Disappointed

[Sojourner47]

Well, I'm back early from my projected CM - the high temps drove me home...It's no pleasure walking in 36 C with no shade. For all that I only did 3 days from Fuencarral to Cercedilla,then train to Segovia, then home, I was somewhat underwhelmed by the route - I don't know where you guys have been walking before to rate this so highly, but for me it isn't a patch on northern Mallorca, or lots of long distance paths in the UK. The white path stretching endlessly ahead about sums it up.
Monotonous. Day 3 from Manzanares to Cercedilla was practically all tarmac - albeit with little traffic, pedestrian or vehicular.
Camino - you can keep it... :mrgreen:

 

[Arn]

Sojourner47,

When I saw the title of this thread and then the poster, I must admit I never would have associated "disappointment" with you on any level.

Of the many posters, your sage whit, solid advice and steadfast encouragement rates high marks.

All said, this just goes to support the many folks that know it's the Camino that makes the Way in it's many attributes, challenges and emotional responses...yourself included.

Saludos,

Arn

 

[peregrina2000]

Hi sojourner,

I know I'm one of the ones who waxed enthusiastic about the Camino de Madrid, and I'm sorry yours has turned out so differently. I harbor no illusions about my own ability to enjoy a Camino in the kind of temperatures you describe -- I don't know if you're following Claire's Vdlp, but she describes many of the same problems. I have never walked outside the months of May and June, so I have never experienced the physical exhaustion and depletion that these high temperatures must cause. I have wondered how I would fare, but I am not tempted to find out.

I think that for many of us who remember the days when the Camino frances was not so "masificado" as the Spaniards say, these less-traveled alternatives offer us the ability to experience that rhythmic routine that requires no conscious thought and a decent level of physical stamina, no online calendar to schedule endless meetings, the gratitude for life that this uncluttered and uncrowded day to day engenders, a chance to interact with people in Spain who aren't bombarded by people like me on a daily basis -- but I am just not as good at putting this into words as some of my friends on this forum.

I appreciate your posting because it's important that there be alternative opinions to ones like mine, because I know that camino addicts like me have a tendency to look back with rosy glasses.

I wish you the best, Laurie

 

[Rebekah Scott]

Oh well. Horses for courses, I say. The Madrid certainly isn´t for everybody! You need to get yourself onto another camino, and SOON. I wish you´d thought to come north, you could´ve walked in conditions perhaps more suitable, on any of several great camino trails.

Still, it is good you listened to your body and called off before you hurt yourself.
I hope you will come back!

Reb.

 

[jpflavin1]

Sojourner47:

Sorry to hear about your disappointing Camino Madrid. That said, it has helped me make my decision Camino Vasco/Frances vs. Camino Madrid/Frances. Hope to see you back on another Camino someday.

Ultreya,
Joe

 

[alipilgrim]

Hi Sojourner,

I'm sorry that you did not enjoy the Madrid route, but with those temperatures it's fully understandable. The first 3 days one is still walking in the outskirts and bedroom communities of Madrid, which accounts for the bit of tarmac one walks before Cercedilla, however the scenery and atmosphere changes quite dramatically after Segovia and so I would encourage anyone who has an interest in doing this route to persevere if conditions permit. It truly is 90% off-road walking, and to this pilgrim, gorgeous.

alipilgrim

 

[methodist.pilgrim.98]

I am sorry for your disappointment but I think you have given us all an important and useful insight into the CM ie be aware of the heat and just how bad it can be.

I had to abandon my 2008 Camino. I was so shattered by the experience that as I sat in the albergue in Burgos it never occured to me that I could take a train to Lugo and then finish off by walking Sarria to SdC, which would have just about been achievable. Instead I came home.

I returned an emotional and financial wreck. The one consolation was that I walked through the 2000km barrier while arriving at Hornillos del Camino (being my 6th Camino journey). If I had not achieved that I am not sure if I would have ever returned to the Camino.

In 2009 I returned to walk the Camino Inglés, which I know you like, and I am sure that you will get on the Camino again.

How we cope with the disappointments of the Camino is something that we tend not to take seriously, but the pain is more emotional than the joy.

As you recover do update us.

 

[Anniesantiago]

I also had to abandon my VDLP Camino after less than 2 weeks in 2009 because of the dangerous heat and lack of water on the route.

Instead of returning home, however, I took a bus to Jaca and walked the Aragones and then a portion of the Northern route. I hope someday to return to Seville and walk the VDLP in its entirety, but NOT IN AUGUST!!!!

People tried to warn me.
I was one of those kids who had to touch the stove!
I guess I still am! :lol:

Please don't give up.
You might try doing the route again... but in the Spring or Fall.
It's incredible the difference a season can make.

 

[duncan pm]

I used to live in Valladolid and I absolutely agree that one can feel immensely crushed by the vastness of the land and intensity of the dry heat. It can be frightening and endless.
I love the extense of the plain, Tierra de Campos, the sea of endless, rolling wheat but you can also feel as though you are drowning.
The emptiness, sparceness and lack of people evokes strong feelings.
All the best to you and to your next camino.

 

[Priscillian]

You know what they say: "You don't choose the Camino; the Camino chooses you"? Maybe this time you were not chosen but you carried on anyway. I remenber very well a time many years ago when I was determined to walk the Camino Primitivo and EVERYTHING told me: "Tracy. Don't push it. Not now." I had my feet wrapped and my boots on but I STILL couldn't get myself walking!
Finally, I (very guiltily) drove to S de C and parking my car outside the Seminario Menor like a homing pigeon slept the night through; the next day I woke up right as rain.
Maybe it was you, and the time that was wrong, not the Camino?
You'll know where to go next time. Just listen. Just listen...
TS

 

[mikevasey]

You know what they say: "You don't choose the Camino; the Camino chooses you"? Maybe this time you were not chosen but you carried on anyway. I remenber very well a time many years ago when I was determined to walk the Camino Primitivo and EVERYTHING told me: "Tracy. Don't push it. Not now." I had my feet wrapped and my boots on but I STILL couldn't get myself walking!
Finally, I (very guiltily) drove to S de C and parking my car outside the Seminario Menor like a homing pigeon slept the night through; the next day I woke up right as rain.
Maybe it was you, and the time that was wrong, not the Camino?
You'll know where to go next time. Just listen. Just listen...
TS

I like this message, I have just read it, I think I needed it after the CP. I walked to Rabacal via Fatima, on the 2 day stretch to Ansaio I developed Tendonitis, it was all busy road on the 2nd day(100%) with vey little places to jump, it was given as 28km, add 1.5km for walking from our hotel and add 3km after following some yellow arrows to Alvaizere and only realising after we had been going for a while. I had to restart in Porto and allowed 11 days to do it, it just never felt right after that. My last section south of Porto was Ansiao to Rabacal, what a beautiful day of walking, with the vineyards in the late hot summer sun, and there was this incredible castle far up and away overlooking it all, it was only 18km but I knew then I would have to take days off and restart somewhere else. I should have come home or maybe even just gone to the beach, it was hot enough.

I feel a bit down at the moment.I was thinking maybe I have overdone it with the caminos in the last 15 months, but this message has rang true with me, the part to Fatima(Caminho do Fatima) was incredible and even Rabacal to Ansiao felt good despite my leg, but the rest of it, I struggled with.
My walking partner Phil should get into to Tui today, he is having the time of his life, this Caminho has chosen him, maybe next time for me.

Mike

 

[sillydoll]

My husband joined me in Sarria in 2007 to walk the last stretch to Santiago (we had started at Roncesvalles and had been walking for 4 weeks by then).
Although he enjoyed the walk (what was not to enjoy, stopping for a beer every lunch time, having foot rubs every afternoon, shoulder massages and someone to wash out his jocks and socks!) he said that he would not have enjoyed walking for more than a week.
I told him that the first week is the worst. Nobody would want to do the first week over and over again (like Groundhog day.)
Its not until the 2nd week that the pack starts feeling comfortable, the boots are properly laced, one is getting used to the different climate, language, water and food, and sleeping with a bunch of strangers.
Its not until the 3rd week that you start feeling at home in the rhythm of getting up with the sun, walking all day, going to bed with the sundown and striding out naturally like a walking machine.
By the 4th week you are in the Zone! You are a part of the Camino - you are the Camino and by the 5th week your are Zen-like - a walking meditation!
If you repeat the Camino often enough you can skip one (or two) of these stages and get into the Zen-zone fairly quickly but I don't think many of us can get there in 3 or 4 days.

 

[mikevasey]

I told him that the first week is the worst. Nobody would want to do the first week over and over again (like Groundhog day.)

The first was not too bad, but the 2nd new start I fought against it, like a little child I was upset about not being able to the section I most wanted to do and did not embrace the new one, allowing myself to held by the thought of what could have been, which is a prison.

 

[Deleted member 3000]

allowing myself to held by the thought of what could have been

I am currently working a lightweight, packable time machine for all the "I coulda, shoula, woulda" probems of the Camino. When it is ready for market, I will let you know.

 

[mikevasey]

I am currently working a lightweight, packable time machine for all the "I coulda, shoula, woulda" probems of the Camino. When it is ready for market, I will let you know.

Ok hands up! I will stop going on about it.

 

[mikevasey]

Well, I'm back early from my projected CM - the high temps drove me home...It's no pleasure walking in 36 C with no shade. For all that I only did 3 days from Fuencarral to Cercedilla,then train to Segovia, then home, I was somewhat underwhelmed by the route - I don't know where you guys have been walking before to rate this so highly, but for me it isn't a patch on northern Mallorca, or lots of long distance paths in the UK. The white path stretching endlessly ahead about sums it up.
Monotonous. Day 3 from Manzanares to Cercedilla was practically all tarmac - albeit with little traffic, pedestrian or vehicular.

On my last day before Santiago on the CP when I was in Padron, I met 4 English people(2 couples) who had tried recently walking the Madrid and had to give up because of the heat, the lack of shade the long stages and a long stretch on a old disused railway where the large stones played havoc with their feet. Maybe the CM should be treated like the Via de la Plata, where there are favourable times of the year to walk it.

 

[alipilgrim]

Funny, in retrospect I don't remember that section of walking alongside the abandoned railroad to have lasted more than an hour or two... To each his own

 

[JohnnieWalker]

In my opinion the Route from Madrid to Sahagun is very beautiful and straightforward. As Laurie said it is a route where the pilgrim infrastructure is far in advance of the number of pilgrims walking the route. The route is relatively modern and was designed by the Amigos of the Camino - i.e. it was designed by walkers for walkers. Therefore the stages basically leave one village and travel through countryside and forest paths until the next village. This is truly a "no roads" route.

However the route has its challenges. The Camino Frances with a water fountain every few kilometres it is not - you have to carry what you will need and when temperatures soar this can mean a lot of extra weight. Some may find the stage going over the mountain to Segovia challenging - it is a long day with some serious cardio-vascular exercise first thing in the morning, however it is also very beautiful.

Although I walked this route myself in August when temperatures soared to 44 degrees and I was carrying 5 ltrs of water I still very much enjoyed it. But on balance I think this is really a Spring or Autumn route if it is to be enjoyed to the full.