Hoping to travel the VdlP & arrive at Santiago for Christmas

[alansykes]

Hi all,

I am planning to do the Via de la Plata from Seville, leaving around November 15-20 and arriving at Santiago for Christmas. Obviously, I know the weather may be problematic, especially around Fuenterobble and after Puebla de Sanabria. Any advice gratefully received . I'm assuming (hoping) the albuergues will mostly be open, if largely empty? If anybody else has done this route at this time of year I'd be interested in their experiences.

Many thanks,

 

[Jeff Stys]

I did one leg of the DdlP from Seville for about 3 weeks several years ago during the Christmas holidays. It was an enjoyable, but very solitary trip. I only met one pilgrim along the way and he was catching a bus so we only got to chat for about 15 minutes.

Most albuergues were open. It wasn't a problem but I did take a train on the section you mention. I know I ended up in Merida which was quite a nice town to visit.

In one very small town with an albuerge I ended up sleeping on the patio of the albuergue. The woman with the key was at the hospital with her husband who was undergoing cancer treatments. Noone else in town had the key. It was a chilly, somewhat uncomfortable night but I ended up with a great camino story!

Let me know if you have any more questions and I will do my best to provide insights based on my experiences.

Jeff

 

[Deleted member 3000]

It is second hand information, but my brother walked the VDLP in November-December after I returned to work and he took the train from Pamplona, and it was his most miserable camino experience in about seven of them. The weather was terrible. Everything was closed (though it turned out that if you asked around, someone had a key to let you into the ice cold albergue in some places. He speaks almost no Spanish, so learned this only after he met a bilingual pilgrim who knew the secret. On some occasions, he wandered the town for hours trying to find the right person.) He was virtually alone the entire time, so he walked, ate, drank, and slept in silence. Very monastic, but as a people person, he was accustomed to some companionship as on previous caminos. Between the weather and the long stages caused by albergue closures, he ended up with blisters, tendonitis, and a bad knee. The experience has soured him on returning for other caminos. He has not said much about the scenery because I am not sure he took the time to look at it, having been consumed by the misery of the walk.

Your experience may be completely different!

 

[JohnnieWalker]

I walked the Via de la Plata starting out from Seville on 2 January 2006 and I have been back on different parts of the route since then - for example walking from Zamora last year on my way from Valencia. Even in January every single albergue was open - some were cold and some were heated. There was always hot water. I had packed for a winter camino which I would advise you to do. But on many days I wore shorts and had to apply sunscreen! It was solitary but I didn't mind that - there were always locals to chat to in the evenings.

I thought this route was wonderful and of all of the routes I have walked it still has a special place in my heart. In my view it is much more challenging in parts than the Camino Frances but by the time you reach the elevations stamina will have built. I loved it - beautiful scenery, very friendly local people, mostly excellent accommodation and well signed with yellow arrows. I highly recommend it.

 

[lovingkindness]

Hi, Alansykes. In 2009 I hiked from Cadiz along the Vdlp from late October arriving in Santiago dC 17 December. Here is a link to the thread 'Walking in Winter' which includes advice from forum members and links to their winter journeys plus mine. Sillydoll has an excellent blog for those interested in walking a winter camino.

http://www.caminodesantiago.me/board/camino-mozarabe-and-via-de-la-plata/topic7253.html

http://amawalker.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/walking-in-winter.html Sillydoll's blog

Cheers,
Lovingkindness

 

[alansykes]

Thanks to all.

It seems to be a mainly a matter of luck with the weather and being prepared for anything - including, sometimes, stopping for a day or half day until things clear up or, in extremis, admitting defeat and taking a bus to the next stop if conditions are really dangerous (I'd really prefer not to have to cash in the plenary indulgence offered to those of us who die en route).

Unlike falcon269's brother, I'm more of a monk than a party animal, so loneliness is not a problem (although I was sad not to meet ANY other pellegrinos between Mombuey and Cea when walking in November 2010, and only 2-3 between Merida and Salamanca).

The change in seasons does make it more difficult to pack tho' - as lovingkindness says, if one could pack for the very different conditions in Andalucia/Extremadura and Leon/Galicia that would be fine, but I'm sure one of the reasons I managed to get through last time was only having about 10-12kgs to carry every day (not counting water, of course). And I was very lucky in only having 2-3 drizzly/dull days and one unpleasantly wet one (down from Fuenterobble), whereas starting later on and taking longer presumably makes it less likely that I'll be so fortunate this year.

Going through three seasons in one month was amazing (late summer in Andalucia, with temperatures in the high 80s, (mostly) gorgeous autumn in Extremadura and Leon, and occasional winter snow and frost over the passes into Galicia, and again at A Laxe, where the heating at the albergue was non-existant and there were no blankets).

But I'm quite sure that my slightly pig-headed insistence on doing the Via in only 30-31 days last time reduced the overall pleasure of the camino, wonderful tho' the experience was. Which is why I'm determined to be more flexible and allow at least a week longer to do it this year. And I'm sure that being in SdC for Xmas Mass must be quite something, even if (or perhaps slightly because) there may be very few other pilgrims arriving then to share the joy with.

So if anybody else is planning on leaving Seville around the 18th of November, or Salamanca about the 5th of December, give or take a day or two, then I hope to see you out there. And any other thoughts (packing, best places to stay, how to cope with the really long stretches between Cacares & Canavaral, and Galisteo & Aldanueva, what to do if the albuergue is closed, etc) very gratefully received.

Buen camono.