The Camino Portuguese, My Way

 Here's the trailer from Dan Mullins' documentary ("Somewhere Along the Way").  Dan is the force behind the group, and I'm guessing I'll be walking with some of the people shown in this trailer. The Portuguese Camino...nightly concerts...new friends...Hawaiian night...Wim Hof.  Man, this is going to be something else! Somewhere Along The Way – Camino de Santiago Documentary Film Trailer

  OK, show of hands.  How many of you oldsters (roughly in my age group or so) can say they weigh the same or less as in high school?    (My hand goes up!)      Yep, I weighed myself yesterday and I'm a svelte 135.  That's probably close to what I was in those bygone years.  At one point (my 40s or 50s) I was in the 165 range.  That was pre-walking.  Walking got me around 155 to start, and I dropped another 10 or so.  Not that I'm trying.  I'd like to stay in the 140-145 range.  I think the recent weight loss came from trying to work on my A1c, which was borderline at 5.6.  It's a case of fix one thing, break another.  I lost about 5-7 lbs. and haven't gained it back.  I'm not Karen Carpenter-esque, thankfully.  And no way will I gain while I'm on the trail.  Even eating hearty pilgrim dinners, I won't gain weight walking 12-18 miles each day.  Go back a few posts to see my photo in ...

 I've been monitoring the fire situation in Portugal/Spain for almost three weeks.  Very hot, very dry and LOTS of fires.  Northern/Central Portugal, northern/northwestern Spain (including Galicia) are greatly affected.  Early in August the Portuguese government issued a proclamation closing off access to forest paths, which likely included parts of the Camino Portuguese.  In the last few days I've read of locations along the Camino Frances that I walked in 2019 that have been closed.  As of today you can't walk from Astorga to Ponferrada.  That's several days worth, including the Cruz de Ferro.  Casa Susi, an albergue in Trabadelo where I stayed, has posted pictures of the fire and smoke. I get information from different sites.  I try to follow any locals who are currently on the trail, like on the local APOC chapter's Facebook page.  Another good source of info is the Camino Forum.  There's a couple sites (Gronze for one) that sho...

 I'm 31 days out from departure after today.  Things are coming into focus.  I actually did a dry run on seeing how things fit into my pack a couple days ago.  Everything fits, with some work.  I'm not taking a sleeping bag, just the liner (what I call my "sleeping baguette").  With the temps I'm seeing there's no need for a sleeping bag.  The baguette worked last time, so I don't anticipate problems this time. I'm trying to monitor the fire situation in Portugal.  About 10 days ago the Portuguese government issued an order closing forest paths, which parts of the Camino Portuguese use.  Basically you couldn't access forest paths (among other places) through August 7 because of fires and the heat wave.  I haven't seen a lot of chatter or warnings on the Camino Forum bulletin board, which is usually a good source of information.  There's a few local peregrinos walking the Portuguese now, so I'm hoping they'll provide information....