On Our Way! (almost….)

We begin our journey tomorrow by flying from Detroit Metro to Porto Airport in Portugal via Newark. Hoping this trip out is a bit smoother than last year. I am pretty excited to get started, however a bit apprehensive for a couple of reasons. First, I have not done nearly the physical preparation I did before our Camino Frances. This is due to the second and most important reason I am a bit nervous is that I have bursitis in a tendon in my left hip which has still not healed completely. I am hoping that shorter walking days will allow me to ‘baby’ it enough to be able to complete the journey.

The good news is that given all the ‘junk’ I bought to prepare for the walk in 2025 I had very little need to purchase anything new for this one - with the exception of shoes (my others were pretty well worn after 400 plus miles). Opted for Brooks trail runners this time - lots of cushion and support. Much of the walk will be on pavement, boardwalks and beach side paths.

Given the state of my hip, I am not even going to try carrying my pack. I will use a day pack, and have a luggage service transport my other bag from hostel to hostel each day.

Lastly, significant change in my photo equipment this year. Leaving the Sony home (anyone want to buy a great used P/S Sony camera?? LOL) and instead taking my Canon R5 full frame DSLR along with one lens, some filters and extra batteries. My expectation is that scenery along the Atlantic for nearly 90 miles should result in some nice photo ops, and hopefully the full frame will compensate for my lack of photography skills. Fingers crossed. Will also bring my iPhone, DJI Action 4 for video and related tripods, selfie (or “Usies for you Ted Lasso fans…” sticks and remotes. We will see.

I hope you enjoy following along with us on our journey. We plan to post at least once a day, and this year given the expectation of more time at each destination due to shorter walking days, maybe some vlogs and video clips as well.

Thanks to all who support us along the way. It means a lot!.

Bom Camino!

Rich