Planning and training

I did it again--I managed to write a blog entry and lose all the data!! So very annoying and I don't even have a copy in draft-mode because I was working "live" so to speak. I had written about the the watch I had bought--which I had bought primarily for its GPS function, but which also allowed me to keep a record of my average walking speed, distance traveled, time walked, altitude, etc., and also sported a compass. I can also use it to monitor my heart rate, but that requires wearing a strap around my chest, which seems a nuisance, so I haven't tried that mode yet. From the reviews I read, it appears that runners use the watch primarily for doing laps, and the GPS seems a bit clunky (like the Internet before the World Wide Web for those that remember those days), but it may prove useful. Remembering what the little symbols mean is a challenge, and I am still learning how to use it, so time will tell.

Here is a picture of the route that I plan to take plotted out by my computer using Google Maps.


I have also been continuing regular walks around Lakes Frank and Needwood, and hikes with various walking and hiking groups. Below are photos of a hike to Lock Raven Reservoir near Baltimore with the Silver Spring Outdoors Meetup group, followed by a visit to the nearby Boordy Vineyard.

Another outing has included walking the Underground Railroad Experience Trail to Sandy Spring with the Maryland/NOVA Seniors Hiking and Events group (below).  While having lunch at the Paradise Bakery, I ran into a former children’s librarian, Nora Caplan, who lives in the nearby Sandy Spring Friend’s House, and keeps busy volunteering at the Sandy Spring Museum, and free lancing for the Town Courier.  She was most interested when I told her about my plans to walk the Via Podiensis.

Apparently the local Quaker community would leave food for the slaves taking this route in the hollow of this tree

I have just ordered the French language e-book Chemin du Puy en Velay : 2013, Petit Futé from Amazon.  It is part of the popular French Petit Futé travel series and contains all sorts of useful information on the Via Podiensis including history, what to take, what to wear, how to get to Le Puy-en-Velay, sites to visit, restaurants, places to stay, and information on the various stages of the route.  Since I am planning on varying my itinerary and taking slightly shorter “stages” it is not quite as useful as I had hoped, but still very good on describing in prose what to expect in terms of terrain.

I have also ordered the Michelin guide, Chemins de Compostelle Le Puy-en-Velay Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, which looks like it will be good for maps of the various “stages” of my walk.  Unfortunately it was not available as an e-book.  Although the electronic format is not as convenient in looking up specific pieces of information, it is much lighter than taking the actual books because I can load many on my Samsung Tablet.  The indispensible Miam, Miam, Dodo guide I mentioned in an earlier post is also only available in book format, so I will need to photocopy the pages I need.

I posted a question in the Camino/ Via Podiensis/Le Puy/ Chemin St Jacques/ la Voie du Puy-en-Velay site on Facebook about night temperatures in October, and am now looking into a summer-weight sleeping bag because of the high altitudes.  My two criteria: the bag must be very lightweight and extremely compactible so that it will fit nicely into my backpack. I just ordered one on sale from a place called Next Adventure, a Portland, OR store, that I learned about through Amazon.com.  Ordering it directly from the store’s website saved $10 off the Amazon price!

I also managed to stumble upon a blog written by a woman from Bainbridge Island, Washington, who walked from Le Puy-en-Velay to Saint Jean Pied-a-Port on the Spanish border, in 2010.  For me, the curious thing about her blog is that she walked almost exactly the same distances daily that I plan to do in the fall, and stayed pretty much in the same towns, so her experiences are of great interest to me.  She apparently is quite a walker, and, for those interested in viewing her blog, it can be found at:
http://kitsambler.wordpress.com/

Learning more about the Way of Saint James

I saw the movie 'Walking the Camino : Six Ways to Santiago' May 22, at the opening of the film at the West End Cinema in Washington, D.C.  The film claimed to be a documentary on the Camino de Santiago, but I found it only covered the portion in Spain.  click here for the link to the review in the Washington Post
I think it pretty accurately described the walks of many people that travel the Way of Saint James today, though.  I did talk to one woman there that had walked both the Camino Frances and the Camino del Norte with her husband, and they were now planning on starting in Rome and walking from there, going as far as Siena this time.  I didn't mention that I had just visited Siena--I didn't even know it was on the Via Francigena!

 

the Via Francigena

The Cathedral in Siena (Duomo di Siena)

I think the people that would most appreciate this film, however, would be those that had actually walked at least a portion of the route.  I can't imagine discussions of tendonitis, blisters, the need to reduce this weight of your backpack, and snoring would appeal to anyone under normal conditions, but maybe I'm wrong.  The photography, however, was spectacular.  And listening to some of the people there who had never been amazed me as they completely underestimated the physical rigors of the journey even after hearing all of this. . .I'm just hoping that I'm not underestimating the Via Podiensis portion that I'm intending to do as I understand it is more strenuous than the Camino Frances. . .

I have been wondering about the word ultreia which apparently was used more in times past in encouraging people along the Chemin de Compostelle, today more and more replaced by buen camino. Ultreia and its response et suseia apparently date from the 12th century Codex Calixtenus  I mentioned in my previous blog, but no one is completely sure of the meaning.  It has been suggested that one is "onward" the other "upward", so "onward and upward", or, according to another source, ultreia was wished going, suseia on the return journey.  Another source suggests it basically means "hallelujah". In my research, however, I discovered a somewhat  modernized version* (i.e. using the original chorus) of an old French pilgrim song sung along the journey:

Ultreïa

Tous les matins nous prenons le Chemin,
tous les matins nous allons plus loin,
jour après jour la route nous appelle,
c’est la voix de Compostelle!

Chorus:
Ultreïa! Ultreïa! Et sus eia!
Deus adjuva nos!

Chemin de terre et Chemin de foi,
voie millénaire de l’Europe,
la voie lactée de Charlemagne,
c’est le Chemin de tous mes jacquets!

Et tout là-bas au bout du continent,
Messire Jacques nous attend,
Depuis toujours son sourire fixe
Le soleil qui meurt au Finisterre.


which might be roughly translated:
 
Every morning we take the path,
Every morning we go farther,
Day after day the road calls us,
The voice of [Santiago de] Compostela!

Chorus:
Onward! Onward! And upward!
God help us!

Earthly path, heavenly one,
thousand year old European route,
the Milky Way of Charlemagne,
the Way of all the pilgrims of Saint James!

And over there at the end of the continent,
Santiago awaits us,
his smile always fixed
[on] the sun that dies at Finisterre.

And recently, a German pilgrim, Falk Ritter, returned from his Jakobsweg, and posted some fantastic photos of the Via Podiensis on the Facebook Camino/Via Podensis/Le Puy/Chemin St Jacques/la Voie du Puy-en-Velay page.  He made a direct link available to his Picasa postings: click here for Falk's Picasa link which is motivation enough to go!  I'm not sure what people do with all these wonderful photos--I'm beginning to accumulate quite a number myself, even though mine aren't necessarily of the greatest quality.  Right now my last year's Camino de Santiago photos serve as a screen-saver for my computer, and I love looking at them.  They never seem to get old. . .

* The modern version, very popular especially among Francophone pilgrims, was written by Jean-Claude Benazet, the founder of the Fraternité internationale du Chemin de Saint-Jacques. You can listen to him singing it here along with an explanation about the song in French.