In 2022, I headed out to do the Via de La Plata, a 1000 km pilgrimage from Sevilla to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. For the first time Kay joined me and she loved it. Unfortunately, after 10 days of walking, she hurt her leg and we had to stop. We promised to return and finish in 2023 but had to postpone due to a burst pipe which flooded our condo. It took 10 months to complete all the renovations.
March 30th of 2024, we headed back out, picking up where we had stopped in 2022. But first we made some changes. Kay got a new, smaller, i.e. lighter backpack that fit her better. She reduced the weight she carried. New shoes. We even changed the way shit tightened her shoelaces. And a new regimen to avoid blisters. Last time she got blisters from Day 1.
All the changes we had made were great. Carrying the backpack was effortless. No rubbing and chaffing. No pain. Zero blisters. In fact I was the one that was suffering. I caught some bug that resulted in a sore throat, coughing, fever and zero energy. I wondered if I had COVID but a self-test came up negative. I think it just may have been a bad cold.
But suddenly with no warning, on the 8th day, Kay’s knee started hurting. At our age, you’re not going to walk roughly 20 km a day with 10-15 lbs on your back with your joints hurting. Initially, i thought it was just that and gave her some Advil. However, within a few kms she was unable to walk. Fortunately our stop for the night was in a nice sized town. We booked a nice hotel for five nights to see if a few days of rest would allow us to continue. However, she got worse and we knew we had to stop and return home.
Other than hurting her knee, Kay had a blast. She absolutely loved every minute of her time on the walk. So, we’re going to try again in 2025. But before then, she needs to get stronger. We’re going to get a personal trainer who will work with her at our gym focusing on resistance training. Strengthening the muscles that support her knees as well as upper body strength. We’re also going to switch from Via de La Plata to the Chemin St Jacques starting in Le Puy, France which goes all the way to the Spain/French border. Depending on how things are going we may continue on the Camino Frances which goes all the way to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Altogether it is about 1500 km and should take about 75 days. This was my first long distance, passthru hike in 2014. But back ack then I did it in 50 days.
As for me, I haven’t completed a long hike since 2019 and I am itching to get back out there. So, the plan is for me to return to Spain by myself in October 2024 to do the Camino Madrid and the Sanabres.
I no longer do daily writeups of my trips on here. This site is getting more and more complicated to use. If the spirit moves me, I may do a summary of the trip once I return. Instead I’ll be posting on Instagram nearly every day during the walk https://www.instagram.com/operacha/
And here are some pictures from the trip.
Walking 
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