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Today was a little chilly and windy. The Albergue was in a very old castle, and it was closed on multiple sides for the night. It took me a long while to walk around and find the way out to get on the Camino. Once I was on the path, I was hit with a steep climb as I was getting my bearings for the day. Also, during the process of getting ready to head out, I heard pilgrims getting a little bit testy with each other because somebody's alarm went off waking others up, a slightl

This journey of 25-mile distance with a 2,100 feet climb was my plan today and I was starting a bit later than usual, at 5:45am. Cirueña has many thousands of fancy looking apartments and most seemed empty and forlorn. I later discovered that Cirueña has many golf courses and people come in better weather to stay there and to play golf. As I left, I took a picture of the blue house, my Albergue, that my French roommate had liked so much and which reminded him of his favorite

It was 4 AM, time to get going. There were a bunch of kids from Chicago who had come to play football in Pamplona and they were on their way back to US. They were noisily getting ready as I arrived at the café to get a strong dose of coffee to start the day At 5 AM, I started walking with Stephan. In a few minutes, I saw the two Romanian pilgrims who I had run into in the past few days and today I struck up a conversation with them discovering their names as Gabriel and Neill

There are several good iPhone apps for the Camino. I used the one named 'Buen Camino!' for the first few days and it's name is the same as the greeting pilgrims exchange when they see each other walking. This app has a good map and a big bold line tracing the path of the particular Camino one is walking on. I came across another named 'Camino Ninja'. It is good for day planning. Today, I used it for deciding how far I will plan to go and the distance/elevations I will cover.

I met several people yesterday who were very easy to get along with. Sergio from Ireland and Stephan from Finland decided to walk early with me in the morning and attempt a 36 km to the next destination named Los Arcos. After a while, Sergio backed out, but since he was very tall, I knew he would catch up even though he may start late. I had told Stephan that I would start around 5:15 AM. I woke up at 4AM and was leaving by 5AM and was very surprised that Stephan was ready an

I woke up at 5 AM. It was pretty dark and I discovered it was going to be a rainy day. My watch and phone were charged. Breakfast was supposed to be served at 6 AM. With German precision, at 6AM the speakers in each room started playing uplifting music, and that meant the lights could be turned on and I didn’t have to tiptoe around. With a quick breakfast of cheese slices and tomatoes, I ventured out. At breakfast, I met a young 20 year old Dutch student who had just finished

I was super excited about waking up and doing the walk this morning. The prior evening, the couple of companions had decided to start today's walk at 8 AM, thereby freeing me mentally to start as early as I could. I was ready by 5 AM and started walking by 5:15AM. It was very cold, 31° F and I was walking in the dark, not having the foresight to put my black diamond headlamp in an accessible compartment of the backpack. I missed my way, rediscovered it, backtracked and got on

The Albergue house rules were to make no sound until 6:45AM but I was awake by 4 AM. I was able to get ready without making any sound and waking up the three other bunkbed mates. The breakfast was available exactly at 7 AM as promised and consisted of freshly baked bread, coffee, tea, cheese, Nutella, and jam. Basically a whole set of carbs and a boiled egg. I filled about one liter of tap water in the bladder, packed my backpack, walked over across the street to the pilgrim'

I found a really cheap American Airlines miles ticket for San Francisco to Madrid round trip and it came with its minor inconveniences. Instead of the usual 12 hour direct flight, it took me via Phoenix and Charlotte to Madrid thereby using up 25 hours. During the last 500 miles of the journey, the airplane map presciently kept showing Santiago de Compostela every minute. The customs line for non-Europeans was separate and when I was called, the officer completed stamping my

Several months ago on the Apple news, I read an article by someone who walked the Camino for his 50th birthday. Several days later, I was inspired to do the same. Over the next few months, the idea became more and more entrenched in my mind, and I decided to attempt it. There are many routes of the Camino and I finally planned to do the Camino Frances from St. Jean Pier de Port to Santiago de Compostela, a distance of 780km, approximately 500 miles. To prepare for the trip, I

On a beautiful morning, I started from Marakkesh on a hi Atlas Mountain hike, which started at Imlil and proceeded to Imnane Valley. The trip organizer picked me up from the hotel, and drove almost an hour and a half to the starting point of the hike where another guide met me. It was 10 AM by this time and the sun was out although it was a little chilly outside. The guide got a bottle of water for me and we started off. The starting point was at about 5,500 feet and it was a

Rinjani is an active volcano in the Java sea, with an altitude of 3,726 meters, over 12,000ft high. Many years ago, I had climbed Mount Batur, and was very happy to be to see its giant caldera. Since I was close to Indonesia, after my Kokoda trip, I decided to climb Mount Rinjani, which is in Lombok Island, an island east of Bali. To get to Lombok, I took a flight to Praya Lombok airport from Jakarta and it stops at New Yogyakarta airport. Air travel in Indonesia is very comm

Today was supposed to be an easier day, but it was made more difficult because yesterday we only made it to Templeton one while we were supposed to walk approximately two more hours further to Templeton two campsite. So the day started at 5 AM with a wake up call. Things were a little off for me today. After packing the tent, and letting the porter Jackson take it, I discovered that I was missing my eyeglasses. I kept the eyeglasses usually in the tent pocket and that’s wher

Today was supposed to be the longest, hardest of the 8 day trek. We were woken up at 4:30 AM and had to hit the trail by 5:30 AM with the expectation of reaching camp by 7 PM. My solar battery was completely drained and I was hoping for a sunshiny day. Getting ready is a chore. It almost takes one hour. The method I use is to take out the snacks for the day and put it in the front pocket of my day pack. The water purification tablets go in the front pocket of my shirt. The t

To a beautiful moonlight, I woke up at 4 AM and got ready for the day. It was supposed to be a long and challenging day with two long climbs. Breakfast was at 5 AM and everybody started filing around with their tent packed and ready to leave by 5:30 AM. The moon was full and bright. A local villager hut was playing a popular Tina Turner song at high volume as we started the hike. As the sun was not out yet and it was dark we walked briskly and in a couple of hours reached a v

We all got a wake up call at 5 AM by the chef and soon we were at the breakfast hut for breakfast. Some of the Aussie friends had delicious breakfast items to share including quinoa puff cereal, and satchels of gourmet espresso coffee. After hanging out for an hour, and wishing Hector a happy birthday, we all started the trek, but not before taking a group photo with the beautiful rainforest background. The porters walking next to us keep making jokes amongst themselves and

Thank God there was no rain last night. We woke up at 5AM and were served a breakfast of cereal, baked beans and coffee. There were crispbreads, honey, jam, and assorted crackers available too. People repacked and shed extra things they had brought. Hector was abandoning about half a kilogram of almonds and goji berries. That seemed such a waste, so I took it off of him. My pack was not that heavy. Every rest break and tea break we got during the day, I got a kick out of off

Early morning on June 4, the whole team of 12 trekkers met for breakfast, seven Australians were in a group headed by Hector who was their personal health and life coach. An ex-military Chilean person, he was as big as Arnold Schwarzenegger and I learned later that he had met Arnold in person. Two others were also from Australia, one from New Zealand, one from Dubai and myself. After a hearty breakfast, we loaded our backpacks and day packs in the transport bus, handed over o

Several months ago, some loud aircraft flew over my home city, prompting discussions on Nextdoor on what these planes might be. Someone posted the website info of ADSB Exchange which shows all planes at any place at any moment, plane's trajectory and origin. Being a flight enthusiast and a private pilot, I played with the website and discovered many things. Soon I was checking the regions near Fiji, where I had visited recently, and checked Indonesia & Papua New Guinea. Goin

The long flight from San Francisco to Tokyo followed by a long ride in the Shinkansen brought me to the Okayama train station. The Shinkansen is usually fast and reliable but today it had something they announced as "invasion on the tracks". This resulted in a 45-minute delay. At Okayama, I took an express train to come to the Itano train station which is closest to the first Shikoku temple out of the 88 on this pilgrimage. The Jetlag and the long journey so far had had its