August 1, 2017
By Ellie Smith
A little over a month to go… and all is booked for a new adventure hiking the Camino de Santiago Trail. Our flights, trains and first 2 nights accommodations on the trail are already taken care of.
The hard part will be hiking the 800 km or 500 miles over the Pyrenees Mountains and across Spain in 35 days.
Many thoughts are going through our minds. Can I do it? Will I get blisters? Did I buy the right shoes? Will I pack enough clothes? Will I pack too many clothes? Am I doing enough training? We think about these things everyday.
Our Camino group of 8 friends have been meeting once a month since the beginning of the year for dinner and a glass or two of wine. It is a time where we share our thoughts and information.
We have done all our research, reading previous pilgrims blogs of their journeys, and searching for packing lists which we discuss in great lengths.
We also review and plan our training for walks and hikes. Sometimes we do it together and sometimes we do it alone. We all motivate each other to get moving.
We are excited to meet people from many parts of the world. We are excited to take in the beautiful scenery and learn the Spanish customs and history, and maybe even learn a little bit of Spanish. We are excited to go!
We will all be wearing HD logo buffs as we hike together on this pilgrimage. We hope to promote HD and have people stop to talk and ask questions about Huntington disease.
We also have our personal reason for doing the Camino de Santiago. We all hope to keep an open mind and heart to feel freedom and friendship along the pilgrim path.