Preparation~!

The time has come to start getting everything together for my walk. I've read some first-hand accounts and tried to learn from people's mistakes, but I'm preparing myself to be ill-equiped for something, just not sure what yet. I'm in a unique category of pilgrim in that I'm taking my own tent and sleeping 'in the wild' for most of the part in France, then will be mailing my tent back home when I get to Spain. The reasoning behind this is that it's kinda fun sleeping outside (especially in the rain), lodging in France this time of year (early March) is hit-or-miss, and it also can be quite expensive. I've also watched a bit too much Man vs Wild so I'll be searching for waterfalls to climb down and eating snakes if the local breadshops aren't open.

Another hiker wrote a bit about it (link here) which had some very good tips. I guess the general rule is you'll probably pack too much, no matter what you think. Here's my list of what I'm bringing to start: 

Backpack: North Face Terra 65

Tent: Mountain Hardwear Drifter 2
Sleeping Bag: Alpkit Skyhigh 600
Sleep Mat: Alpkit Base
Bivvy Bag: Alpkit Hunka XL
Microfiber Towel
Opinel 10
LED Headlamp + Backup mini-lamp
Kindle + Case
Android Samsung Galaxy S
Micro-SD charger

Clothing:
2 pairs of pants
3 t-shirts
5 pairs of socks (3 wool, 1 cotton full-length, 1 cotton short)
3 pairs underwear
Columbia Titanium long-sleeve thermal shirt
Columbia Omni-heat wool shirt
Columbia rain jacket
Combat Boonie Hat
Shorts

Shoes: Keen GYPSUM M

Campingaz Micro propane cooker + 200g propane bottle
Metal cooking cup / tongs / 
Toothbrush, Baking Soda, Pharmac, misc crap like bags, TP, etc

It all tallies up to about 14kilos, including the pack, which is pretty heavy. Then again, almost half of that is my 'let's sleep outside' kit, so I have no one else to blame but myself.

The first stretch of the journey is a modest 350km, scheduled to take 15 days. Read about it at the CSJ site.  Due to weather issues, I've decided to start closer to Le Puy , but will be doing the last 5-6 days of the via Geneva route. Read about the Le Puy route here.