holding

OK, we've got our bag of holding sorted out. We'd initially been looking at the Macpac Utopia but, while it was a damn nice bag, it was just too heavy for what we needed. We're aiming to carry around 9kgs in total, and the Utopia was well over 4kgs by itself.

We've gone with the Aarn Featherlite Freedom, at 1.8kgs (including two front balance packs). If you're into long-distance hiking, these packs are well worth looking into. We've loaded them up once or twice with weights and they're really comfortable. The balance packs are waaaay cool -- instead of a single back that clips to your chest, this pair of packs clip to either side of your chest so you can see where you're placing your feet. These guys have thought of everything!

We've also got the sleeping bag situation sorted. The Western Mountaineering Summerlite is supposed to be able to handle 0 degree temperatures... something I hope we don't have to test! Brrrrr!!!

Backpack Shopping!

One of the most important things we'll need is a really good backpack. We'll be carrying everything we need on our backs for 800kms, so our choice could make or break our trip. Both of us are similar heights (6' and over) with a reasonable degree of strength, so we'll have very similar requirements and will probably both get exactly the same type of pack.

On our extensive research of *cough* one morning's shopping, our favourite so far is the hybrid Macpac Utopia (circa AU$500). Of all the packs we tried, it seemed the most comfortable & sturdy, with numerous compartments and attachment points for hanging stuff from.

We had a look at the Kathmandu range (here and here), but did not seem as impressed with the level of adjustability or overall quality of the packs. They do seem to be aiming at a slightly lower price range, and much shorter hikes, so it's not really comparing apples with apples.

In the quick look that we had, Mountain Designs seemed to have a similar range to Kathmandu.

So... we've looked at 3 or 4 shops from a selection of dozens (hundreds?). We've got a lot more research to do before making a selection.

I'd be interested to hear what other people think of Macpack/Kathmandu/Mountain Design's ranges. Does anyone know of any packpack shops that we absolutely must visit before making a final decision?

Camino De Santiago

Buen Camino!

In several months, Hannah & I will be walking the Camino De Santiago. I'll be posting more info about this in the coming months, but as a summary we'll be walking about 800kms across the north of Spain. This will be completely on foot, and is supposed to take around 5 weeks of walking between 25~30kms per day.

We also have a few friends that will be joining us for parts of the journey, so it'll be a wonderful experience spending time with them on such an adventure.

There's a few things we need to do beforehand:

• Get fit. This is a biggie, as I'm not exactly in tip-top condition. Hiking & walking while carrying heavy loads will probably constitute a large part of the training, but we're also going to retire the car as much as possible and build walking into our daily lifestyle.
  
• Research and purchase the most suitable gear to take. This would include backpacks, footwear (shoes/sandals), clothes for all conditions, walking poles, etc. We'll have to carry our gear the entire distance, so weight is very much an issue.
  
• Get tourist visas, and whatever other bureaucratic red tape we need. I've NFI what is involved.
  
• Learn at least some Spanish. I currently no hablo Español.
• Read everything I can about the topic and anything remotely associated with it.
• Research the best way of keeping my Nikon D80 charged up, and archiving photos to safe storage. (I've learned the hard way... don't assume people won't steal your stuff.)
• Learn how to sketch. I want to take time in between walking and siestas to sketch things along the route.

It seems like a pretty short list, right? What could posibly go wrong? X-D (Actually it'd be pointless if nothing went wrong. The whole point is to test ourselves.)

This blog will primarily be about our preparations for the Camino, and once we're there we'll be posting updates from the road.

Buen Camino!