Allergies On The Camino

[Brad Chatellier]

I live in the U.S. in California, and every year I have seasonal allergies from grass pollens... bad hayfever symptoms. I'm just wondering if people have experienced allergy symptoms on the Camino, and if there's a particular time of year it's especially bad. I'll be hiking in May & June.

Thanks much

 

[sillydoll]

Allergies

May and June are spring months. The fields are green, the wild flowers are spectacular. For the first 50km you will walk through undulating woodland until you reach Pamplona. The trees may have flowers and pollens could irritate.
The next 200 + kms are varied - across Navarra and La Rioja vineyards with several hill ranges to cross.
Much of the next 230 kms between Burgos and Astorga are on the meseta – hot, dusty and possibly irritating. From Astorga to Sarria – 145kms - there are two mountain ranges to cross taking you to the highest point at 1500m. There are large expanses of heather and erica plants that might cause allergies.
The last 115 kms from Sarria to Santiago are fairly arduous with sharp up hills and steep descents through subsistence farms with dry stone walls and small dairy herds (lots of mud and cowshit!).
Take a nasal pray and an antihistamine and you should be OK.

.

 

[leslie]

brad

you're gonna find that la rioja is virtually identical to the north bay
same vineyards, same grasses, even poppies, tho the the spanish ones are red rather than orange

literally

the grasses that populate our rolling hills (foxtails!)
are the grasses that came over from spain in the hooves of the cattle
the spanish imported

so, claritin, nasalcrom...

but remember they have pharmacies in spain, too

 

[peregrina2000]

I don't know much about allergies, but the woman I walked with had some. She brought her medication with her, and as an earlier poster pointed out, there are well-stocked farmacias all along the way. The one bad experience she had was in the refugio in O Cebreiro. We were checked in to the large room upstairs and lay down on our beds to rest for a few minutes before starting the washing/showering routine. Almost immediately, she had a bad reaction -- we looked up to see that the ceiling was covered with black mold. We quickly packed up and moved out, into a little pension nearby. I think maybe there was one other refugio with a similar problem, but I can't remember which one it was.