2005 Bed Race-- Redux

[alhartman]

I have been putting all my Camino stuff in some sort of order—including the emails sent home in May-Jun 2005 (my first Camino)—a real blast from the past and shows how little some things have changed. I have cleaned up some of the typos from my use of the Spanish keyboard and speeding to finish before the terminal shut down at the end of my euro time with 2-3 pilgrims in queue behind me.

“May 13, 2005: slow internet connection. all is well, Jim and I reconnected, and he did a 7k and 17k day on knee, first after the surgery 10 plus days ago, but probably not enuf to keep up or avoid bussing.
the camino is very crowded very early, last night was 4th nite of refuges all full. so, I joined the pilgrim race for beds today leaving at 6am, hiking straight including eating my breakfast yogurt as I walked to save time.
in the first 17km, 18 people passed me, in the next 10, another 24, so after doing 27km in 6.5 hours, I got the second to last bed. not much fun but haven’t figured a way to stagger the starts etc to avoid the overcrowding. And weather too rainy-windy to just set down my bag in a wheatfield and camp. ….
an American GI I have intermittently walked with is leaving the trail at Sahagun tomorrow in frustration at the crowds so that is kind of sad.
food, people, and walk still great, but clearly this is fully discovered and way easy access for the German, French, Italian, and Spanish walkers. cannot imagine what this summer will be like.
maybe 5% of the pilgrims under 50. it is mostly just us old folks. i meet one Dutch guy who had done Appalachian and pacific crest trails. he is 74, takes a top bunk, and springs up there in a single bound.”

 

[mjal]

Yes, indeed ; nothing new under the sun.

I can only go back to late April/early May of 2008 but, as I noted in a recent post, the bed-race was certainly evident then. It took us several days to realise what was going on ; people queuing at 1400 at Roncesvalles then 1200 (!) at Estella. Why are they perched on a bench outside the albergue at these early hours? Eventually the answer dawned so we did not set off to Los Arcos on a hot afternoon until we had secured a bed.

If we ever manage a complete CF without a break, we shall be booking ahead, probably 5-6 days in advance.