The weather forecast...

...Friday, 28 August 2009, on the day I leave Salamanca in the morning for a 16 km walk northwards in the direction of Zamora).
High: 34° C.
As they say in Spanish: uff...

That first day, I intend to walk only up to the first village en-route: Calzada de Valdunciel (some videos here http://www.calzadadevaldunciel.es/?s=videos ) To reach out to the second village would add almost 20 km to that initial 16. Too much for a first day (after that, there might not be any second day!).

Yesterday I've been busy weighing individual items for my luggage. It looks like I'll have a backpack weighing about 7 kilos, however excluding water (the 3-liter capacity camelpak) and food (which could total as much as one kilo). To that must be added slightly less than 3 kilos "other items", being the clothes I'm actually wearing, the boots on my feet, and the hip-pouch with camera, phone and essential medical supplies. The entire medicine kit (including diabetes equipment: injection pen, blood-sugar level monitoring kit, "frio" cooling kit for the insulin reserve) weighs in at about 1.25 kilos. Gasp... And I'm NOT carrying a proper sleeping bag (only a silk interior liner), no mattress, no tent of course, only the best and lightest possible "technical" clothes I could find (like 53-gram T-shirts). For weather protection, I only have a good rain poncho (500 grams!), one fleece (another half kilo...) and one single long-sleeve shirt.

It's not easy at all to keep that load light, yet most essential as all is ...dead weight.