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Lovely, heart-felt reply...a joy to readHi Gum
Fellow Aussie here. Yes we are clueless about winter! I did CF last year about 4 weeks ahead of your schedule. Left 13 Nov and finished 17 Dec. SJPP to SdC. Every year will be different but my experience was;
1. I started with Merrill hiking boots, and ditched them in Leon for Salomon Ultra trainers. They were giving me blisters and I needed a soft top. They were fine rest of trip and we ploughed through some fairly heavy snow O’Cebriero 11 Dec and also day after. Unless I was doing it end of winter in big snow, I would use the Salomon again.
2. We got 5 days of rain and 4 days of snow out of 33 walking days. In the main, lovely sunny days 2-10 degrees. Coldest coming out of Leon at -8. Snow Roncesvalles, a bit on the Meseta, Foncebaddon, and O’Cebreiro. Got a bit hairy trying to find O’Cebreiro in a snow storm so you do have to be careful. Check with locals as you go, especially with the kids.
3. We tried to stay off the roads as much as possible and stick to the Camino pathway. But you soon realise the Camino is designed to take a tortuous path to the same destination. That I assume is to keep the summer volumes off the road. In winter no cars about, so walk the road if you feel like it. But I must say the best days were struggling through the snow on the Camino itself. For Aussies, magnificent, as we are not used to seeing it like that.
4. No SBags a risk IMO. There are some places, like Hontanas, with nothing open except the Albergues. And blankets/heating cannot be totally relied upon. I was in/out of my SB the whole trip depending on where we stayed and the heating situation, but occasionally I was really glad I had it.
5. Acccomodation- this is how we did it. We were 2 mates prepared to share a room if we could get one. Check booking.com, if on there then hostel/hotel will be open. Same for Casa Rural. Check out Albergues - if new mates going there, tag along. Use Gronze.com but get friendly with a Spaniard to read it, as I could never get it to work in English. The Pilgrim Office in SJPP gives you a list of open Albergues but no one used it - all done online. Every cafe has wifi so you can check ahead each day over coffee.
Stuff on clothes etc I will leave for others. If I see a hill I break out in a sweat so I’m the worst person to ask about winter clothing.
But wonderful experience and fantastic you are taking the kids. You will have a ball.
Good luck and Buen Camino
"6. What was it like walking down Alto de Perdon - would the road be better in winter time?"
Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. I really don't know why it has such a reputation. Just take your time: and a pair of hiking poles
Never a truer word spoken!!! Beautifully said.But you soon realise the Camino is designed to take a tortuous path to the same destination
Athena, thank you for your post. On your advice we will take a look at Camino de Invierno. W walked last March/April and ended up getting a train from Leon to Sarria as the kids (and us) need a break and we were a bit behind schedule. We and especially our boys were very disappointed to have missed Cruz de Ferros so that is a must this time around. Are you concerned about everything being closed between Christmas and the New Year - I understand that things don't open until the 7th of January.
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