We are finding out the hard way that keeping one's feet "happy" is key to making it through the Camino. After 4 days of hiking, we know of 3 people already who have had to stop because their feet are so bad. One of them was a guy we've been walking with the past few days. All he can do right now is literally hobble around. He has decided to take a day off from hiking, and he will probably take a bus to the next stop on the Camino, and try walking again the following day. If he can't walk, then he'll need to take even more time off to heal.
We now have our own regular regiment concerning our feet. When we arrive at where we are going to stay, usually the first thing we do is take our shoes off to let our feet breath. Then, after a hot shower, you start to examine your feet and drain any blisters that may have formed that day. After draining the blisters, then clean with rubbing alcohol and leave them open to breath and hopefully dry out. Then, just before bed, apply Neosporin, and when you wake in the morning, drain any more blisters that may have filled up during the night. After draining all blisters a second time, again clean with rubbing alcohol, then wrap up with a really strong tape that won't move at all during the day's hiking. This is key, because what causes blisters to form in the first place is friction, so it the tape starts to move around, not only will it not protect your blister, but it will probably create a new blister. Linda has perfected this to the point that the toes that she does wrap up look like little mummies :-) But hey, it seems to work, so I'm trying to adopt the same methodology.
Also, when we are hiking, if we are taking a break that lasts more than 5 minutes, then we take our shoes off to let our feet cool down. You can literally feel the heat on your feet from all the walking. And if we are going to be there for a fair amount of time, and it's not too offensive to the others around us, we'll even talk our socks off. Also, if it is later in the day and we come across a stream or river that we can dip our feet into, we grab the opportunity to do so. The water is so cool and feels great on your feet. Of course, you need to dry your feet off completely before putting your socks and shoes back on to avoid any additional dampness which can lead to friction and cause a blister. And if you ever feel a hot spot forming on your feet, stop immediately and put tape on it. I did that today, but it was already too late. A blister had started to form on my big toe, so I addressed it right there on the trail. Fortunately, there was another lady going by who was an expert hiker. She said she has twice gone all the way through on the Applachian Trail. Anyway, she showed me a way to lace my shoes that help reduce the probability of a blister forming, if you're doing everything else right. I immediately relaced both of my shoes and did not have any trouble the rest of the way.
Each day, though, is a battle. Currently I have blisters on 5 toes and one big one on the pad of my foot, and Linda has blisters on 4 toes. We're hoping our feet start to toughen up soon, so we don't have to continue to deal with tender feet as we are walking across some of the stone paths that make up a lot of the Camino (instead of admiring the handiwork of the Romans who built some of the paths we walk on, I end up cursing them :-)
Sorry if I've offended anyone with this discussion, but it's one of the things that really challenges us, both physically and mentally (at least I didn't include any pictures :-)
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