Hi Helen
I'm thinking about walking this Camino next summer, with a tent. How was the camping, many municipal or private sites? Did you have to do much wild camping?
Sian
Just completed it; good, straightforward questionnaire.
Good luck with this, Birte. I'm writing a PhD thesis on landscape and emotion on the Camino Frances and Camino Portugues so I'd be very interested in your results and conclusions.
I share your eternal conflict between mountains and caminos, it's not easy to combine the two. The first stage of the Camino Frances from St Jean to Roncevalles isn't difficult, just a long uphill slog. I've done it twice, both times in good weather with fantastic views. If you wanted more...
I'm guessing that during June and July one could comfortably 'camp' out with just a sleeping bag and mat and not have to bother with carrying a tent? I did this for one night on the Camino Viejo a couple of years ago.
I'm doing the Via Serrana this summer as a precursor to the Via de la Plata and as part of a Mediterranean to Atlantic walk. Starting June 3, the website mentioned by Canuck is very good.
Another option would be to walk the Camino Vadiniense (Mansilla to Potes/Monastery of Santo Toribio) and Camino Lebaniego (to San Vicente de la Barquera) on the Norte) in reverse. Should take about about a week, and San Vicente is only 11km from Comillas.
I dipped out of the Viejo at Reinosa last year, having joined it in Sodupe. A return is high on my list (alongside the Castellano Aragones) but I think I'd follow the Pamplona route to Miranda then on to Aguilar de Campoo, as you suggest.
I didn't collect my compostela when I first walked the Frances in 2012 and I won't bother when I return this summer. As you say, much better things to do in Santiago and the first thing I wanted to do was get away from my fellow pilgrims.
However, when I arrived in Oviedo last summer, having...
In addition to the ongoing industrial action on French trains, it might be worth noting that a series of 24-hour strikes have been called by RENFE train drivers in Spain for 10, 12, 14 & 16 June. http://www.elmundo.es/economia/2016/05/27/57483687ca47414c018b45de.html
Whether or not they go...
I'm keeping all my options open for this year's trek. After meeting my PhD supervisors yesterday we decided I didn't have to stick to a set route so although I plan to set out along the Vasco and join the Frances at Burgos I may deviate after the meseta. The Invierno looks lovely, though it...
Having toyed with the idea of hiking the Tunel route in reverse at the end of my field trip I'm now contemplating doing it the 'right' way round as a precursor to joining the Frances at Burgos. This is partly because I've been alarmed by some of the reports of girt, humungeous numbers of...
My memories of my 2013 venture along the Ebro are already vague but I think I lunched in Escatron and carrried on to Sastago where I stayed the night in a reasonably well-priced but grumpy pension. Sastago seemed like a bit of a one-horse town out of a western - not unlike Fabara - and after a...
I followed the Ruta Dragonte on my 2012, mostly because I was fed up with pilgrims and pilgrimage and because a hospitalero in Villafranca looked at me in disdain when I asked him for advice about the route.
It was one of the best hikes I've ever done. Fantastic scenery and not another pilgrim...
Hi Peregrina
In an ideal world I would, indeed, be exploring the lesser-known Caminos but this summer I have to do my PhD fieldwork so, as I need plenty of fellow pilgrims and a variety of landscapes, I'm afraid it's back to the Frances. After reading the reports of unprecedented numbers on the...
Just a quick one. I'll be walking the Camino Frances in July/August for my PhD fieldwork. Before returning to the UK I'll be spending a couple of weeks hiking the Basque mountains and it makes logistical sense to walk the Camino Vasco from the Tunel to Irun from where I'll catch a train to...
Some retrospective thoughts on my hike along part of the Viejo Camino this summer: Sodupe to Espinosa de los Monteros: http://ramblanista.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/that-was-summer-that-was.html
I, too, would love to go back and give the Ruta del Ebro another go, with the benefit of what I know now but didn't know last summer when I started at Tortosa and threw in the towel in Sastago. It would make a great first leg of a Mediterranean-Atlantic camino but so would the Camino Catalan!
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