Well lets start this post with some confessions of an adventurer…

I love planning. I love organizing. I love documenting details. I love images and maps of far off places. I love reading books about the far off places. I love research into destinations and gear and travel hacks.

All this love means that I am one of those quirky travelers who has the pleasure of loving the planning for a trip as much as the actual trip itself! No joke. And the bigger the trip, more countries, more flights, too many languages, different currencies – the more I enjoy it. Like a ‘giddy school girl with pig tails bouncing and clapping with little screams’ excited.  Get this wanderer some sharpies and post it notes, a pint of lager, and you will have a trip of a lifetime planned in detail in no time!

Deepening the confession level … I actually need things planned. Yup need it. Deep in my soul I am a ‘need to know the when, the how and the what’ in order to relax in the moment. I am not a fly by the seat of my pants globetrotter. Rather I am the researcher, advance planner and informed decision maker who dreams of cutting lose but gets a little chest pain when it actually happens. So thank goodness my quirks are resolved by something I love. I do not apologize for this must-plan trait in fact I am proud of it. It brings me a little closer to our Strachan Clan motto of “not timid, just cautious”. Boom!

So let the planning fun begin . . . for our big Camino Mash Up,  Lana and I will be walking 5 weeks worth of 3 Camino Ways in France, Spain and Portugal.

A blank slate – like a big, amazing canvas!

Lana flew in to Vancouver for a long weekend and we spent it planning, planning, planning. Before Lana arrived we had our flights booked and had, for the most part, decided our route we would take on the 3 Caminos – a spreadsheet may have been involved. So we knew  arrivals and departure, roughly which days were we walking, and where we had to find a bed at night. A great start to our blank canvas!

We set ourselves up on the deck by day and the kitchen table by night. Armed with our poster size calendar, laptop, iPad, travel books, spreadsheet route, snacks, pints, post it notes, sharpies, and a pencil  – we got to planning. The pencil was for Lana – she hates when I use a sharpie on the poster or post its before the plan is set in stone. Makes me laugh.

Planning by day – on the deck!

Planning by night – at the kitchen table!

After a near 4 solid days of planning (I may have accidentally made Lana help me paint my living room and french doors when we weren’t planning) we had a pretty solid plan. Add in a couple more weeks of planning by text between me in B.C and Lana in Alberta, and we have a perfect plan! If we do say so ourselves. I could do this for a living!

Planners gotta plan – its like art!

Ok we do have two days where we need to find a place to sleep but we have 2 months and 2 days to sort that out and technically we could always just show up in the town and find a bed  on the day of. Like real pilgrims.

Wow, this trip has gotten very real now that it is all planned. It feels great to be so ahead of the game on this. Now to wrap our head around the packing list!

Brande