For 2024 Pilgrims: €50,- donation = 1 year with no ads on the forum + 90% off any 2024 Guide. More here. (Discount code sent to you by Private Message after your donation)
Make sure the poncho you bring is a really good poncho- in January I loaned mine to another hiker while I was wore my goretex since I was conservative/extra safe and carried too much stuff. He had a torn poncho from the wind and he was miserable and wet and cold and trying to find a way to...
Here's a photo of the new ones taken a couple of weeks ago. I think the carved arrows will be nice - harder for vandals or no-do-gooders to "reroute" the camino. This photo was taken as leaving Portomarin- in some areas they aren't all set yet (or they are in the middle of also doing a...
I'm not sure when you will be walking, but in mid January we found nothing open in Fonfria- no albergue, no cafe, etc... This was not unusual for this time of year, but just wanted to mention it in case you may also be there in low season....
*** the website won't let me post the full response, so this is continued from the post above ***
- warm gear: hat, neck gaiter, neoprene gloves, thin poly gloves. Hat, neck gaitor and thin poly gloves were good. I used the neck gaitor as a headband A LOT when the hat was too warm...
I wanted to do a followup on my gear list, now that I'm home and had a wonderful time on the Camino Frances from Dec 8 - Jan 21 from St Jean Pied de Port to Finisterre. We had a wonderful time, a BIG mix of weather, and of course learned a few things about our gear (and other pilgrims gear)...
Where did all of the great weather go? We had a really fun time up to Foncebadon and Cruz de Ferro- Snow and lots of wind! It actually was fun- and made those extra kgs of winter gear that I have been carrying seem worth the extra weight! Now a forecast of rain all week.... We're...
Sorry for the late reply - I'm on the Camino now! :-). Mine are Black Diamond CF Flicklock poles. The CF stands for carbon fiber so thet are a bit lighter than aluminum.
I don't know anything about the OP's condition hallux rigidus, but I wanted to share a revelation I am having on the pain at the base of the big toe (and inner ball of foot). In 2004 I did an 1100 mile hike (with backpack) and had fairly constant foot pain starting on the second or third day...
Beautiful weather continued - so much good weather that we were kind of happy to need to use our rain ponchos (otherwise they are just dead weight!). A bit of windy rain today on the Meseta...
Merry (belated) Christmas from the Camino Frances! I wanted to share two photos from the wonderful Christmas dinner that they hosted at the Burgos Casa de los Cubos albergue on Christmas Eve. After having only seen two other pilgrims in the previous five days (and knowing both of them would...
My husband and I started today, and we feel very lucky. Lucky to have the opportunity to walk the Camino, and lucky to have amazing weather! Today from St Jean to Valcarlos had light rain/ heavy mist for parts of the walk (we didn't leave St Jean until 2pm, it started sprinkling around...
To follow up with Graylands questions about what I encountered walking from St Jean in "winter" (Dec 8), altho it did not feel very much like winter today...
- no problems at all getting taxi from Pamplona, there was not even a stop or visible guarda/officers at the border
- the Pilgrim office...
Just my preferences: Adjustable length (I frequently adjust mine based on up or down hill), and Cam-lock style (after a bad failure of the twist lock style, and annoying grindng when muddy even when it did 'mostly work', and carbone fiber for light weight.... Sounds like you have a nice Santa!
Welcome Tony! I'm on this forum planning our winter Camino on the Frances that starts in a few weeks. This will be my first Camino so I'm not going to be a lot of help planning for the Camino, but I did hike 1100 miles of the Appalachian Trail in 2004. I think when people question...
Thank you all for the responses. I think we'll plan to (hope to) have a taxi from Pamplona to St Jean, but we'll be flexible if for some reason it doesn't work out. Based on that (and that it isn't busy season) we won't book for a night in St Jean - maybe we'll start walking the same day we...
I'm so excited - I just booked our flights, leaving in less than three weeks! We are flying in to Pamplona. Since I believe the bus route to St Jean is not running at this time of year, and Corazon Puro seems to be closed now also, we were hoping to take a taxi from Pamplona to St Jean...
Thank you all for the suggestions, I'm going in tomorrow to try to sort it out. Unfortunately I think that since I need to keep texting available to my US phone number (for work reasons, unfortunately), I may just have to do ATT's international plan.... I have an old iphone 4 i could unlock...
In looking at flight options for my upcoming walk (starting in a few weeks!) I'm finding that prices are similar to fly in and out of different places (from the US). Into Paris or Barcelona, out of Madrid or Lisbon all seem to be within $80 in price. I just wanted to mention this so you know...
Thank you all for the responses. I finally got some information about my At&t options. Varying monthly rates with a charge per minute (higher monthly fee gives lower price per minute). I don't think I'd be making a lot of calls- I plan to call from albergues/bars in advance to check what...
This site is run by Ivar at in Santiago de Compostela.
This site participates in the Amazon Affiliate program, designed to provide a means for Ivar to earn fees by linking to Amazon