[Gocamino] Wise pilgrim

[Robert Spenger]

Recently there was message posted on this thread about the extra weight of carrying electronic gadgets. Actually, to me, the iPad mini represents a way to save weight. I have carried it on only one trip and I certainly did not need it on that one for items like translation, booking, and maps. it was just the last 104 km of the camino francés, which I had already done three times myself. That trip was with a group. The group organizer had done the route just a few days before as a scouting expedition and had done it several times before. The booking had all been done ahead of time by the organizer. Two members of the group are completely fluent in Spanish and the organizer has a strong working knowledge of Spanish which is useful on the camino.

I did use it some for taking photos and videos, but carried my regular camera out of habit. I didn't really need it. As far as photos were concerned, while the quality of the regular camera is superior, I didn't really need that high a quality. The tablet photos are quite adequate for my purposes and have a great advantage in that they can be sent out by email within a minute or so after the are taken. What i did use it for was for books, reading 4 or 5 of them on the trip. Since books add no weight to the tablet, this was a great saving. At about 310 g, The tablet weighs far less than the books and they do not have to be discarded to get rid of weight. I know that many would consider it foolish to take books on the pilgrimage, but it certainly made life less boring on the long airplane flights, the waits in terminals, and especially the three hours that I have to take each night after dinner before I can finally lie down flat. On the airplanes, it would have been nice to have had a movie or two of my own choice on it, since I can't really hear or see much of the inflight movies provided.  With the group, there were occasional after dinner chats that took up part of that time, but most of it was spent in solitude, with reading one of the ways to fill the time.

In general, a tablet can take the place of a camera (unless you are a stickler for high resolution), maps, photos, guide books, accommodation lists, and language dictionaries. On some previous trips, I have had the weight of 2 dictionaries, 2 phrase books, 2 guide books, and a copy of MMDD. All of this can be put into a tablet with no added weight. With the application PocketEarth it is possible to have a complete, detailed zoomable map of the entire route available, even in the absence of Wifi or cellular connections.

Major disadvantage? There is one of course - charging. If you stay only in the lowest cost accommodations, power outlets are in high demand. One partial answer is solar charging, but it is more expense, more weight, and weather dependent. In France, the gîtes and chambre d'hotes usually have adequate outlets, In Spain, cheap hotels and many of the private albergues have enough outlets.

Bob S.