lyndsay smith
New Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- walked from Astorga to SdC in 2013
plan to cycle from Burgos to ScD with my 13 year old son in 2016
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Hi Lyndsay - if you rent from one of the better rental companies you "should" be able to have the bikes picked up (in say Arzua) and have them transported to an agreed drop-off point in Santiago (probably at your cost!). This would then give you a two day walk into SDC. As for panniers/backpacks. Maybe bring two backpacks (say one 25 ltr and one 35 ltr) these would carry any gear that did not fit into the pannier(s) - here again I would hire them (as part of the bike package). The larger pack you could tie onto the packrack (bring a couple of stretch straps). If you have your own you could forward them to Ivar to pick-up on arrival in SDC.Thanks so much for your input all of you... I'm in two minds still but may weigh my options up when we get to Burgos. Ideally I'd like to cycle for about a week then walk the last couple of days into SdC so that limits things if renting as I'm sure you can't drop off in the smaller towns. ... We could maybe purchase the 1 pannier bag between two of us and take 1 rucksack which we could swap over with each other. The main problem when I think about it is the transfer from Madrid to Burgos as it would get us into the town at 3am :/ not ideal when you don't have accomodation booked and have a child in tow. The alternative would be to stay in Madrid airport for a few hours and catch the early morning bus instead.So much to think about but hopefully it'll all starts coming together
Hi fellow pilgrims,
I'm after some honest advice. I'm a 36 year old woman who has walked a camino from Astorga to Santiago in 2013 solo. It is right up there with one of the most awe inspiring wonderful times i've ever experienced and that feeling of wanting to return never goes away.
Fast forward 3 years and I am contemplating going back to cycle the route with my 13 year old son. The plan is a flight from Gatwick to Madrid, catch a bus to Burgos, purchase a cheap mountain bike for us both at Decathlon and cycle from there to Santiago.
First of all, am I mad? I'm not an experienced cyclist although my son is, he's a bmxer racer so used to biking much more than me. Saying that I am fit, healthy and strong and would listen to my body if it needed to stop. We would have 11 days to make the trip and catch a return flight from Santiago to Madrid then on to Gatwick. In everyone's honest opinion, is this doable?
I'm realising the trip won't be cheap due to all the connections, but I really want to experience something magical with my teenage son before he gets too old to want to do this sort of thing with me and I think if it goes to plan, it will be something he remembers forever.
Do you think this is a good plan, to buy a cheap bike rather than rent one (they do seem expensive to hire), is there anything glaringly obvious I've failed to think through? Baring in mind, i'm only in the early stages of planning but hope to go in August this year.
I'm in 2 minds whether to just bite the bullet, book the flights and let whatever happens happen, which is what I did for my solo pilgrimage 3 years ago.
Advice greatly received.
Cheers all
Lynds
Hi fellow pilgrims,
I'm after some honest advice. I'm a 36 year old woman who has walked a camino from Astorga to Santiago in 2013 solo. It is right up there with one of the most awe inspiring wonderful times i've ever experienced and that feeling of wanting to return never goes away.
Fast forward 3 years and I am contemplating going back to cycle the route with my 13 year old son. The plan is a flight from Gatwick to Madrid, catch a bus to Burgos, purchase a cheap mountain bike for us both at Decathlon and cycle from there to Santiago.
First of all, am I mad? I'm not an experienced cyclist although my son is, he's a bmxer racer so used to biking much more than me. Saying that I am fit, healthy and strong and would listen to my body if it needed to stop. We would have 11 days to make the trip and catch a return flight from Santiago to Madrid then on to Gatwick. In everyone's honest opinion, is this doable?
I'm realising the trip won't be cheap due to all the connections, but I really want to experience something magical with my teenage son before he gets too old to want to do this sort of thing with me and I think if it goes to plan, it will be something he remembers forever.
Do you think this is a good plan, to buy a cheap bike rather than rent one (they do seem expensive to hire), is there anything glaringly obvious I've failed to think through? Baring in mind, i'm only in the early stages of planning but hope to go in August this year.
I'm in 2 minds whether to just bite the bullet, book the flights and let whatever happens happen, which is what I did for my solo pilgrimage 3 years ago.
Advice greatly received.
Cheers all
Lynds
Hi fellow pilgrims,
I'm after some honest advice. I'm a 36 year old woman who has walked a camino from Astorga to Santiago in 2013 solo. It is right up there with one of the most awe inspiring wonderful times i've ever experienced and that feeling of wanting to return never goes away.
Fast forward 3 years and I am contemplating going back to cycle the route with my 13 year old son. The plan is a flight from Gatwick to Madrid, catch a bus to Burgos, purchase a cheap mountain bike for us both at Decathlon and cycle from there to Santiago.
First of all, am I mad? I'm not an experienced cyclist although my son is, he's a bmxer racer so used to biking much more than me. Saying that I am fit, healthy and strong and would listen to my body if it needed to stop. We would have 11 days to make the trip and catch a return flight from Santiago to Madrid then on to Gatwick. In everyone's honest opinion, is this doable?
I'm realising the trip won't be cheap due to all the connections, but I really want to experience something magical with my teenage son before he gets too old to want to do this sort of thing with me and I think if it goes to plan, it will be something he remembers forever.
Do you think this is a good plan, to buy a cheap bike rather than rent one (they do seem expensive to hire), is there anything glaringly obvious I've failed to think through? Baring in mind, i'm only in the early stages of planning but hope to go in August this year.
I'm in 2 minds whether to just bite the bullet, book the flights and let whatever happens happen, which is what I did for my solo pilgrimage 3 years ago.
Advice greatly received.
Cheers all
Lynds
Hello everyone,
I've got to say, thank you once again for all your advice and well wishes. So the update is that I've booked the flights for my son and I from Gatwick to Madrid on 13th August and return from Santiago to Stansted on 26th August. Simon your message was really helpful, the reason why I hadn't originally planned to fly from Santiago direct to London was there were no flights on the day I wanted. I've bumped it forwards a day and gone direct now, although didn't save very much on the price, only £25 in total but a saving is a saving and it means less travel.
However, my son is racing in the British BMX Championships that weekend in Derby so we will need to get straight there from the airport. So our itinerary looks like this:
13th August Bus from Poole - Gatwick Airport
13th August Flight from Gatwick to Madrid (Booked)
13th August Hotel stay in Madrid due to late landing time of 11.35pm
14th August Bus from Madrid to Burgos
14th August collect bikes from Alburgue to be confirmed in Burgos
15th August start cycling
21st Finish cycling
22nd August start walking
26th August Flight from Santiago to Stansted (Booked)
26th August Train from Stansted to Derby
3 days at British BMX championships in Derby then home to Dorset!
So the next stage is booking the bike hire for a week, i've already had some quotes for that. Working out where to stay in Burgos for our first night as we need to give the bike hire people a delivery address that will accept a bike for us. Then thinking about how far we can get in 7 days to give the bike people a collection town/alburgue which also leaves us enough days to get to Santiago for the 24th or 25th August as I want at least a day there.
I don't want to go mad and rush our time so if we have to bus some of it then that's fine, it's just working out logistics now.
Anyone cycled for a week from Burgos who can give an estimate on how far they comfortably got to in a week? I'm thinking maybe Portamarin or Palas de Rei?
Cheers y'all
Hello everyone,
I've got to say, thank you once again for all your advice and well wishes. So the update is that I've booked the flights for my son and I from Gatwick to Madrid on 13th August and return from Santiago to Stansted on 26th August. Simon your message was really helpful, the reason why I hadn't originally planned to fly from Santiago direct to London was there were no flights on the day I wanted. I've bumped it forwards a day and gone direct now, although didn't save very much on the price, only £25 in total but a saving is a saving and it means less travel.
However, my son is racing in the British BMX Championships that weekend in Derby so we will need to get straight there from the airport. So our itinerary looks like this:
13th August Bus from Poole - Gatwick Airport
13th August Flight from Gatwick to Madrid (Booked)
13th August Hotel stay in Madrid due to late landing time of 11.35pm
14th August Bus from Madrid to Burgos
14th August collect bikes from Alburgue to be confirmed in Burgos
15th August start cycling
21st Finish cycling
22nd August start walking
26th August Flight from Santiago to Stansted (Booked)
26th August Train from Stansted to Derby
3 days at British BMX championships in Derby then home to Dorset!
So the next stage is booking the bike hire for a week, i've already had some quotes for that. Working out where to stay in Burgos for our first night as we need to give the bike hire people a delivery address that will accept a bike for us. Then thinking about how far we can get in 7 days to give the bike people a collection town/alburgue which also leaves us enough days to get to Santiago for the 24th or 25th August as I want at least a day there.
I don't want to go mad and rush our time so if we have to bus some of it then that's fine, it's just working out logistics now.
Anyone cycled for a week from Burgos who can give an estimate on how far they comfortably got to in a week? I'm thinking maybe Portamarin or Palas de Rei?
Cheers y'all
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