From my research so far on these pilgrimages, be it the Camino-Frances or otherwise, occasionally you read about a weary traveller who has woken to find either their boots or their walking pole/s gone. Of course there’s usually another person’s gear sitting on the shelf and it was just a simple case of mistaken “gear” identity in the wee hours of the morning. And that wouldn’t be that hard to do ’cause “All our gear looks the same”.
You see, from what I understand, most albergues/hostels have a boot/shoe rack located away from the general sleeping areas. This makes sense right? No one want to sleep with the stench of 30+ sweaty, well trodden boots in the air. Likewise, some albergues have a place for all the trekking poles to rest overnight. Presumably as a courtesy much like having an umbrella stand but also no doubt so that all the dirt and debris stuck to the bottom of them doesn’t get traipsed throughout their accommodation.
So in an attempt to avoid the dilemna of rolling out of your bunk and finding your favourite boots have mistakenly walked out the door before you, many experienced pilgrims try to make them look somewhat unique to the others. Consequently, I’ve added a splash of colour to my heel tabs made from the “rookies” name tags we all had to sew on our uniforms during basic training (12 years ago).
And you may be thinking… well so what if your boots are missing and there’s another pair to wear in the same size left by the errant early riser. Well, each pilgrim’s boots are moulded exactly to the contours of their feet as a direct result of the hundreds of kms they’ve pounded into them, and any change in the internal shape of your boot is almost a guarantee you’ll be heading to Blister Town. Ouch!!
Likewise in the pole department, some people utilise a single trekking pole and others use two. I’ve read about people setting out for the day to suddenly find they only have one of their poles remaining. And I guess they could wait around perhaps three or so hours until “check out time” to find out which of all the poles remaining is the one yours was mistaken for, but most times that’s not going to suit your schedule so I would imagine you just head off with a single pole from that point onwards. This in turn may impact the way you walk as it would be a change to how you’ve done so up until that point. Change in what you know can sometimes lead to injuries.
Anyway, I’ve utilised those same “rookie” name tags to fashion some little labels for my trekking poles too.
The eagle-eyed readers amongst you may also notice some non-standard reflective white tape zip tied to the poles. I added this feature a little while ago as a safety precaution should I find myself hiking along the side of a road after the sun goes down. The tape alone wasn’t very sticky and the first sign of moisture/rain had them peeling off – hence the zip ties.
Summary
So I think I’ve done just about as much as I can (or am prepared to) to make those two items unique to me and hopefully go some way towards retaining them for the duration of the adventure. Negligible weight was added and a tonne of nostalgia was added (my rookie tags).
So be sure to subscribe to this blog (top right of page underneath the Blog Search bar) to see if this stuff does the trick or if I’ll find myself squeezing into a pair of Women’s Size 6 sneakers and/or finishing the trek single-pole or worse. Ha ha
‘Til then…
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