78: Age of the oldest pilgrim I’ve met (from France, walking with his daughter – they do two weeks of the Camino each year. Have also met a 73 year-old South Korean woman travelling alone, a 74 year-old Italian man with his son, and an American who will turn 70 on Sunday and is doing with Camino with four friends in honor of the occasion)
15: Age of the youngest pilgrim I’ve met (from Australia, travelling with her mother. Trying to figure out where to go next with her studies – she’s unschooled so she gets to choose. She’s thinking of a perfumerie course.)
480: Total miles of the Camino Frances (the route I’m on)
12: Number of other routes to Santiago listed in my guidebook (from Portugal, Spain, France, and beyond)
441: Number of miles I’ve walked so far.
34: Number of days I’ve spent walking.
20: Highest number of miles I’ve walked in one day.
3: Lowest number of miles I’ve walked in one day (due to an allergic reaction for which I had to walk to the next town to see a doctor. By the time my appointment was over, it was too late and too hot to walk on…my body’s way of saying “take a rest day.”)
37: Highest temperature in which I’ve walked (in Celsius – that’s 98 degrees Fahrenheit)
0: Number of blisters so far
4: Number of “hot spots” I’ve had on my feet. Thankfully, I covered them with moleskin and none have developed into blisters.
3: Number of other ailments I’ve had. (A tight Achilles/bone spur on Day 3 – it hurt to touch my left foot to the ground let alone walk; an allergic reaction resulting in itchy bumps all over my upper body; a tight piriformis that found me sitting in the middle of the path to Leonnearly every half hour in an attempt to stretch it into submission.)
22: Weight (in pounds) of my pack when they weighed it upon my arrival at JFK. According to the rule I read, I should weigh 220 pounds if I am carrying that much….I weigh almost half that. Oops.
9: Number of things I left at hostels along the way to make my pack lighter.(I have not weighed my bag since…will see what it is when I get to the airport!)
6: Number of continents from which other pilgrims have come.
19: Number of countries from which I’ve met pilgrims.
13: Number of US States from which I’ve met pilgrims.
32: Number of American pilgrims I’ve met.
0: Number of regrets I have about taking this journey:)