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Dear Ellen,<BR>
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<BLOCKQUOTE><FONT SIZE="2">> I've already decided to leave my beloved hazel wood staff at <BR>
</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE><FONT SIZE="2">> home (just to be on the safe side because of hoof and mouth),<BR>
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Have you or others heard of people having staffs confiscated at customs and destroyed because of hoof and mouth disease? I was planning to return with my applewood staff that I got at another pilgrimage site, Bardsey island (off the coast of Wales), used the last time I walked the Camino, and am quite attached to. I certainly don't want to take that staff and discover i can't return with it. <BR>
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I do have a rubber cane foot on it (fitted at a helpful Spanish pharmacia after i wore out the improvised foot I'd made from a U.S. hardware store kitchen stool foot). It was helpful for traction on stony ground, and cut down the hard noise of the stick when we were walking on pavement. Repetition makes little things either delightful or annoying, and I found that noise annoying (and the quieter thud of the rubber foot delightful). <BR>
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The rubber cane foot is what will be on the ground, and I could part with on return if whoever is concerned for hoof and mouth disease permits such a solution. <BR>
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Thanks. If returning with my staff would be problem, I'm very glad to know ahead of time. <BR>
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Donald <BR>
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