- Time of past OR future Camino
- 2024 Le Puy - Cahors + Saint-Jean - León
My intention was to share these impressions with you from my very first day in the Pyrenees, but for reasons that you can imagine, I never had the time nor the energy to do so. Hence it is only now that I am home from my three-week long walk, that I am posting my experiences.
I left SJPdP on 7 September and finished in León on 28 September. I had already walked the Camino francés in 2005, 2013 and 2018.
The long and detailed report by Gerald Kelly sometime ago covers very completely all that I would have wished to have said. I shall limit my remarks therefore to confirming some of the points he made.
First of all, the number of pilgrims. There were obviously many less pilgrims than in previous years. But I never had the impression that I was alone, except when I started off in the morning much later than the other walkers.
On the other hand, cafés where in previous years I had difficulty finding a seat, this time round generally had free tables, but were never empty.
Hornillos del Camino was like a ghost town in the early evening, not a soul to be seen.
When I walked along the Calle de la Santa Maria in Viana in 2018, I recognised at least half a dozen friends sitting in cafés along this main street in the historic heart of the town. This year, I found that there were fewer cafés open, fewer people sitting at tables in the street and no one that I recognised…
Secondly I got the impression that many more pilgrims were booking ahead, some (unwisely in my opinion) for their entire walk. I reserved beds for the first week and then continued to reserve three or four days in advance for the rest of my Camino.
For various reasons I wanted a private room, if possible in an albergue rather than an hostal, so as to maintain contact with the other people on the trail. There are not many individual rooms in albergues and yet I did not have trouble finding accommodation until after Burgos. From there to Sahagûn I had to juggle dates and make some compromises.
This may have been because there were more people walking from Burgos. But it may also have been because from Burgos onwards I came across several Spanish groups of about a dozen people, one of them accompanied by a bus.
In general I got the impression that beds in dormitories were available in most places.
As has been said many times on the Forum, do not rely on Booking.com or on the availability facility on Gronze, which is based on Booking.com. These gave me the impression, for example, that there were few places available in Sahagún, but when I arrived there I realised that several establishments were half empty. It is always better to contact albergues and hostales directly.
Apart from the groups I have just mentioned, Spaniards seemed to be a small minority of those walking. North Americans, Canadians, and Australians were present, but in (much) smaller numbers than in previous years.
Another trend which I noticed and which will I think become stronger in future years is having one’s backpack (or even suitcase(s)!) transported from one place to another.
As regards the covid virus, I never heard of anyone becoming infected. Spanish statistics show that prevalence of the virus is declining. If you are in reasonably good health - which is probably the case if you are contemplating walking the Camino - have no major underlying illnesses, and maintain a strong immunity, you have nothing to fear but fear itself.
Finally may I say that I have been repeatedly appalled by the fact that most pilgrims make no serious effort to learn a little Spanish and know next to nothing about Spanish history, geography, culture and society. If intending pilgrims were to read a book or use the internet to familiarise themselves just a little with past and present-day Spain, not only would it enrich their experience of walking a Camino, but it would also facilitate their day-to-day life, e.g., understanding and adapting to the hours when Spanish shops are open for business, realising that there are more public holidays in Spain than most other countries, etc..
Even though it is almost the end of the season for walking to Santiago I hope that these remarks will be of some use to those who do so.
I left SJPdP on 7 September and finished in León on 28 September. I had already walked the Camino francés in 2005, 2013 and 2018.
The long and detailed report by Gerald Kelly sometime ago covers very completely all that I would have wished to have said. I shall limit my remarks therefore to confirming some of the points he made.
First of all, the number of pilgrims. There were obviously many less pilgrims than in previous years. But I never had the impression that I was alone, except when I started off in the morning much later than the other walkers.
On the other hand, cafés where in previous years I had difficulty finding a seat, this time round generally had free tables, but were never empty.
Hornillos del Camino was like a ghost town in the early evening, not a soul to be seen.
When I walked along the Calle de la Santa Maria in Viana in 2018, I recognised at least half a dozen friends sitting in cafés along this main street in the historic heart of the town. This year, I found that there were fewer cafés open, fewer people sitting at tables in the street and no one that I recognised…
Secondly I got the impression that many more pilgrims were booking ahead, some (unwisely in my opinion) for their entire walk. I reserved beds for the first week and then continued to reserve three or four days in advance for the rest of my Camino.
For various reasons I wanted a private room, if possible in an albergue rather than an hostal, so as to maintain contact with the other people on the trail. There are not many individual rooms in albergues and yet I did not have trouble finding accommodation until after Burgos. From there to Sahagûn I had to juggle dates and make some compromises.
This may have been because there were more people walking from Burgos. But it may also have been because from Burgos onwards I came across several Spanish groups of about a dozen people, one of them accompanied by a bus.
In general I got the impression that beds in dormitories were available in most places.
As has been said many times on the Forum, do not rely on Booking.com or on the availability facility on Gronze, which is based on Booking.com. These gave me the impression, for example, that there were few places available in Sahagún, but when I arrived there I realised that several establishments were half empty. It is always better to contact albergues and hostales directly.
Apart from the groups I have just mentioned, Spaniards seemed to be a small minority of those walking. North Americans, Canadians, and Australians were present, but in (much) smaller numbers than in previous years.
Another trend which I noticed and which will I think become stronger in future years is having one’s backpack (or even suitcase(s)!) transported from one place to another.
As regards the covid virus, I never heard of anyone becoming infected. Spanish statistics show that prevalence of the virus is declining. If you are in reasonably good health - which is probably the case if you are contemplating walking the Camino - have no major underlying illnesses, and maintain a strong immunity, you have nothing to fear but fear itself.
Finally may I say that I have been repeatedly appalled by the fact that most pilgrims make no serious effort to learn a little Spanish and know next to nothing about Spanish history, geography, culture and society. If intending pilgrims were to read a book or use the internet to familiarise themselves just a little with past and present-day Spain, not only would it enrich their experience of walking a Camino, but it would also facilitate their day-to-day life, e.g., understanding and adapting to the hours when Spanish shops are open for business, realising that there are more public holidays in Spain than most other countries, etc..
Even though it is almost the end of the season for walking to Santiago I hope that these remarks will be of some use to those who do so.
