It has been an interesting couple of months for an Australian getting ready to travel to Portugal to walk two of the Christian pilgrimage walks there.
Elaine and I had already tested leaving Australia (and returning) when we visited my son and other friends in England right at the end of 2021. It was a wonderful trip, but not without some major changes to what we doing, and what we had to do to meet COVID requirements in different places. I had initially expected that Portugal would be very similar, so it was a little disappointing to find that matters like reciprocal recognition by Australia and Portugal of each others vaccination certificates had not be finalised. Portugal was only accepting Australians flying into the country for essential purposes, which did not include walking a pilgrimage route.
Without going too deeply into the nuances of minor changes to the bureaucratic language of the Visit Portugal site, it now appears that flying in via another country, including Dubai where I will transit, is acceptable.
Now I just need to solve the puzzle of what documentation one needs to show vaccination and testing status. It is unclear
whether one or both of a vaccination certificate and testing certificate is from outside the EU. I have caved in to taking a blunt approach, and plan to have both.
Getting my pack weight down has been an ongoing challenge for me ever since my first Camino in 2010. There are several issues, some related to long standing medical conditions, others have emerged as I keep getting older. And then there is the effect of walking in spring rather than summer, and packing warmer and more waterproof items. There are many sources of great advice from people who have managed to use packs much smaller than mine and weights much lower than I achieve, and it can be quite dispiriting when I have to resort to a larger and heavier pack.
I am still undecided about carrying a CPAP machine. It takes up nearly six litres of space and weighs just over 1200 gm. It would be just under 10%!o(MISSING)f my load if I did. Other things like a proper YHA/HI sleeping bag liner (140 gm) and bugsheet (40 gm) may not seem much, but very quickly add up. So there will be a gradual pruning over the next week to get the weight down, and some rigour required in not adding things along the way.
This will be the first really long walk following the replacement of both hips and one knee, and with the other knee pretty when I get my analgesia regime askew. Nonetheless, I have been able to get some good longer walks in, including the Rotary Aussie Peace Walk longer distances (42km and 24 km). I dont intend to repeat that longer distance, but even with a daily target of 20 km, there will be longer walking days.
Its going to be interesting! At least until I get walking, when I hope that it will stop being interesting because of the challenges of getting there, and interesting because of where I am, and what I am doing. And I am getting just a little excited about the prospect of walking another pilgrimage!
ps I am doing this pilgrimage solo. Elaine has other travel plans later in the year, and wont be joining me in Portugal.
