10 days in june, where to start?

[sabrina]

Since reading about the camino a few years ago I have been entirely obsessed with making the journey!! Now I have a friend who would like to do it too. We have 10 days to do as much of it as we can in June, its all we can get off work. We are both quite fit and intend to travel very light, im sure that is everybody's intention. So, assuming we will be going along the camino Frances we are wondering where to begin? where is reasonable etc? We are flying from london or manchester. Would love some opinions and guidance, Sabrina xx

 

[sabrina]

looking at various maps, ive noticed that there is a costal route and a more main land, any preferences?

 

[sillydoll]

Sabrina, you could fly to A Corruna and walk the camino Ingles (5 days), spend a day in Santiago, then walk to Finisterre (3 or 4 days) get a bus back to Santiago and fly back to the UK from there. This way you do two 'whole' camino routes and earn two certificates!!

 

[JohnnieWalker]

Sabrina - by June the Camino Frances is getting busier and the last sections are particularly busy. That may be your preference. But Sil is giving you great advice - with the Camino Ingles ( I'm biased!) you have the choice of 3 days from A Coruna or 5 days from Ferrol - it is very accessible from London - you can fly to Santiago with Ryan air and then get a bus to A Coruna or Ferrol - around 1 hour and only costs a few Euros or fly direct to A Coruna - again you can get a bus to Ferrol if you wish.

To be honest my ideal two weeks would be the Camino Ingles into Santiago then out to Finisterre - perfect! If you aren't worried about getting a Compostela ( for that you need to walk 100 kms) you could walk from A Coruna spend a little time in Santiago then walk out to Finisterre.


John

 

[sabrina]

ok now i feel completely stupid as i really should have mentioned that we plan to do it on bikes. Thank you Sil and John, your advice was great. can i assume i could just double up the distances you both mentioned, so i don't waste your advice? xx

 

[JohnnieWalker]

Sabrina - well that does make a difference! But not to worry - planning which route is all part of the fun for all of us.

There are experienced cyclists in the Forum and I'm sure they will pitch in with their views on this.

An option would also be the Camino Portugues - 232kms from Porto - so you could qualify for a Compostela if that is your goal - walkers must walk 100 kms and cyclists 200 kms. I'm sure you would still then have time to cycle out to Finisterre.

On the Camino Frances you could start in Burgos - I am assuming that just less than 500 kms is do-able in the time.

You can play around with various starting points and work out distances here:

http://www.godesalco.com/plan

But I'm not a cyclist - I'm sure others will pitch in.

Happy planning.

John

 

[Bridget and Peter]

Sabrina

Here is another option you may not have considered: make the whole camino experience last a whole lot longer and cycle from home - in annual leave-size chunks over as many years as it takes. (Or start somewhere in Holland, Belgium or France).

We are cyclists and I have a full-time job with only ordinary length holidays. So far we have
1. cycled from home (near Ely) to Harwich over a weekend in July 2007
2. cycled from the Stena line ferry at Hook of Holland to Rheims in Sept 2007
3. cycled from Rheims to just south of Limoges (on the Vezalay route) in Sept/Oct 2008.

Each trip has had its own flavour and excitement, and each one has built on the previous -
so the first was just dipping our toes on the water, the second was about discovering that we could trust that we would somehow find somewhere to sleep each night, and that even bad french is good for communicating, and the third began to be more about being part of the pilgrimage, and improving the french! Our blog (see below) will give you a flavour, even though last year's bit is not complete yet! (As I said, I do work full time!)

Another advantage is that we have built up our experience in travelling to the Camino (Jakobspilgrimspad or Chemin de St Jacques) - from having to put our bikes on the train from Harwich and then begging to be allowed to put them in the boot of the bus replacement service (avoid sundays), to booking our route home from Reims at Reims station, to cycling across London from Victoria to Finsbury Park without a very clear idea of where Finsbury PArk actually is, above ground, to travelling on Eurostar last Sept, 4 days after the fire in the tunnel, and returning from Limoges and cycling/pushing bikes across Paris. So far, no flying, which always sounds very difficult with bikes.

And returning to Reims this year was fun - we knew which way to go to the youth hostel, and the receptionist remembered us and welcomed us!

NB I would agree with Johnnie that 500km in 10 days is probably about right, if you are not speedsters but likely to stop to look at places and walk up a few hills. We often do more than 50 km a day, but reckon on a rest day somewhere interesting after 3 or 4 days moving on. So far we have not had a fixed idea of how far we were going to get, just which towns or cities have main line rail stations.

 

[sabrina]

To John and Bridget and Peter,
Thank you for your advice. Its good to know what is a do-able distance, based on that 500km i finally have a place to start in the planning process. I really like the idea of cycling form home but i am so impatient to do the camino from spain and im afrain cycling through birmingham from manchester may stifle my enthusiasm!!! Thanks again for helping me, if people like you are on the camino im looking forward to it more than ever!!!
sabrina xx