Liz started the conversation with an appealing walk, lose some weight and sample the great tapas and wine Spain has to offer. It sounded like a great way to see and enjoy the local Spanish life and find some physical benefits as well. She had a wealth of information to enlighten me on the walk. Sounded great! My husband was very supportive but I knew this wasn’t the great holiday I had promised him. I suggested with his bad knees he follow us by bus. Torn between wants……..You only have so many years you could physically do this and Tauno was so understanding of this and encouraged me. Then reality hit…….I needed to pack everything in a backpack and try and keep the pack around 17lbs. Then you had to walk about 20km per day sometimes uphill. My feet might be a problem as I tend to overheat and get blisters between my toes. Shoes and socks became my focus to the point of obsession. I have been ordering socks over the Internet like crazy and testing them all out. Tauno thinks I am obsessive as packages seem to arrive every 2nd day. I’m happy to say I think I have settled on toe socks.
I have been a pretty outdoors kind of person. Camping was definitely part of my upbringing but I had never actually “backpacked” . So here I was in my 60’s now finally buying my first backpack and endeavoring to fill it and hit the trail.
Having a sister with so much information on what to bring, what to expect, and what some of the issues are is both helpful and frightening……I have learned to fear bedbugs and tried to wage a defense against them with products that are pretty frightening in themselves. Time will tell.
One thing I have had a problem with is actually packing. I know last year Liz did show us an organized table of all her items to be packed. I unfortunately do not have those same organizational skills. My table looks a bit more chaotic . I also have an aversion to actually putting anything into the pack as I feel that commits me to taking or not taking those items. 17 lbs is pretty limited……….I have certain medical requirements and I need to take TUMS as a calcium supplement. The number of TUMS I have to pack amounts to about a 1/2 pound!! I can’t seem to get under 18lb but at least I know as the days go by I will have fewer and fewer TUMS ( about 10 grams per day).
One thing I know….. Liz and I have been “doing” various tasks/projects together since we were toddlers so we will toddle through this too.
Liz Hammond-Kaarremaa 