Ungawawa
Active Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- 2017-20: Francés, Norte, Francés, Portuguese Lisbon Coastal, Portuguese central
One of the ways I moonlight is to offer free advice to first-time pilgrims on Facebook groups, and recently I had a chap tell me that he wanted his camino (Frances from SJPdP) to be solitary, so he'd decided to go off-season in April! I had to stifle a chuckle to myself, as anyone who's walking during that month will know that things get totally booked-out and backed-up around that month, especially in those first few stages. Solitude in April isn't likely to be an option.
His information had come via the Santiago pilgrim office - that oft-repeated statistic than July and August are the busiest months. If only I'd had a euro for every time someone recommends going in April or May to avoid the summer crowds! A closer look at the statistics show however there's no way of separating by month the ones who've walked five days from the ones who started in France (or earlier). Yes, there are stats of starting points and stats by month, but not stats by starting point per month, which is the information you'd need to pick apart which are the busiest months at bottlenecks such as Zubiri or Cebreiro. This means the pilgrim office stats can be extremely misleading for someone intending to start at St Jean.
The SJPdP pilgrim office releases its own stats, which shed a completely different light on the busy season on the pre-Sarria road. May is the actual high-point, closely followed by September and April. How different that is from the reported high-season of the Summer!
His information had come via the Santiago pilgrim office - that oft-repeated statistic than July and August are the busiest months. If only I'd had a euro for every time someone recommends going in April or May to avoid the summer crowds! A closer look at the statistics show however there's no way of separating by month the ones who've walked five days from the ones who started in France (or earlier). Yes, there are stats of starting points and stats by month, but not stats by starting point per month, which is the information you'd need to pick apart which are the busiest months at bottlenecks such as Zubiri or Cebreiro. This means the pilgrim office stats can be extremely misleading for someone intending to start at St Jean.
The SJPdP pilgrim office releases its own stats, which shed a completely different light on the busy season on the pre-Sarria road. May is the actual high-point, closely followed by September and April. How different that is from the reported high-season of the Summer!