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Hello and thank you for your input. Where can I get the credential if I start in Pamlona? I may just do that and go back to SJPDP another time.I have started once in SJPDP. Nothing special, but then I am used to mountains, so nothing new to me. All other times I have started in Pamplona. Easier, cheaper, less hazzle and better, IMHO.
When arriving in Pamplona, take a bed in the municipal albergue Jesus y Maria. They sell credentials at 2 Euros. If you stay in another place in Pamplona, go to the municipal in the evening or early morning for your credencial.Hello and thank you for your input. Where can I get the credential if I start in Pamlona? I may just do that and go back to SJPDP another time.
Thank you,
Akai
Thank you again for the advice. Those is my first experience walking solo long distance... starting slowly and sturdy sound perfectly fine to meIt is completely not set in stone that SJPDP is a "starting point" for the CF. It is just a modern, urban legend, so to speak. Wherever you start is your starting point.
Furthermore, the first day from SJPDP is by far the hardest day on the whole Camino. Do yourself a favour, and start slowly from Pamplona is MHO.
So true. Thank you so so much. I truly appreciated your advice. Now I need to change my hostel as I pretty much prebooked for every night.Should also say: If the weather forecast is that bad, you will be walking in rain and fog over the Pyrenees: No much mountain views... but cold and miserable IMHO.
Wing it. On the Camino, the best plan is to not have a plan. Take it as it comes. Which our dialogue is a good example of. Another example of the freedom you will (eventually) find on your Camino.So true. Thank you so so much. I truly appreciated your advice. Now I need to change my hostel as I pretty much prebooked for every night.
Wing it. On the Camino, the best plan is to not have a plan. Take it as it comes. Which our dialogue is a good example of. Another example of the freedom you will (eventually) find on your Camino.
Edit: As John Lennon said: Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.
Welcome to the Camino, pilgrim. Buen Camino!sounds like he mentioned me
Hi Akai, I’m going to take a slightly different perspective than expressed above. SJPP and the Pyrenees are most special. Like others, I have spend most of my adult years living in the mountains in the States. And, as accustomed to the hills as I find myself being, my first day on the Napoleon Route was an absolutely tremendous experience and challenge. On a completely clear day, the views this route offers is spectacular. The sense of achievement I felt sitting on the terrace of Casa Sabina in Roncesvalles prepared me for the challenges of the month to come. My second trip to SJPP found me taking the Valcarlos Route on a rather wet and dreary day. Nonetheless, starting my Caminos by crossing the Pyrenees set an amazing tone for the rest of my stages on the CF. Start wherever you like, but the reality of the rain or inclement weather is a reality to deal with along the 500 mile journey to Santiago. I remember walking in heavy rain for five days from Ferrol to Santiago a few springs ago. A great five days they were!Hello camino friends,
I have been checking the weather... and looks like it is going to rain for the next 10 days or more in SJPDP and Roncesvalles. I will arrive in Pamlona and taxi to SJPDP on May 17... the rain over the Penryne concerned me...Second thought is perhaps I should start the walk from Pamlona instead of SJPDP? I'm so torn... any thoughts?
Thanks,
Akai
If you aren't starting at your front door, any starting point is arbitrary, and the start of the "Camino Frances" strikes me as more arbitrary than most. It seems to me that Ostabat in France and Roncesvalles and Puente la Reina in Spain have at least as good a claim to the "Start of the Camino Frances" title as SJPDP. So, by all means, start wherever you want.Hello camino friends,
I have been checking the weather... and looks like it is going to rain for the next 10 days or more in SJPDP and Roncesvalles. I will arrive in Pamlona and taxi to SJPDP on May 17... the rain over the Penryne concerned me...Second thought is perhaps I should start the walk from Pamlona instead of SJPDP? I'm so torn... any thoughts?
Thanks,
Akai
Strictly speaking, the Camino Frances starts from Puente La Reina, when the via Tolosana join others ways from France.It seems to me that Ostabat in France and Roncesvalles and Puente la Reina in Spain have at least as good a claim to the "Start of the Camino Frances" title as SJPDP
That's why I included Puente La Reina in my list.Strictly speaking, the Camino Frances starts from Puente La Reina, when the via Tolosana join others ways from France.
Between SJPP and Puente La Reina, the way is called Camino Navarro.
You could do the Aragones. It is a beautiful camino and quiet and it joins the CF in Puente La Reina.Hello camino friends,
I have been checking the weather... and looks like it is going to rain for the next 10 days or more in SJPDP and Roncesvalles. I will arrive in Pamlona and taxi to SJPDP on May 17... the rain over the Penryne concerned me...Second thought is perhaps I should start the walk from Pamlona instead of SJPDP? I'm so torn... any thoughts?
Thanks,
Akai
Hi Grousedoctor,Hi Akai, I’m going to take a slightly different perspective than expressed above. SJPP and the Pyrenees are most special. Like others, I have spend most of my adult years living in the mountains in the States. And, as accustomed to the hills as I find myself being, my first day on the Napoleon Route was an absolutely tremendous experience and challenge. On a completely clear day, the views this route offers is spectacular. The sense of achievement I felt sitting on the terrace of Casa Sabina in Roncesvalles prepared me for the challenges of the month to come. My second trip to SJPP found me taking the Valcarlos Route on a rather wet and dreary day. Nonetheless, starting my Caminos by crossing the Pyrenees set an amazing tone for the rest of my stages on the CF. Start wherever you like, but the reality of the rain or inclement weather is a reality to deal with along the 500 mile journey to Santiago. I remember walking in heavy rain for five days from Ferrol to Santiago a few springs ago. A great five days they were!
Thank you so much. I have few more days to decide. Buen CaminoStart in Pamplona
With rain can come blisters with soggy wet socks
You won’t be seeing much with the fog
Both Ways (ValCarloss and Napoleon) are very hard.
Amazing, yes, in clear weather
Wonderful
There will be other caminos!
The walk out of Pamplona and up to alto perdon is very special
Hello,Depends on how much pain you can endure. By that I mean trekking in rain is not fun. if you are doing the Camino for some reason and only see it as being authentic if you walk the entire way from SJPDP, then that is what you must do. But alternatives exist.
Somport to Pamplona or Puente la Reina is one possibility. Bayonne to Pamplona if you want something different but authentic and don't mind a bit of travelling. I probably wouldn't consider the Lourdes via Gavarnie route, but if it was a religious pilgrimage, the possibility exists for that, but you are adding more days on to your Camino. If you want something different and probably much better weather, train to Madrid and walk the Camino from there via Segovia.
In short it's your Camino. We can offer you possibilities, but you make the choices.
Thank you for you adviceSome suggested the Aragones.
It's a lovely route, but the Aragones starts at even higher elevation than the Francés, so I wouldn't be sure that the weather is better there than starting from St. Jean.
On the Francés there's more infrastructure, so even in bad weather it is easier in my opinion, because you can get out of the cold for a hot coffee more often, and can walk shorter stages to not be in the rain all day.
So if weather is a concern, it probably makes more sense to start in Pamplona (or Puente La Reina, or...) at lower altitude.
Personally I'd just walk via Valcarlos with an overnight stop in the albergue there if the weather is really bad. It's a nice walk and because it's in a valley, more sheltered from bad weather than up on the route Napoleon. With the little creeks along that route I imagine in spring it would be quite nice in the rain, with water running wild and everything around green.
Weather in the mountains is unpredicatable, and even if the report for the next two weeks is bad now, it might be different the day you arrive, or the other way around.
Whatever you decide,
Buen Camino!
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