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I know everyone moves at their own pace, but the math teacher and planner in me want numbers! Plus, I'm just super curious about everyone else's experience. I'm also super excited. 135 days and counting until I leave SJPP!
So, how long did it take you to get from SJPP to Santiago de Compostela? How long did you plan for? What road bumps did you hit along the way?
Who did you walk with? How did that go?
When I walked the CF in 2014 a young German woman told me that many women do that, and several of her friends had walked it for that reason.hoping to meet Mr. Right, as some do on pilgrimage
Feb-April?! Oh, heck no! Too cold in Europe for my southern a** that time of year, ha ha.Mark Lee,
Were you walking Feb-Apr? If so, I wonder if you met the same young German woman.
For the math teacher, last year I walked 593 km of the CF in an elapsed time of 9 days 21 hour and a moving time of 6 days 17 hours and 14 minutes! My wife and I started in SJPP on 2 May and arrived in Santiago early on 15 Jun, having stayed in San Marcos the previous night. We didn't walk the meseta.
After a while, I noticed a pattern: they walked basically in clusters, 15 or 20 of them along a stretch of 6 0r 8 km; then there was an interval of maybe 20 kms, and there was another cluster, and so on.
I later commented this with a physic and he went enthusiastically into a explanation of a theory of mollecular movements apparently random but with discernible patterns (that I frankly did not understand).
Feb-April?! Oh, heck no! Too cold in Europe for my southern a** that time of year, ha ha.
It was a June-July CF. That was nice weather. Like the Texas Hill Country in spring.
I have told this story from time to time on this Forum and I think it worth repeating.
On my second Camino, I met a very skilled surgeon from the United States who was a complete and total perfectionist. In planning his Camino, he read hundreds of books, consulted maps, poured over elevation charts, and looked up historical weather data. He left nothing to chance. The invasion of Normandy in 1944 took less planning. He was so precise that he booked a room for every night along the way to Santiago--some 40 carefully planned out reservations. In all, he spent almost a thousand hours planning out the perfect Camino. The most absolutely glorious, never been done before, perfect Camino. It was a piece of art work that rivaled the David or Mona Lisa.
Then his Camino started.
On the first day he fell in with a Camino family. He loved his Camino family and they loved him. But there was only one problem. His Camino family was being spontaneous. They were living in the moment. As a result, they would not decide on where to stop for the night until mid-afternoon each day. Rarely did his Camino family stop where he had a reservation.
His solution? He would stop where they stopped, have a beer with them, grab a taxi, rush forward/backward to the village where he had a room, check in, shower, change clothes, grab a taxi back to his Camino family, have dinner with them, grab a taxi back to his room, sleep, get up, grab a taxi back to his Camino family, and resume walking with them. I observed this odd behavior all the way from SJPP to Leon.
Finally one day I asked him, "Why don't you just cancel the remainder of your reservations and stay in the same town as your Camino family?" Before he responded, he look left, then right, and then leaned in toward me to make sure no one could hear his answer. In a hushed voice he quietly said, "I don't want to admit that being a perfectionist about my Camino was a complete and total waste of time."
Not much different than parts of southern CA in the spring (spent a spring in San Diego and Coronado once). Cool mornings. Blue skies (did get a couple of rainy, kinda cold days in Galicia). Maybe in the 80's during the day and cool evenings (fleece pullover weather).I have no idea what a Texas Hill Country in spring is like, but I will be completing my Camino in June-July, so I look forward to finding out!
Not much different than parts of southern CA in the spring (spent a spring in San Diego and Coronado once). Cool mornings. Blue skies (did get a couple of rainy, kinda cold days in Galicia). Maybe in the 80's during the day and cool evenings (fleece pullover weather).
All in all, was very nice.
I was born in La Jolla...I grew up in So Cal, so now you are speaking my language! Thanks!
The stretch of the Camino between Ages and Burgos, the hilly part, reminds me of the Texas hill country very much, and some parts of California. Rolling hills, rocks and a lot of those smaller post or live oaks. It's very nice.I have no idea what a Texas Hill Country in spring is like, but I will be completing my Camino in June-July, so I look forward to finding out!
Good to see you back on the forum, Mark! Buen whatever Camino you are doing/contemplating!more than one CF...varied in duration, but all done between 33-35 days
almost no planning or training for any of them besides buying some gear and making travel reservations online
few road bumps along the way...very little rain, zero bedbugs, bad indigestion once, two hangovers and one strained knee (that actually sucked...don't strain your ACL! ha ha). almost no blisters and always found a bed for the night even if I had to shell out a few more euros for a private room at a pensiones
walked by myself mostly, but inevitably you will walk with others....and in my case, all get together and stay at the same albergue, go out for dinner and drinks, etc...but then a few days later by myself again. that's the beauty of it
Mark's post was actually from last February.Good to see you back on the forum, Mark! Buen whatever Camino you are doing/contemplating!
Oh geez... too much pre-Valntines dinner Prosecco... I’ll hushMark's post was actually from last February.
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