help a confused pilgrim?

[purposefulpilgrim]

Hi all!
Me and my two friends are starting the Camino del Norte in about a week, starting in Irun and only walking two week as we have to be in Madrid for World Youth Day. I was at first really not nervous about the pilgrimmage but my friends have me quite concerned, if anyone could help put our minds at rest that would mean a lot to us!

Should we be worried about reservations at the different albergues? We haven't made any, we will be walking the way and I was unsure about how far we'll be able to make it each day.

Any help you guys could offer would be absolutely amazing!

THANKS

 

[methodist.pilgrim.98]

http://www.csj.org.uk/route-coastal-route.htm

That above link may help a little. If you start in Irun it is 825km to SDC. That would mean you would have to walk a massive (impossible?) 59km per day.

If you know roughtly how many km you can walk each day you can then calculate backwards from SDC and start there.

The other option is to walk as much as you can without pushing yourselves and then get transport to Madrid.

The Camino will still be there for you to come back in future years and pick up where you left off. Many people do the Camino in stages over two years upwards.

Finally you could walk to one of the big cities and then take transport to a point further down the Norte, so "jumping" a section(s).

Remember that to get your compostella you MUST walk the last 100km which means making sure you have the sello from Baamonde (or other) and then as many sellos as possible. The Cathedral will accept the odd sello from a bar, but will expect to see albergue, town hall and church sellos as well. In 2010 I saw a lady with a credential full of bar sellos refused the compostella.

As to the albergues you would (a) need a guide book and (b) the advice of those who have walked the Norte.

I have only walked the last 112km (just before Baamonde) so I cannot be of much use except to say that the municapl albergues accept no reservations. It is first come, first served, but if you turn up in a taxi they will probably turn you away. The Norte is much less popular so I doubt that you would struggle to get a bunk. Once you get to Arzua, where the Norte joins the Francés, then it might be more difficult though private albergues are also available. Monte de Gozo is huge, so less problem there.

I think your friend is right to be worrying, but you can resolve this before you go and still have a good Camino.

 

[Deleted member 3000]

There were forty pilgrims a day in June arriving on the Camino del Norte. August will be busier. Most of the albergues accommodate 40 persons.

You can go here to get information on specific albergues:

http://www.mundicamino.com/

Select Camino del Norte. Select the route segment. Select Albergues. You can also look at the terrain profile and ground route for each segment.

 

[viajero]

I walked from Irun two years ago, in July. I never had trouble finding accomdation in albergues although in some towns where the albergues had few beds (Deba, for example), they did fill up. When I was there, there was no early morning race-for-beds scenario. Because the route is mainly coastal, there is a lot of alternative accomodation (pensions, hotels, youth hostels, etc) so in the event that an albergue is full, you can likely find alternative accomodation (although it will be more expensive than an albergue). It is a BEAUTIFUL route and I hope that you really enjoy it. THere are some industrial bits around Bilbao that aren't so nice but by and large it is all gorgeous. I hope that it all works out for you.

 

[purposefulpilgrim]

thanks!

We aren't planning on walking the entire thing, it would be quite impossible. We're planning on budgeting and seeing how far we'll make it and then hopping on a train to get to Madrid.

Thanks for the advice about everything. We'll definitely keep it in mind.

We're probably not going to book all of the accomodations since we aren't sure how far we'll make it each day, and honestly we don't have time to book everything right now.

We start the walk on Monday so I'll let you know how it all worked!

THANKS AGAIN

 

[methodist.pilgrim.98]

Buen Camino and when you return let us know how you got on.

 

[Deleted member 3000]

We're probably not going to book all of the accommodations since we aren't sure how far we'll make it each day, and honestly we don't have time to book everything right now.

Booking a day in advance is usually sufficient. That only requires assessing your physical condition and deciding what you can do the next day.