Mon 7 Sep - Testing the hypothesis 2

So I slept in my sleeping bag and liner last night, on top of our guest bed at home. I used what I have in my pack as a pillow and for change of clothing. I purposely also did not have any overnight heating on. Therefore, I could check the warmth of the sleeping bag and liner. 

This is how the arrangement looked, with notepad and pen nearby to write down any observations. 

If you open up the sleeping bag, it looks like this.

The purple thing is an old liner that Di already had and I inherited for the Camino. 

The 2 black squares are pockets with Velcro locking. I had the Chinese dry cleaner / key cutter / seamstress downstairs add these to the liner. I will have my valuables inside those pockets close to me while I'm sleeping. 

The larger pocket to the left is for the safety pouch and the smaller one to the right is for the phone and wallet. 

I purposely had the pockets positioned between were hips and knees would be. That should mean minimal interference during sleep. 

The arrangement seemed to work fine. I will get used to some minor bulks on either side. 

I will also bring a clothesline and safety pin to hang up my gear next to my bed.  This is for when outside weather prevents overnight drying or when all the outside facilities are already used by other pilgrims. 

I hung up the clothesline and this is how it looked after hand washing the gear I wore yesterday. Not pretty but it should work. 

I have bought myself a very cheap wrist watch which I was wearing over night. 

The clock face is backlit through the press of a button and that worked fine during the night too. I assume that I can easily check the time in the middle of the night in an albergue without disturbing anyone. 

So what was the verdict from all this?

Well, I did wake up several times during the night. I am not sure whether it was because I was uncomfortable / cold or just the unfamiliar arrangement. I assume I will get used to the latter pretty quickly once I'm on the Camino. 

I did feel a bit cold in the middle of the night. I slept in my very light gym gear, which I will bring. However, I have read that a lot of pilgrims just sleep in whatever they are going to wear the next day. We will see. The gym gear may be discarded on the road. 

On the other hand, a full albergue with plenty of sleeping pilgrims is likely to generate a lot of heat. 

I felt that i couldn't easily find everything in or outside my pack once settled. That will probably sort itself out as I will restructure / discard what doesn't work over time. 

Test night complete. It will work! It has to work!!

I will comfortably sleep in our main bed for the last two nights. I will get enough of rough sleeping once of the road so better make full use of comfort now.