Camino de Levante September/October 2018

[LAndre83]

Hello!

I'm from Virginia in the United States and planning to do the Camino de Levante in September of this year.

I have been sneaking around this forum for a month now, and figured it's time to sign up.

I really like the environment and friendliness of everyone here.

Cheers!

 

[hel&scott]

Welcome to the forum @LAndre83 , good to see you move on from stalker to participant... Yes we are a friendly, if somewhat opinionated lot.

As to weather on the Levante at that time of year, HOT. We choose to do our Camino walking in the northern Autumn so September sees us hitting the road as it usually means you get to Santiago in October before the heavy rains roll in off the Atlantic.

However when we walked the Levante, September was still really hot. Having already walked the VdlP we thought we could cope with the open spaces and heat, we were wrong. Part of it is that we started in Cartehenga rathen Valencia, but even when we joined up to the main route it was still vary sparce, hot, shadeless and few places to fill up water. Improves a lot after Torledo, both weather and infrastructure wise.

We only met 2 others, a couple of Ozzies who were cycling, they found us out in a field taking shade under a sarong waiting for the heat of the day to pass. Even on bikes they were finding it hard and couldn't believe we wer walking. But others on the forum have done it and found it fine. Check out the Levante section for more info.

Good luck with it.

 

[LAndre83]

Thanks for the welcome and the tidbit of info.

Do you remember how hot it got?

 

[hel&scott]

Looking at my diary, temps on the first few weeks in Sept were over 35 dropping to a more comfortable 28 by Torledo, and 22 by medina del campo... Celsius

 

[KinkyOne]

Thanks for the welcome and the tidbit of info.

Do you remember how hot it got?

I see you are planning to walk Levante in September but if it helps I had two weeks of 40-48 C in June 2015

 

[LAndre83]

Well everyone, I'm going into the FINAL countdown to my walk. I leave for Spain on the 27th and expect to begin the 30th.

To say I'm not getting excited/nervous/anxious is an understatement.

I've been training hard here in the Mid-atlantic. I've been walking with at least 25 lbs (13kg) in our nearly 37 (C) degree humid air regularly and I'm feeling very good.

I've been keeping my eye on the weather out there and it appears to be cooling... to around 32 (C) during the day. Hope it keeps up! I'm still planning on having primarily early morning starts (6 AM) for the at least the first 2 weeks until I get out of the hot zone. I bought a 2.5 L bladder, and my pack (with water) is just a touch over 15lbs (7 kg).

I should have said in my intro I'm a 35/m with a strong athletic background in swimming, hockey, jiujitsu, and Crossfit/powerlifting (which is why I'm not worried about the heat, since we have neither heat or cooling in our gym!). Can't wait to get started!

 

[KinkyOne]

Well everyone, I'm going into the FINAL countdown to my walk. I leave for Spain on the 27th and expect to begin the 30th.

To say I'm not getting excited/nervous/anxious is an understatement.

I've been training hard here in the Mid-atlantic. I've been walking with at least 25 lbs (13kg) in our nearly 37 (C) degree humid air regularly and I'm feeling very good.

I've been keeping my eye on the weather out there and it appears to be cooling... to around 32 (C) during the day. Hope it keeps up! I'm still planning on having primarily early morning starts (6 AM) for the at least the first 2 weeks until I get out of the hot zone. I bought a 2.5 L bladder, and my pack (with water) is just a touch over 15lbs (7 kg).

I should have said in my intro I'm a 35/m with a strong athletic background in swimming, hockey, jiujitsu, and Crossfit/powerlifting (which is why I'm not worried about the heat, since we have neither heat or cooling in our gym!). Can't wait to get started!

It's very solitary but beautiful Camino especially if you like flat terrain and wide blue sky.

Buen Camino!

 

[peregrina2000]

It's very solitary but beautiful Camino especially if you like flat terrain and wide blue sky.

Buen Camino!

Don’t forget the many castles that punctuate that wide blue sky! One of my favorites, hope it goes well for you, LAndre! If you get lonely (I met a total of four pilgrims between Valencia and Zamora where it joins the Sanabrés), you can always report in to the forum. We Levante alumni love to hear about caminos on the Levante.

Absolutely do not miss a trip up to the castle in Xátiva. I have climbed around a LOT of Spanish castles, and this is one of the very nicest.