La Plata in 20k stages?

[JillGat]

I remember at some point somebody posted an intinerary of the La Plata with shorter stages. I generally can't do more than about 20k a day. Can somebody post this again? I really want to do this route. I think I would start in Merida. Am not opposed to taking a bus or taxi when needed. Thanks!

 

[Robo]

Hang on, I'll dig it out. Though I was aiming to be under 25k.
Yes for most people these are very short days. Don't shoot me folks

OK here it is. I'll add some comments.

Under the Kms column the spreadsheet calculates the distance and colours it as Easy (1-15 kms), Average, 15-25 kms) or Long (above 25 kms). I struggle longer than 25 kms.

Day 4 to Almaden includes the 'infamous' 16 km road walk at the start (no shoulder)
Many taxi that bit to the gate of the park. I did. That makes it a short day of 12-13 kms.
A wonderful landscape. Go slow.

Day 10. I was a bit worried about this day. Long, no shade. And had a plan B to stop halfway if I had to. In reality it was a great day. Not too hard, flat, straight, great walking surface.

Day 18. The embalse Albergue is still closed I think. So taxi partway.

Day 28. Was a long day with a lot of road walking at the end. But you get to walk over the Pico.
You can break the day easily with an alternate route North through Pedrosillo de los Aires

Day 38. You could break this day up a bit. Or taxi a bit.

Just by way of an overall comment. Don't get too hung up on distances on the VdlP.
The walking surfaces are generally great. There are really no major hills.
The walking is mainly on the flat.

By spending some time on Gronze, looking at the distances, places to stay etc, you'll be able to plan out your own days that meet your needs.

As you can see, in order to keep under 25 kms / day, I ended up with lots of short days.
If you are trying to keep your daily distances down, which can be done, the VdlP is a bit like playing Chess.
You have to think 2-3 moves ahead. If I do 20 kms tomorrow, then the next day is either 15 or 25, and after that means 28. Hmm. OK, so what if I do 15 kms tomorrow, ah that gives me a 20 the day after and a 15 after that. If you get my meaning. It's not hard to work out in reality, as you don't have loads of options. It generally comes down to Plan A or Plan B.

Oh I got a great planning tool from another Forum member along the way. Thanks Linda!
It was a few pages of A4 paper with 3-4 of the gronze stages on each page. Great for planning ahead, making notes etc etc.

Hope that all makes sense.

There is a daily Blog here if you want to get a sense of the trail conditions and landscape.
Though I was very lucky. No rain at all. Some section would be muddy after rain.

Day 1 – Seville to Santiponce – VdlP Camino Blog & Video | In Search of Santiago

robscamino.com

Starting in Merida, you would miss some great landscape. But maybe you don't have the time.

 

[TravellingMan22]

Hang on, I'll dig it out. Though I was aiming to be under 25k.
Yes for most people these are very short days. Don't shoot me folks

OK here it is. I'll add some comments.

Under the Kms column the spreadsheet calculates the distance and colours it as Easy (1-15 kms), Average, 15-25 kms) or Long (above 25 kms). I struggle longer than 25 kms.

Day 4 to Almaden includes the 'infamous' 16 km road walk at the start (no shoulder)
Many taxi that bit to the gate of the park. I did. That makes it a short day of 12-13 kms.
A wonderful landscape. Go slow.

Day 10. I was a bit worried about this day. Long, no shade. And had a plan B to stop halfway if I had to. In reality it was a great day. Not to hard, flat, straight, great walking surface.

Day 18. THe embalse Albergue is still closed I think. So taxi partway.

Day 28. Was a long day with a lot of road walking at the end. But you get to walk over the Pico.
You can beak the day easily with an alternate route North through Pedrosillo de los Aires

Day 38. You could break this day up a bit. Or taxi a bit.

Just by way of an overall comment. Don't get too hung up on distances on the VdlP.
The walking surfaces are generally great. There are really no major hills.
The walking is mainly on the flat.

By spending some time on Gronze, looking at the distances, places to stay etc, you'll be able to plan out your own days that meet your needs.

As you can see, in order to keep under 25 kms / day, I ended up with lots of short days.
If you are trying to keep your daily distances down, which can be done, the VdlP is a bit like playing Chess.
You have to think 2-3 moves ahead. If I do 20 kms tomorrow, then the next day is either 15 or 25, and after that means 28. Hmm. OK, so what if I do 15 kms tomorrow, ah that gives me a 20 the day after and a 15 after that. If you get my meaning. It's not hard to work out in reality, as you don't have loads of options. It generally comes down to Plan A or Plan B.

Hope that makes sense.

View attachment 156663

Great spreadsheet and notes which will certainly help me as hope to do VDLP in next few months! Thank you.

 

[Robo]

Great spreadsheet and notes which will certainly help me as hope to do VDLP in next few months! Thank you.

I love all the planning. It gets me researching the route.
And once underway of course, the plan is held very loosely!

I compile all my notes on it, and then carry the file on my phone.

Don't laugh, but that was just a small section of one spreadsheet

The notes are compiled from information shared by many Forum members, youtube videos etc!

What is the common advice? Don't walk your Camino before you walk your Camino!
I think I do..............in my head.

Column O, were my initial thoughts on where I might stay. In the end I stayed in a few different places, and not all those fancy ones. Well, only a couple of them...

Column N, is where I started blocking them out as I was booking ahead, so I could see what days I had booked. I did a few due to Semana Santa. But I stopped doing that after a while, as it just came routine to book the next day in advance.

Column L is from Gronze (much of the information is). THis gives me 'at a glance' how many accommodation places there are.

Column J gives me any significant elevation that day.

Gee, as I explain these columns I think there is a clear message emerging.

There is such a thing as overplanning Rob !!!
In my defence, it was fun to do.

 

[AJGuillaume]

I remember at some point somebody posted an intinerary of the La Plata with shorter stages. I generally can't do more than about 20k a day. Can somebody post this again? I really want to do this route. I think I would start in Merida. Am not opposed to taking a bus or taxi when needed. Thanks!

Hello @JillGat ,

Although I have yet to walk the VdlP, during the Covid lockdown, with the help of many veterans of this Camino, I walked it virtually by posting a day by day report. My wife and I are slow walkers, so the virtual walk was done in short stages.

You'll find the thread here:

https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/virtual-and-very-detailed-plan-to-walk-the-vdlp-and-sanabres-planning-while-in-confinement.67424/

Hope this helps.
¡Buen Camino!

 

[Scott Fraser]

I remember at some point somebody posted an intinerary of the La Plata with shorter stages. I generally can't do more than about 20k a day. Can somebody post this again? I really want to do this route. I think I would start in Merida. Am not opposed to taking a bus or taxi when needed. Thanks!

My long time Camino partner and I walked La Plata from Salamanca in 2022. We employed what we came to call “the taxi cheat” on several occasions.

 

[alexwalker]

My long time Camino partner and I walked La Plata from Salamanca in 2022. We employed what we came to call “the taxi cheat” on several occasions.

Fair enough. If it needs be done, do it. VdlP is a tough Camino.

 

[RodlaRob]

Thanks Robo.... great info!
I will be studying your "blog" as well.

 

[Robo]

Hello @JillGat ,

Although I have yet to walk the VdlP, during the Covid lockdown, with the help of many veterans of this Camino, I walked it virtually by posting a day by day report. My wife and I are slow walkers, so the virtual walk was done in short stages.

You'll find the thread here:

https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/virtual-and-very-detailed-plan-to-walk-the-vdlp-and-sanabres-planning-while-in-confinement.67424/

Hope this helps.
¡Buen Camino!

That was a really great source on information !!

 

[walkabouts]

Hi @Jillcat

My wife and I walked the VDLP from 26 April 2023 departing Seville and arriving at Oviedo on 5 July, just on 900 km. We planned for an average of 18-22km per day, walked the entire route. We stopped often to look at places off the camino and have a rest day or two. However, we had the time to walk this as we wanted to experience the history and culture along the way. This included a few days off doing sight seeing, resting up, looking at how life is lived in small villages, towns.

Forget the guide book stages, just use them to get ideas of how you want to walk the VDLP but not as a directory to tell you how far you must walk each day. While they provide useful information along the way, it is easy enough to plan your own distances. We sometimes walked a different road to get to the next town as some of the routes indicated on the GPS track on our phone were senseless, mostly likely a track recording error, satellite blind spot, or just that the person wanted to walk that particular route, or even that there was a diversion at the time they walked. If you can read a map, then this will not be a problem.

We found the virtual VDLP referred to above to be a very useful tool (thanks to the other forum members for their contributions here, they were very helpful) and we used that as a big part of our planning. As you may know, start off slowly at first, even if you can do the daily distance. Take your time and let your body get used to repetitive walking. Factor in more "rest" days than you might think you need. A short walking day is also a good rest day. By the time we got to Merida, we put in a couple of days >24km but we were a bit trail fit by then. Did I mention the heat, days >40C?

The section to Canaveral was 34 km, it was a love/hate section with nothing in between. But you build up to it mentally as well as physically. It was our longest day so the next day we only walked to 9km to Grimaldo. A great small albergue and we really enjoyed it there. Great ambience and a good hotel next to it to meet with the locals.

Is the VDLP tough? Not really if you approach it sensibly. It is not one where you have a camino family, and you may only see a few people for a day or two. It is a solo challenge in that respect. Most walked a lot faster than us so we only saw them for a few days. Having walked the Le Puy and Frances to Santiago, the VDLP and the San Salvador rated the highest in terms of the experience we had.

The key is to enjoy the journey along the way, rather than focus on the destination. That will arrive soon enough and you want to get there in good shape. Have Plan B up your sleeve as well, as things happen along the way. Instead of walking to Astorga, we walked directly to Hospital d'Orbigo from La Beneza as we went then to Leon and onto the San Salvador to Oviedo.

We often had albergues to ourselves after Granja and even before this split in the camino. However we saw more people on the route to Leon in the first few hours after starting from Hospital d'Orbigo than we saw in the entire walk from Seville. We walked against the flow for two days to Leon into a veritable phalanx of pilgrims marching inexorably toward us and onto the next albergue, with hardly a raised eyebrow or a greeting. Not that we minded, it was just an observation.

We recommend the camino VDLP but it takes a different mindset. Would we do it again? Yes indeed.

Happy travels

 

[JillGat]

Thanks so much, everybody! These are all helpful resources. I don't tend to over-plan, or even if I do for fun, I am not wedded to any itinerary and make choices as I go. I just wanted to know if it was possible. Thanks again! Jill

 

[Scott Fraser]

Fair enough. If it needs be done, do it. VdlP is a tough Camino.

When you past 75, you’ll do almost anything to “keep on walking”.