During Thanksgiving 2023, I (Audrey) mentioned that after Robin passed away I was considering walking the Camino de Santiago to disappear from the world for a while. Much to my surprise and delight, Robin said that he wanted to walk it too. And so an idea was born and a decision made!

We already had plans to vacation in the Yucatan that spring so we decided our Camino would begin in spring 2025. This gave us over a year to prepare for our epic adventure!

2. Preparing for Camino

With over a year to prepare we are about as ready as we can be. Here are some of the things we did to prepare.

1. Read about the Camino de Santiago online and selected our route - the Camino Frances, which starts in St. Jean Pied de Porte, France. 
2. Joined Facebook groups dedicated to the Camino, and asked a lot of questions and received a lot of wise advice from experienced peregrinos (people who walk the Camino). 
3. Upgraded our clothing and backpacking gear. Our lightweight backpacks and shoes were most important!
4. Bought and studied Brierley's guidebooks.
5. Developed a walking plan allowing us to gradually increase our walking distance and backpack weight. We're at 24k with our packs half full. 
6. We had our feet professionally fitted at Fleet Feet. After some trial and error, Robin settled on the trail running shoes he will wear. I am still trying to decide from among the 5 or so pairs in which I've been training.