The Le Puy Chemin is definitely worth walking- lots of magnificent scenery, lots of history and historic buildings, amazing architectural structures for the times. Interesting paths through forests, farms, towns and cities. Plus interesting people along the way. The first 2 weeks are very steep, lots of going up and coming down steep rocky paths. We heard from other more seasoned hikers that they felt that the first 14 days of this Camino was the toughest hike they had ever done. So be prepared! It seems that 20km/day is a reasonable pace considering the hills and rocks, plus you also want to have time to stop and enjoy the scenery along the way as well as when you get to each days destination.

Sometimes the book/maps/apps overestimate how long it takes to get from town to town, - be warned!
This part of France seems to close fir the season from 1st October, not many places for food or accommodation are open. You can still find something but your choices are limited. Plus there are a lot less people doing the walk, so it could be quite lonesome.

The weather is still good though- not too hot or too cold.
Nearly everyone on a camino takes away something from it. In my case - a realisation that everyone is different, we all have our idiosyncrancies, and we all have our good points - appreciate diversity! And concentrate on the good in people.

Overall- it was a beautiful and worthwhile hike, can thoroughly recommend it. If anyone would like more information about this walk - I am always up for a chat! Au revoir, A bientot.

Helen from Australian Brain Coaching

Helen Dugdale / Wednesday, 3 January 2024

/ Categories: Blog

Sleep Workshop - CSIRO

Recently I was asked to facilitate a Sleep Workshop for 45 CSIRO personnel, as part of their Workplace Health and Well-being day.

Sleep is so much a part of good health, sometimes it can get over-looked in the busy-ness of work and to-and-from home, especially when asked to work longer hours than usual, in different seasons. Sleep is also important to not only our physical well-being, but also to our emotional well-being.

If we get adequate, good quality sleep , we tend to function better at work, make better decisions, better life-style choices (eg, less junk food, less alcohol etc). We are also more alert and less grumpy!

Most of us know this already, but are we all doing anything about lack of sleep when it occurs?

This sleep workshop gave plenty of tips of what to do and what not to do, in order to get a good sleep.

It also gave out some easy ‘body-hacks’ that people could implement straight away.

Some of the comments from participants were: “I’ll try the self-fulfilling prophecy tip – telling myself something positive rather than going over all the negative things”.

“The progressive muscle relaxation method seemed to work for me, even in a crowded room!”

“I’m going to make a concerted effort to get to bed before midnight each night! (especially knowing that I have to get up at 6.00)”

“Having no alcohol after 9.00 pm might be a good habit to get into, and it may mean that I don’t have to get up and go to the toilet, or I won’t have a headache”.

One of the supervisors said that they will keep the tips learnt in the workshop, in mind, when they next have to ask staff to work longer hours.

Feel free to contact me if you think that staff at your workplace would benefit from learning some useful tips and information in how to look after their health, by getting better sleep.

Or ask me when the next sleep workshop is running. Workshops can be run over zoom, or in person.

I look forward to hearing from you, and being able to share my knowledge!

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Below shows the map of the area of France where you walk the French Camino. The blue line is the distance travelled from the starting point to the end. The redline shows Helen's progress across France walking between 19kms and 25kms a day. Staying at BnB's a long the way.

French Camino Walk Sept 2019