has anyone walked on the camino sureste in October ?

[Barbara06]

Hello,
Has anyone walked on the camino Sureste in October ?
Otherwise, what do you think about walking it at this period of the year ?
Thanks

 

[alansykes]

Hello,
Has anyone walked on the camino Sureste in October ?
Otherwise, what do you think about walking it at this period of the year ?
Thanks

I left Alicante on around October 20th in 2014 and followed a mixture of the Sureste and the Levante until after Benavente, where I crossed onto the Sanabrés, arriving in SdC on about December 8th, I think. I liked it very much. It was still a bit hot for the first few days after Alicante, but otherwise fine. There were some great towns and cities - the obvious major ones like Toledo and Ávila, but I very much enjoyed smaller places like Arévalo (wonderful mudéjar churches), Medina del Campo (fine castle and oldest functioning butchers' market in the world), Tordesillas, El Toboso, Almansa, Tembleque (one of the loveliest plazas I've ever seen), La Roda (albergue inside the Plaza de Toros), San Clemente (modern art gallery inside a Renaissance palace) and so on.

 

[Barbara06]

I left Alicante on around October 20th in 2014 and followed a mixture of the Sureste and the Levante until after Benavente, where I crossed onto the Sanabrés, arriving in SdC on about December 8th, I think. I liked it very much. It was still a bit hot for the first few days after Alicante, but otherwise fine. There were some great towns and cities - the obvious major ones like Toledo and Ávila, but I very much enjoyed smaller places like Arévalo (wonderful mudéjar churches), Medina del Campo (fine castle and oldest functioning butchers' market in the world), Tordesillas, El Toboso, Almansa, Tembleque (one of the loveliest plazas I've ever seen), La Roda (albergue inside the Plaza de Toros), San Clemente (modern art gallery inside a Renaissance palace) and so on.

Thanks so much for your answer Alansykes, you really make me want to go. Did you have any rain between Alicante and Benavente ? Did you meet any other pilgrims ? Was it not too difficult to find a place to sleep ? Did you have to phone to the accomodation places each day ?

 

[KinkyOne]

I left Alicante on around October 20th in 2014 and followed a mixture of the Sureste and the Levante until after Benavente, where I crossed onto the Sanabrés, arriving in SdC on about December 8th, I think. I liked it very much. It was still a bit hot for the first few days after Alicante, but otherwise fine. There were some great towns and cities - the obvious major ones like Toledo and Ávila, but I very much enjoyed smaller places like Arévalo (wonderful mudéjar churches), Medina del Campo (fine castle and oldest functioning butchers' market in the world), Tordesillas, El Toboso, Almansa, Tembleque (one of the loveliest plazas I've ever seen), La Roda (albergue inside the Plaza de Toros), San Clemente (modern art gallery inside a Renaissance palace) and so on.

With this post you really triggered my mind and memroy and got me into thinking to walk Levante again (or Sureste for the first time ).

Those are just beautiful Caminos @Barbara06 !

 

[Barbara06]

With this post you really triggered my mind and memroy and got me into thinking to walk Levante again (or Sureste for the first time ).

Those are just beautiful Caminos @Barbara06 !

Hello KinkyOne, I would love to do this camino At what period of the year did you do the Levante ?

 

[alansykes]

Thanks so much for your answer Alansykes, you really make me want to go. Did you have any rain between Alicante and Benavente ?

I think I had about 2 rainy mornings, on oth occasions I was able to stat late - in Cebreros there is an interesting museum of the Transción, which only opens at 10am. By midday I was suddenly above the cloud level in brilliant sunshine at the Puerto de Arrebatacapas. At Ávila it was another very wet morning, but I only had 20km to Gotterundura, so didn't leave until 11am and by noon it was sunny again. The other had rain was in the night when I was in the convent at El Toboso, and I heard much scurrying around in the dark as the nuns urgently rushed out to take their clothes off the drying line in their kitchen garden.

Did you meet any other pilgrims ?

There were a surprising number of others on the trail, and I spent several convivial evenings, in particular with an Estonian and a Valenciano. Roughly half the times I was in an albergue with one other person, sometimes even 2 (but only twice had to share a bedroom, as usually thee were at least 2 sleeping areas in the albergues.)

Was it not too difficult to find a place to sleep ? Did you have to phone to the accommodation places each day ?

I never had any trouble finding somewhere to stay and I never booked ahead. I perhaps should have done in Toledo, as it was heaving with people, but the local tourist office fixed me up. I stayed in 19 albergues (including 3 nunneries, one polidiportivo, a bullring, above a funeral parlour and in a municipal swimming pool changing room) and 11 hotels/casas rural between Alicante and Benavente.

 

[Barbara06]

How wonderful AlanSykes !! not too much rain, a few other pilgrims, no booking ahead,... just great.
Thanks so much for bringing me all this information. Did you have a guide book ? which one ?

 

[alansykes]

Did you have a guide book ? which one ?

I had a French guide to the Levante by François Lepère. It was just slightly better than useless (outdated maps, wrong telephone numbers, irritating prose style). Paco Serra, the hugely helpful owner/hospitalero of the albergue in Novelda, has published a detailed and informative but very heavy guide to the Sureste which you can probably get on amazon or abebooks, but everybody seems to think the Valencia amigos guide to the Levante is about the best of them, and the most up-to date (unless thee are new editions, Lepère and Serra are both c2009, and a lot has changed since then - extra albergues etc). When I was on the Sureste rather than the Levante (especially from Alicante to Almansa and Medina del Campo to Benavente), not having a guide was not really a problem.

 

[KinkyOne]

Hello KinkyOne, I would love to do this camino At what period of the year did you do the Levante ?

I started on June 8th from Valencia. I was OK with temps but two weeks of 40-48C were simply too much and also some of my tech equipments gave up (had to go to Madrid for fixing it) so I skipped Toledo-Avila stretch.

 

[domigee]

The Amigos del Camino in Alicante gave me those resources, now available on their website:

http://www.encaminodesdealicante.org/contents/camino-del-sureste/guia/guia-2007.pdf
http://www.encaminodesdealicante.org/camino-del-sureste/etapas

There is also a list of albergues with phone numbers.

Regretfully I haven't walked it yet, my only free time is in the Summer and it is too hot for me ..... But one day....

Buen camino!

 

[Barbara06]

Thanks so much Domigee, very useful information. Just that I will have to improve my Spanish to understand it better...
I see you have walked from Home to Jerusalem, waouw !! what an experience !!

 

[domigee]

Thanks so much Domigee, very useful information. Just that I will have to improve my Spanish to understand it better...

I think there's a way to translate text with Google or something? It's just that I've never found it....Can someone help please?

 

[SYates]

I think there's a way to translate text with Google or something? It's just that I've never found it....Can someone help please?

Sure ;-)

Go to https://translate.google.com
Copy and paste text or website url into text field
Select input/output language and hit Translate

Buen Camino, SY

 

[domigee]

Thank you!!
@Barbara06 , problem solved...

 

[Barbara06]

Finaly I was not able to free myself to do this Sureste camino in October.
Hope I will do it a bit later, something like March, April or May 2017
Anybody would like to do it with me ?

 

[Bad Pilgrim]

Finaly I was not able to free myself to do this Sureste camino in October.
Hope I will do it a bit later, something like March, April or May 2017
Anybody would like to do it with me ?

Hi Barbara,

The Sureste during those months should be perfect as it is really too hot June-July. Unfortunately I cannot join you, I'm thinking about the Camino de la Lana for summer of 2017. Please let us know when you've done the Sureste and tell us all about it!

/Bad Pilgrim

 

[Barbara06]

Hi Barbara,

The Sureste during those months should be perfect as it is really too hot June-July. Unfortunately I cannot join you, I'm thinking about the Camino de la Lana for summer of 2017. Please let us know when you've done the Sureste and tell us all about it!

/Bad Pilgrim

Hello Bad Pilgrim,
Yes I will let you know whe I do it ! Camino de la Lana also seems interesting... but also very hot in summer I should imagine. From where will you be leaving ?

 

[Bad Pilgrim]

Hello Bad Pilgrim,
Yes I will let you know whe I do it ! Camino de la Lana also seems interesting... but also very hot in summer I should imagine. From where will you be leaving ?

Oh, I think I will leave from Alicante. As I started the Sureste from there last year (in 2015), it will be easy to find my way as the first stages of the Lana are the same as the Sureste. I liked those stages and I don't mind repeating them. And I will find out about Caudete, a village I skipped that time but that I've heard is nice. I'll just find out more about the starting point in Valencia to see if that's an option. Either way I have to go in late June, my only window of opportunity, so although I think it's too hot I have no other choice.............

It's a good idea to do some "advertising" here if you don't want to be alone on the Sureste - I met very few other pilgrims. I think I was alone for the first three weeks if I remember correctly. I imagine the Lana to be just the same... Perhaps you'll run into more people if you go earlier, in spring. Although, by judging at the registers that were signed along the way, there was not much traffic.... 1 or 2 pilgrims a week, occasionally larger groups of cylicts or children from schools...

/BP

 

[Barbara06]

I once met someone who had walked the Lana and he did say it was extremely lonely and the sleeping places difficult to find... but I suppose it is a little equivalent to the Sureste which you seemed to enjoy so you will probably also enjoy the Lana.... I hope so for you anyways.
Barbara

 

[Helen Mannersjö]

Finaly I was not able to free myself to do this Sureste camino in October.
Hope I will do it a bit later, something like March, April or May 2017
Anybody would like to do it with me ?

We cant promise to walk with you, but perhaps we´ll meet. We will start around the 13th of march. I wish you Buen Camino

 

[MikeJS]

I’m still planning to walk the Sureste this year but probably not starting until after Easter.