Camoel to Saint Nazaire from 14 to 19 May

Short report from Britta and Karl (Ina’s sister and brother-in-law) who spent a few days walking with Ina from 14 to 19 May from Camoel to Saint Nazaire

First we spent five days in Ina’s beautiful house in Ploumanac’h together with Annette (Karl’s sister) and Margret (her friend).
On Friday 14th of May we had booked ourselves into a hotel in Camoel together with Ina. Whilst in contact via our mobile phones, we walked towards Ina from Camoel and met her at the lock of d’Arzal (Br'ge d'Arzal). From far away we could already recognise Ina standing next to the lock with her rucksack covered with a big yellow rain protection plus the SNSM flag strapped on top. There we also took a photo of a poodle with a life jacket, where the dog was the only one with a life jacket whilst all the boat‘s passengers were without. Ina’s rucksack weighed 15 kgs and in addition she also had a bag around her waist which was another 3 kgs. Everything inside had been planned, weighed and minimised but still so heavy overall. She was equipped with a GPS- Emergencycall system in case she gets stuck on the rocks and needs to call for help. She also had a loading device and adapter etc ..
Together we walked back to the hotel where Ina didn‘t feel like a stroll through the village anymore. So over our evening picnic with wine we spent time making our plans, and then slept better than expected in the French double bed with a tightly wrapped woollen blanket.

Some general remarks:
As we were there by car and wanted to drive back to Bonn after our days with Ina, we developed a plan that on the one hand made sure that Ina made some progress on her walk and that we wouldn’t all have to carry these heavy rucksacks, and that on the other hand we would be able to sleep in the same hotel for two nights. That worked as follows: we would set off from our hotel in the morning and then in the evening we would take a taxi or train back, and then the next morning we would drive back by car to where we had ended the previous day. Once we drove by car one stage further and just walked back in the other direction. That all worked very well because a friend of Ina’s (Bernard, known as Papa Velo on this Blog) booked us the appropriate accommodation per internet within the distances Ina required. The calls with Bernard and finding the appropriate detailed maps for each local area did pose some organisational challenges. The maps were not available in advance but could only be bought in the immediate area in certain shops. However carrying all these maps in advance in Ina’s rucksack would have been too heavy for Ina – as it’s a question of gramms adding up.
For a pilgrimage to Santiago this hotel sleeping arrangement ends up being pretty luxurious from a cost point of view – especially as there are no cheap pilgrim hostels before reaching Spain on the breton coast. In the contrary the hotels on the Atlantic coast cost between 40-80 € per room even if they only have 1 or 2 stars – and Ina will be walking fro 6 months!!! At least that’s expected. Hence Ina is also carrying a tent and an over tent, and even though this is the lightest that one can buy it is still something more she has to carry. So occasionally she will be sleeping at camping sites, especially as it’s now getting warmer, but she will not just sleep in the dunes. We did meet some nice young people though who were just sleeping in their tent in the dunes next to the sea. That looked quite cosy from afar.
We regularly met nice people who had time and interest in sharing their experiences with us. One nice gentleman, who we met during a picnic, even brought Ina her emergency call system back by car later as she had lost it on the way.
I think this is part of the attraction of such a walk, the suprising human relationships that you come across and which you are not necessarily expecting.