Camino Portugues Day 0-3: Planning and Packing

Camino time!  In a few days I fly to Lisbon, Portugal to begin the Camino Portugues.  Starting in Lisbon, I walk north through Coimbra and on to Porto where I meet Mike.  We then will take the inland route to Santiago de Compostela.  

I have 13 walking days to get to Porto.  To do that I will take the train out of Lisbon and walk 18km on the day I arrive which will cover the first 2 stages.  Then I have 12 days to cover the 320km to Porto.  This follows the Buen Camino app default stages.

The first days have very little elevation but they are all 30+km days which is tiring.  I walk 10km most days around San Francisco but I still expect the first few days will hurt.

Once Mike joins we have 11 days to Santiago de Compostela.  This again follows most of the standard Camino stages.  We decided that walking the Costal route in March might have some more extreme wind and weather.

I've been looking at the weather and comparing it to here and most days it is a little warmer in most of the towns in Portugal by a few degrees when you adjust for the time of day.  I walk around here in short sleeves so if we stay dry it should be a nice walk.

Preparing for your third long distance walk is a lot easier than the first.  It consists mostly of getting rid of the few things that didn't work on other trips and replacing worn out items.  Oh, and trying to remember where I put some important item I haven't seen since last trip.

This trip will feature a new toy: a drone.  I hope to get some good video with it and it will be fun to fly around.  I've only had it about a week and I am just gaining some confidence with it.  Mostly it is a flying selfie camera but you have to be careful not to let it fly into cars and trees.  On the auto mode it is like you have a cameraman following you and it only focuses on you disregarding danger to itself.

I did have to get an EU Operator ID for the drone to fly it legally.  You are suppose to get it in the first country you intend to fly, but the Portugal aviation web site was a nightmare and would not take any of my information.  The Spain site was not much better.  I saw a recommendation for the Irish site and that did work but it cost a lot of information and 40€.

This Camino I'd like to try to learn more about the areas I'm walking through.  In the past I have been more focused on the physical challenge.  I intend to read the daily stage descriptions and try to be more aware of the history and cultural significance of the places I pass through.  Maybe my blog will be better.