Behind the Albergue Door: Inspiration Agony Adventure on the Camino de Santiago

it brief. A good head lamp comes in handy when you are trying to quietly pack up in a dark room full of grouchily sleeping pilgrims, or when the sun doesn’t come up until 8:30 am on those irritatingly short fall days and you are trying escape a city in the dark and having trouble spotting those dastardly yellow arrows among all the street signs and graffiti, or want to keep reading past 9:30 pm some night, or need to give your eyesight a boost when trying to determine if that red bump on your pinky is a bite, a splinter, or the beginnings of a flesh-eating disorder, probably contracted from that suspiciously fragrant breakfast sausage.
    And don’t even get me started on handheld flashlights – I have a hard enough time accomplishing anything even with both my hands free.
    Duct Tape
    If you aren’t already aware of the magical troubleshooting qualities and preposterous versatility of duct tape then I’m not sure you have any business backpacking at all. But just in case you need a reminder: Every single item in your backpack can be temporarily fixed using duct tape with the single exception of your condoms. Leave it to the World Health Organization to take the fun out of everything.
    Small Multi-Tool Knife
    A tiny little knife with tiny little blades and a tiny little pair of scissors will come in handy over and over for everything from repairing backpacks to subduing stubborn old bread to chest hair maintenance.
    Super Glue
    This will take care of everything else (i.e. the soles of shoes, broken watch faces, partially torn skin tags).
    Guidebook
    We used the John Brierley guidebook – A Pilgrim's Guide to Camino de Santiago – and found it useful every single day. We have been travelling basically full time for the past 5 years and, as you can imagine, have used a lot of guidebooks in that time. And I have to say, Brierley’s maps were as accurate as any we’ve seen, probably at least partially because he updates them every year. The fact that they are generally not to scale takes a little getting used to but is more or less irrelevant. I could have lived without his “Mystical Path” sections where he includes spiritual suggestions such as when it is appropriate to tickle a shepherd with a feather and how to train yourself to dream only about hot chicks and never your mom. Just kidding, who doesn’t want to dream about their mom?
    We seriously considered going with his more basic book of maps that does not include any of the trail, town or albergue descriptions but, in the end, were happy we chose the slightly larger version as that info came in handy all the time. Because things are constantly changing Brierley no longer rates the albergues, but after a while you learn how to read between the lines and figure out which places he would recommend.
    This was far and away the most popular English-speaking guidebook on the Camino yet for some reason it became something of a cultural phenomenon to bash it for even the slightest inaccuracies, both real and perceived. Maybe as a way to deflect the blame from whatever flawed decision-making process resulted in them finding themselves exhausted and in pain with ten kilograms of gear on their back that they would rather donate to the Struggling Actor’s Guild than ever see again. In any case, among our group of friends and acquaintances , the few who did not have a copy were constantly either following those who did, or borrowing one, or were never seen again because they took a wrong turn a few kilometres back. Anyway, as I said, we know guidebooks and I can tell you that none of them are flawless, and this one is much better than most.
    Optional Stuff
    Rain Pants
    We carried cheap , light pairs of rain pants and used them a lot, both for rain and, later in the hike, for warmth on particularly cold or windy mornings. Their importance will vary with the size and length of your rain jacket. Although be aware that the more waterproof your jacket is the more rain will funnel off directly onto your pants.
    Toque and Gloves
    For those of you who did not grow up on the frigid Canadian prairies, home to "minus fifty with wind chill" and sticking wet things to metal things, you may know “toques” by a different name such as “wool hats”, “ski caps” or “knit helmets”. They hardly take up any room, keep your head and ears warm and make you look like a member of an up and coming British garage band. Outside of the hottest part of summer I can’t see any