Tips
What to take to the Camino?
Backpack – 30/40 liters.
The most importante thing about backpacks is to have strong and cushioned support in the shoulders, hips and chest, which are possible to adjust to the body and, if possible, with a ventilation system in the back.
- the backpack shouldn’t weight more than 10% of the total pilgrim’s weight. If you weight 60 kilograms, the recommended weight of the backpack is 6 kilos.
- Due to the body not being used to the extra weight, that will be felt right on the first day of the Camino, on the hips, ankles, knees and back. However, throughout the days you will stop feeling the backpack and it will become a part of your body.
Individual belt bag or small bag (for the personal documents, pilgrim credential and money) which should always be with you, even in the bathroom and during the night.
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Waterproof poncho
- big enough to cover the body and the backpack, even if you have a backpack cover.
Sandals or slippers (NO flip flops)
- to put on after arriving to the Albergue so the feet can ventilate and rest; to use during the shower; to put on in case your walking shoes are hurting or tightening your feet, or if they are wet.
- they shouldn’t be flip flops, nor sandals with supports in between the fingers, because when walking the friction may cause blisters.
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Hat
– preferably with wide flaps to protect not only the head but also the face and behind the neck.
Sun cream
Footwear
- with a thick sole ( in order to not feel the ground).
- of na appropriate material according to the year’s seaon. ( ventilated in the summer and waterproof in the winter).
- with na adequate format to the foot.
- the feet cannot be tight inside the shoe – in length as well as in width – it will swell throughout the kilometers and it need space to grow.
- each feet have its format and need diferente supports. During the purchase of the footwear pay attention to where the foot lands and if it really is the right format and shoe. Buying an expensive footwear doesn’t make it the best for your feet.
This choice will have a strong (good or bad) impact in the body during the Camino, depending if i tis the right footwear for your feet or not.
3 changes of clothing
(1 dressed and 2 in the backpack) – easy drying clothes. When you finish showering, you dress the clothes you will be wearing in the next day and you sleep with it, so you won’t make noise, bother and wake up the other pilgrims on the next early morning.
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Small soap bar to wash the clothes in the sink, tank or lavatory.
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Rope (more or less 6 m) and pins (10) or clamps (10)
– when you arrive to the Albergue, you will shower and then wash the clothes of that day, but there isn’t always a drying rack available. The rope allows you to tie itu p between bunkbeds and you hang there your clothes during the night. What doesn’t dry during the night, you will hang outside the backpack with the pins and it will dry during the walk. (The pins are better than clamps as they close and don’t allow the clothes to fall during the walk)
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Warm and soft jacket
- to use at night or early morning, to use as a pillow and also to pad your shoulders and back if your backpack isn’t padded enough
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Socks
– padded, they must not have sewing and they should go above the ankle.
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Microfiber towel
– extra light weight, tiny and dries quickly
Sleeping bag (small so it doesn’t occupy a lot of space in the backpack)
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Hygiene products ( in small bottles)
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Small flashlight and reflective vest
– during the summer i tis recommended to start walking early to escape the high heat hours, this early is still dark sometimes, so it is important to protect you from traffic.
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First aid kit
– with patches/dressings, medication, pain killers, needle and thread for the blisters, and if you know how to administer, Voltaren vials and seringes.
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Plate and cutlery (in case the albergues don’t have)
Notes: Sanwiches, fruit (one or two pieces), nuts and small snacks for one day, water (small bottle – you fill it up during the Camino – people like to help pilgrims, you just need to knock at the door or fill it up in a fountain).
At the end of the afternoon or when arriving to the albergue, you buy in the supermarket the food for dinner and for the breakfast and lunch (sanwiches) of the next day. Not always is there restaurants and cafés nearby or you are too tired to look for it. When the albergues have an equipped kitchen (the most have) you can cook simple meals (pasta with tune, scrabbled eggs, omellette, pasta and sausages, etc). (There is always the option to cal a táxi and go have dinner in the nearest city), the contact numbers you can find in the light posts and also in the albergues.