The Plans – The Why’s and Where’s

 So the Plans were kicked off months ago but here i find myself only updating this the week before we go.

So the adventure for me at least starts on the 6th of June and ends on the 24th of June so just over 2 weeks.

There is a logistical twist on this trip of course as I am in Aberdeen, Scotland, UK and my dad is in Caerphilly, South Wales, UK some 500 miles away from each other.

So on Friday the 6th I fly down to Heathrow and then get a transfer bus to meet Dad at Stansted  where we have a hotel for the night before flying out early Saturday  to Bilbao where we will then get a bus over to start at Pamplona .

I will probably refer to myself and my dad as the royal We but realistically I organised the whole trip and my dad is along for the ride.

So why start in Pamplona?  Well this is due to the desicion to hire bikes to cycle the Camino.  A lot of my friends who know me will now be asking why the hell I would do this knowing I already have two relatively expensive bikes that could dominate the Camino terrain with no problems.  The issue is logistics and the cost and risk involved in taking your own bike.  UK airlines charge shit loads then you have to work out packaging as they require it to be packaged a certain way and of course while in transit its fairly common for bikes to take some damage.  All of this added up to the answer of looking at hiring bikes.

After scouring the forum’s and googles I came across:

Tournride

They offer package deals and its the 12 day package we have gone for which cost us 484 euros for 2 bikes with pannier packs which come with tools and locks.  Which I thought was very reasonable.

So how it works…. they courier the bikes to a post office depot in Pamplona and we simply pick up the bikes.  However as this is now reliant on deliveries and post offices being open we are actually rellying on the Spanish not being work shy and shock horror they don’t really work on a Saturday and absolutely  do nothing on a Sunday so although we arrive on the Saturday we will not pick up the bikes until the Monday.  So we get time to climitise and check out Pamplona for a day and a half.  Then you just hand the bike back into the hiring company when arriving in Santiago.

The Official hand back date is the 21st of June so is Santiago the end goal? Well yes and no if you asked my Dad right now he would say totally the 706km that is from Pamplona is long enough and that in 12 days will be perfectly fine however I have another plan and if we are making good progress I am hoping we can do the extra 168km and cycle to Finisterra on the very West Coast of Spain which many pilgrims continue on to and I like the thought of finishing there.  Granted we will then need to cycle back to Santiago but you get what I mean.

Hang on a minute tho if you have been figuring out the dates you will have realised that we hand the bikes in on the 21st and don’t leave until the 24th well yes its still supposed to be a Holiday of sorts so it will give me time to soak up the Santiago goodness again.

We then fly directly from Santiago to Gatwick where Dad will head back home and I will transfer to Heathrow again and Fly back to Aberdeen.

I have also given myself a day off on the Wednesday to recover and ease myself back into work.

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