hiking with a child

[bill deutschman]

----- Original Message -----
From: Brad Quentin
To: GOCAMINOaPETE.URI.EDU
Sent: Monday, February 04, 2002 10:53 PM
Subject: hiking with a child


we are planning on walking the road this june with our daughter.  she will
be 21 months old when we go.  i'd like to hear from anyone who has any
experience walking the road with a youngster.  i'm especially interesting
in hearing what kind of gear poeple have used and what kind of distance we
can expect to cover daily.

brad


We cycled the Camino two years ago so I have personal experience with it but
without kids.   Many years ago we also traveled with out kids.  The first trip
they were 6 month & 18 months and we spent a month in England.  The kids slept
in dresser drawers.  Two years later we went to Portugal & Spain for a month.
 Several years later it was a month of backpacking in Switzerland.  In between
those trips we went on weekend backpacking trips, as well as weeks of car
camping.  They still talk about the later trips that they remember.  I read
Ed's reply to you and think he was overly protective.

My guess is that you will have some problems but that the Spanish will look out
for you as you have a child.  We could do no wrong when  we traveled Spain with
our kids.  The one thing I would worry about is staying the refugeos as it is
group sleeping and we had enough problems with noise from snoring and people
coming back late at night or leaving early in the morning.  I suspect that they
do not want to hear baby noises and may have restrictions about kids.  Hotels
are cheep and probably a better choice.

Good luck whatever you decide but I sure wouldn't leave my 21 month old child
behind if I left for six or so weeks.

bill