First timer's tips

Increasingly I've been getting asked about the camino and first timers tips. People ask about fitness levels, hiking gear, accomodation, money, less seem to ask about hydration. My single biggest message would be pack light. My 2nd tip would be to learn to hydrate. This is more important in my opinion than doing 10km walks. Learn to put fluid into your body. The most important thing is to be able to think straight when you're tired. Hydration is critical to the functioning of the hiking pellegrino brain cells. The camino is a stroll. Its not a race but for many your first few days will feel like a race. You'll rush into town, rush up to a bar demanding a cafe con leche or a cerveza before hearing those magic irritating words "Tranquillo!" You'll laugh like a drain 3 weeks later walking into Hospital de Orbigo and you see someone rushing past you to the bar, clearly they've just joined the camino. In the spirit of the camino, you'll chuckle. You'll put your bag down, you'll look around to see where the toilets are, see if there's a cello (stamp) on the bar and then glide up alongside your new friend. They'll look at you unabashed at jumping the unformed queue and express "this camino is just magical, spiritual amazing." You'll smile and say buen camino!" mumbling under your chuckling breath, 'watch the traffic, some of us have sticks'. I think the big difference the camino made for me was realising how precious time had become to people and how the percieved lack of time crushed them. If you think 1/3 of your life is sleeping and you have a fear of missing out, I can see the pressure to rush around, but it is that rushing around that has us miss out. Its not just an age thing, I think its a cognitive thing. Eventually we realise we are that grain of sand. Since the 60's there's been the development of the cult of the personaility. We give top pop or sports stars more air time than heads of state or religions. I dont think this is right or wrong, I just think its the development of the cult where we as a species are encouraged to believe we should look up to not across to, a superior member of our species. A surgeon is less likely to be given that cult status than a Tiger Woods and yet I know who's opinion I'd value more, unless of course, I was looking for a line on a putt.

This is one of the many million different thoughts I've had on the camino. My brain slides off into the way the Roman and Moorish management of water created a rich and fertile land to the thought that Edwyn Collins had a great song in "Rip it up (and start again". I'll sing songs like "Little Boxes" and change the words to little vineyards, then I'll invent some nonsense gadget that would be very handy for hanging up washing, or picture myself with a set of fishing rods with my clothes on the other end getting a rinse in some fast flowing river. I can just see the trout jumping out as the smell of pellegrino socks permeated their rock pool. My mind gets a proper housekeeping on the camino and its why I go back season after season, year after year.

I pack light. I carry everything from town to town as I like the flexibility. Some people carry loads and swiftly learn how to send their pack to their planned lodgings. This has the benefit of knowing where your going to and it enables you to have a day pack of snacks or even souvenirs as you pass through the albergues and bars with their ticky tacky wares. As I mentioned before hydration is key. It helps you avoid some of the stresses associated with walking the camino, not least blisters. People talk about blisters a lot and yet I dont suffer from them very often. I think hydration solves everything but in truth it does ameliorate the blister count. I think that's the right word. I'm basically aware that people can get blisters and hydration reduces the likelihood. A bit like when I stopped smoking. IT wont prevent me getting lung cancer, but it sure will help the emphesema. Thats why my biggest tip before going out is to learn to drink more water. It is best you learn how a camel works as well. You also need to learn my 2nd water tip. Its a mantra of mine. We are not horses in the Grand National having to carry extra weight, we are pilgrims on a stroll. Do not crarry water into town, drink it while you are walking. Carry water out of town always and drink it while you are walking. If there is 3km to the next town you should be able to drink 1-3litres. I try to work on 1 litre per kilometre for the first 10km and then just listen to what I need. For many people that will seem a lot but it is cool water in and warm water out. A lovely cleansing and in my case probably detox, so if you only do 1 pint per km that'll do but the idea of nothing is nonsensical to me. It's now 15 years since that first step out into the wilderness. It felt like an adventure and it was. We had no idea what to do apart from walk, follow the amarillo fleschas, aka, the yellow arrows and arrive at our chosen destination. I had no idea we could change our destination. I had no idea as it hadn't dawned on me that the plan could be flexible. We were bringing a fixed mission from home into a wilderness we knew nothing about. We had one plan which was to buy what we needed on day 3 in Pamplona. It seemed like an eternity if we forgot something, we were so paranoid about perceived necesseties its so hysterically funny thinking back. Its why I still chuckle now at all these memories. I didn't realise half of the world I was missing and I've definitely gone off grid, relatively speaking since that first camino. My opinion of work changed dramatically and also my role in trying to keep the economy going. My ambition to pay £1m in income tax in my life was replaced with, £500,000 seems plenty. I retired 2 years after that first camino and at age 46 started doing more voluntary stuff and more caminos. 2011 saw the first one on this website and it was all about smelling the roses. I had become evangelical about the benefits of the camino and the general lifestyle of the pilgrim. Its a bit of a shift from the world of finance and a welcome relief from shuffling, or even shovelling money into various silos. I had spent 25 years trying to make the city a bit more honest, but to be fair they weren't that interested. It was clearly me who was out of step and when I walked the camino I was perfectly in step. At 46 I realised I didn't need to make my life about pushing a snowball up a mountain on a sunny day! I could just sit with a cup and enjoy it in the valley.