Welcome Trailhawk, depending on the type of hammock and tarp shelter plus accessories you intend to use a lightweight tent probably will not weigh much more and indeed maybe less.
With that setup I think a lightweight tent would weigh less.
I walked the Del Norte in 2017. Around Easter, Spaniards get a Credential del peregrino, park their cars a couple of kilometers from the albergues and walk that to access cheap accommodations for the holidays while vacationing. Many albergues and campsites are overflowing with people for about a week to 10 days then. Some albergues that I stayed at during the Easter holidays had tents you could pitch on their lawn, but as added insurance, I carried an ultralight 8 oz bivy and used my Sea to Summit poncho as a tarp over me when there were no other choices. Campsites are more expensive than albergues and not nearly as many as you want. Spain has very strict laws about "wild" camping plus campfires are forbidden. The campsites that I saw were designed with hedges to mark the edges of the individual sites, plus 99% of the campsites are occupied by trailers. Not a lot of trees large enough to hang your hammock on. Keep your pack light because you're going to climb lotsa hills.
Thank you
As per the other enquiry about camping, you need to actually spend money and buy a a good quality lightweight tent, or their will be guaranteed trouble on wet, cold, windy etc nights! Cheap tents are either heavy or rubbish that will not withstand a shower.
Hi again, I failed to tell you that I walked the Del Norte AND the Primitivo. The Primitivo is more challenging than the Del Norte with distances greater between albergues. When I crossed the Primitivo in May, I was hit with a snow blizzard with lightning no less! The winds were so high that my hiking partner and I had to get down on one knee and drive our hiking poles as deep as possible so we would not get blown off a mountain. The winds were about 120 kilometers per hour! In 2018 I walked the GR70 in September. Again the winds there were spectacular. Wind, snow and rain are only about , at worse, 10% of the experience though. My advice is try to stay in municipal albergues where at least even if some are not heated you'll get a good and safe night's sleep. In at least, from memory, about 75% of the municipal albergues are repurposed schools and othe municipal buildings that often have portico/porch that can as a last measure offer you some protection from the elements. I walked with some Italians that would plan to arrive late at all albergues where if municipal albergue volunteer would go home to sleep, they would find somewhere in a hall or under a porch or sometimes on a kitchen floor, inflate their mattresses and sleep there. The police never gave them trouble for doing that, but with a caveat; only if there are no other reports of you doing that on a regular basis. The Spaniards at albergues and campsites keep a very detailed account of all their users. You must present your passport to acces their accommodation and they are legislated to note in detail all info and dates about your arrival and departure. So it's easy for the authorities to figure out what you've been up to. There was a municipal albergue that I stayed at where a group of trekkers arrived very late and partied till 2am, made a mess, broke a chair and a table. When I arrived at the next albergue about 36 kilometers later, the authorities had already warned the next albergues about those characters. They were refused shelter where I stayed plus I was told they would be refused at all municipal shelters from there on. I suspect they went home since I never saw them again.
Really? The start from irun maybe, but not much further on, but maybe things have changed since my last time. Or would this be unofficial camping?
Tks for answering. Very informative alingwith maps. As I'm hamocking, I'll have to avoid eucalyptus known as widow makers.
In any case, I'll not go to a camping site. I sleep early and leave in the very early morning. Not interested by holidays campers fiestas
There really are a lot, you can google campsites on the Asturias coast or Basque coast or Cantabria coast.
Albergues are an almost guaranteed quiet place past 8 pm. The few campgrounds that I've had to stay at were all busy places well into the evenings. From memory, campgrounds have no noise rules past 10 pm, but there seemed to be lots of cars arriving from wherever well into the night.
Expecting crowds in July of Jubilee year 2021, I look forward to wild camping the North route.
@linkster , can you please show us a picture of your setup? Sounds interesting. Weight too please.@lisaflora Did you check the dimensions on the poncho to ensure that you will have enough coverage over the bivy ... no splashing over the bath tub floor? Something to consider if you are on the ground vs. in the air like in a hammock. My smallest hammock fly is 63" x 99" (99" ridgeline). You may also consider using it on the diagonal (diamond) if needed.
My hammock tarps have multiple attachment points. 2 for the ridge line, 4 for the corners, and (optional) center guy out points. I use a prusik on the ridge line to adjust the tarp right or left, and make it taught. I have used a clove hitch around my trekking pole handles on the ends of the ridge line when I have gone to ground.
Yes thank you. I've hiked The Appalachian trail with it. All good.. doing this all my life@lisaflora Did you check the dimensions on the poncho to ensure that you will have enough coverage over the bivy ... no splashing over the bath tub floor? Something to consider if you are on the ground vs. in the air like in a hammock. My smallest hammock fly is 63" x 99" (99" ridgeline). You may also consider using it on the diagonal (diamond) if needed.
My hammock tarps have multiple attachment points. 2 for the ridge line, 4 for the corners, and (optional) center guy out points. I use a prusik on the ridge line to adjust the tarp right or left, and make it taught. I have used a clove hitch around my trekking pole handles on the ends of the ridge line when I have gone to ground.
You nailed it. I used a Sea to Summit poncho that doubled at a tarp and at times for a dry spot to have picnics on, and a 48 inch 8 ounce Therm-A-Rest NeoAir XLite air mattress and a 8 ounce bivy that's no longer sold made by Katabaticgear and their quilt. With hiking poles it all worked out great when I had to use it, which was only a handful of times. Carry at least 4 tent pegs; locals don't like it when you cut branches to use for that. Albergues are affordable along the Norte and Primitivo. Be aware there are longish distances between albergues on the Primitivo plus food supply stores are almost a dinosaur in villages. Many times the stores are closed on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays etc without any rhyme or reason and or they close for a few hours during the day when by chance you happen to arrive in the village. So, load up emergency food for at least 5 meals when you finally do get a chance to get provisions, likewise carry one and a half liters of water with you at all times. At a few very small hotels, only the guests were allowed to eat because that's all the hotel could afford to stock, so I went to sleep hungry a few nights. That was my experience along the Norte and Primitivo. BTW it's illegal to sleep on beaches, and there are a lot of those along the Norte. Go to a largish Spanish hardware store at the beginning of the Norte, where they sell safe insecticides, I sprayed the interior of my pack, quilt and basically anything that I didn't eat. Their insecticides last the duration of your Camino. Pay attention to the products, what I used was bed and furniture safe. Some insects can make you really sick, so use what the locals use because that's what works best in Spain. Don't worry about the insecticide chemicals, prevention is far safer than the treatment products used to recover from bug infestations. One more thing, set your kit up and sleep in/ under it at least two nights before you leave, that way you can fine tune what is best for you and you'll be quicker to set up. You might even figure some way to shed a little pack weight by doing so.Pack your bags in such a way you don't have to dump all of it to find the essentials of your sleep kit. There are lots of YouTube tutorials on packing and poncho set ups. You will never, ever regret your Camino. I promise you.Expecting crowds in July of Jubilee year 2021, I look forward to wild camping the North route.
I purchased a mesh bivvy from REI for about $60, weighs less than a pound, stays off feet and face [light aluminum pole] and Nemo air mattress fits inside as well as my pack. Both together about size of football. Nemo isnt cheap but super quality and I get a pro discount. Military spec poncho instead of rainjacket/pants will be used as rain gear, cover pack, serve as ground cover or tarp with trekking poles. Entire weather/sleep/waterproof/bugproof set up about 3 lb...less than tent/bag/clothing. I figure I will save way more than that by avoiding bugs, crowds, C19 at algergues. Plus if I want to stay in alberque I can fit the bivvy on the bed to avoid bedbugs. Call me crazy, but I am not bringing C19 or bedbugs home.
Do I err?
Thank you for the great reply. I get myself a little psyched out reading about the wild boar, but I'm an avid hunter so turn around is fair play I guess!
I never saw or heard of anyone seeing wild boar along the Norte and Primitivo. I did cross paths with boar hunters twice and neither had bagged any. They use the Camino paths to return home as they have for centuries. There are millions of wild mountainous acres where I suspect wild boars do their best to hide out in. There are some sheppard's and hunter's tiny refuges that have survived along the camino, but all of them that I stuck my head into indicated they had not been used in decades. The Spanish countryside is now inhabited mostly with retirement aged people. Young people moved to cities like everywhere these days looking for work, and that's why villages are dying out. Sheppards and hunters are something of the past, but there are still some. The large percentage of Spaniards have dogs whose purpose is security. You'll get used to the dogs barking at you after a few days, so those dogs keep the boars in check.
