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My stages on the Camino Primitivo (8 days)

BeatriceKarjalainen

Veteran Member
Time of past OR future Camino
Finished: See post signature.
Doing: C. Levante
(Started with Camino de San Salvador first, see http://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/my-stages-on-camino-de-san-salvador-3-days.28548/)

(The distances are from my GPS-watch the guides might say something different)

Day 1, Oviedo-Cornellana 40,61 km (took the shortcut in to the albergue in the monastery in Cornellana)

Day 2, Cornellana-Campiello 44,63 km, stayed in a private room at Casa Herminia

Day 3, Campiello-La Mesa 32,09 km
Hospitales route, (a short day ;-) ) stayed at the muncipal albergue, not the best on the camino but at least a bed.

Day 4, La Mesa-A Fonsagrada, 41,76 km, stayed at albergue Cantábrico (Recommended)

Day 5, A Fonsagrada-Castroverde, 33,68 km (a short day again ;-) ), stayed at Xunta albergue

Day 6, Castroverde-San Román da Retorta 41,79 km
stayed at albergue Ócandido

Day 7, San Román da Retorta-Arzúa 44,26 km
stayed at Pension Meson do Peregrino

Day 8, Arzua-Santiago de Compostela, 39,01 km
stayed in Albergue Seminario Menor for 4 nights (no power outlets in the room :-( )
 
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Technical backpack for day trips with backpack cover and internal compartment for the hydration bladder. Ideal daypack for excursions where we need a medium capacity backpack. The back with Air Flow System creates large air channels that will keep our back as cool as possible.

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Beatrice:

I am amused by your description of short days of 32-3 km's. That is a normal day for me. How many hours do you walk daily?

Ultreya,
Joe
 
Beatrice:

I am amused by your description of short days of 32-3 km's. That is a normal day for me. How many hours do you walk daily?

Ultreya,
Joe

This is the times for each day and the time I started.

Day 1 09:32 h start 07:43
Day 2 10:52 h start 07:04
Day 3 07:20 h start 06:51
Day 4 08:50 h start 07:00
Day 5 06:25 h start 07:12
Day 6 08:09 h start 06:50
Day 7 09:25 h start 07:15
Day 8 07:12 h start 07:29
 
St James' Way - Self-guided 4-7 day Walking Packages, Reading to Southampton, 110 kms
Hola Bea congrats again.
See you next year:)
 
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This is the times for each day and the time I started.

Day 1 09:32 h start 07:43
Day 2 10:52 h start 07:04
Day 3 07:20 h start 06:51
Day 4 08:50 h start 07:00
Day 5 06:25 h start 07:12
Day 6 08:09 h start 06:50
Day 7 09:25 h start 07:15
Day 8 07:12 h start 07:29

Beatrice:

Those are long days. I normally do not walk past 4:00 to 5:00pm. I can see how you are walking 40km days. Good luck on your future walks.

Ultreya,
Joe
 
Beatrice:

Those are long days. I normally do not walk past 4:00 to 5:00pm. I can see how you are walking 40km days. Good luck on your future walks.

Ultreya,
Joe
I ended between 4 and 5 most of the days. I could have walked faster if I hadn't stop for photographing, visiting churches etc. I love to walk so for me a long day is better then being at the albergue by noon and then being restless for the rest of the day or worse queueing to get in. I usually stopped for lunch between 30 and 60 minutes when most people were done for the day (or no lunch stop at all some days as I could not find anything else than sandwiches).
 
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Beatrice -- All I can say is that you are one "walkin' machine"! Our ideal distance on the Frances was about 25 k and we thought the single 32k day we did was a killer!!!!
 
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Wow! This was the very route I was wondering if t was possible and here it is! You did it! Incredible!!
It is a lovely Camino and doable in 8 days if you can do long days. The three previous days on Salvador was much tougher than this Camino.

There is another post about doing it in 8 days. 2 men much older than me who did it. That thread incurage me to walk it even if I didn't have much time.
 
Hi Beatrice

what was tougher on the Salvador please?
Salvadore is hilly, steep up sometimes and small paths on the edge of cliffs. It was lovely but more challenging. I'm used to hike in the mountains so it was more like that on some stretches. But it is a LOVELY walk and I had a great time.
 
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9 days from Oviedo to Santiago is definately possible. I arrived in Santiago Saturday morning and am back home since yesterday.

All the stages were quite doable and not that long (if you have some km under your belt and experience) except for the crazy day that I walked from Samblismo (1 km after Borres) via the Hospitales route down to Berducedo for coffee and on to Grandas de Salime. Although it was 43 km which I am used to, the elevation changes were extensive. It was only about 12.00 reaching Berducedo so that is why I went on. I left Samblismo at 7:30 with another pilgrim to do the Hospitales route but the weather was great and made it up and down fairly fast. I didn't see anyone else until I reached Grandas.

Here are my stages if interested :

1) Oviedo-Grado 25,2 km
(wanted to stay here as have hospitalera friends who have volunteered here)

2) Grado - La Espina 30,3 km (Bodenaya 1 km before was closed for the day)

2) La Espina - Samblismo 30,2 km

3) Samblismo (via Hospitales) - Berducedo - Grandes de Salime 43,5 km

4) Grandes - A Fonsegrada 25,2

5) A Fonsegrada - Castroverde 32 km

6) Castroverde - Lugo 21,7
(short day to visit)

7) Lugo - Ponte Ferreira 27 km
(wanted to stay with my Dutch friends and Forum members Ria and Ton that run Albergue Ponte Ferreira)

8) Ponte Ferreira - Arzúa 34,1 km

9) Arzúa - Santiago 38,7 km

Km amounts are according to Gronze.

The Primitivo is,after walking about 12 different routes my favorite!
 
Hi, many thanks Beatrice for your stages! I found your post a huge help, as someone with limited time available but wanting to do the whole thing.
Three solo walkers (me, Ian from Liverpool, and Norm from Australia) ended up walking the Primitivo from Oviedo to Santiago together in 8 days, 3-10 June 2019. We followed the same stages as Beatrice. Our GPS measurements came in at 1-2km shorter per day, but that's how these things always work. We had a glorious time, even with Storm Miguel hitting us on Days 4 and 5 and providing us with plenty of wind, sideways hail and rain!
A couple of notes to add what's been said: days 5-8 obviously have much less gradient etc than days 1-4, so if you want to complete in a short time and do big stages, bear in mind that it gets easier. Like Beatrice, we did the Hospitales route and stopped at La Mesa, though in the private albergue. If we were walking it again, we'd probably have made Day 5 a bit longer and stayed at the gorgeous albergue at Vilar de Cas, 2.5km after Castroverde, (it's called A Pocina de Muniz and opened just last year).
Next year, my son (now 10) wants to walk some of the Primitivo with me, so I'll be doing rather shorter stages than 40K!
 
Technical backpack for day trips with backpack cover and internal compartment for the hydration bladder. Ideal daypack for excursions where we need a medium capacity backpack. The back with Air Flow System creates large air channels that will keep our back as cool as possible.

€83,-
Hi, many thanks Beatrice for your stages! I found your post a huge help, as someone with limited time available but wanting to do the whole thing.
Three solo walkers (me, Ian from Liverpool, and Norm from Australia) ended up walking the Primitivo from Oviedo to Santiago together in 8 days, 3-10 June 2019. We followed the same stages as Beatrice. Our GPS measurements came in at 1-2km shorter per day, but that's how these things always work. We had a glorious time, even with Storm Miguel hitting us on Days 4 and 5 and providing us with plenty of wind, sideways hail and rain!
A couple of notes to add what's been said: days 5-8 obviously have much less gradient etc than days 1-4, so if you want to complete in a short time and do big stages, bear in mind that it gets easier. Like Beatrice, we did the Hospitales route and stopped at La Mesa, though in the private albergue. If we were walking it again, we'd probably have made Day 5 a bit longer and stayed at the gorgeous albergue at Vilar de Cas, 2.5km after Castroverde, (it's called A Pocina de Muniz and opened just last year).
Next year, my son (now 10) wants to walk some of the Primitivo with me, so I'll be doing rather shorter stages than 40K!
Nice to hear that it was of use. Curious what did you use as a GPS?
And if you do San Salvador before Primitivo even day 1-4 is easier that the start :)
 
Thanks for your reply! :) I didn't use a GPS but my friends both used watches. One of them was a Garmin, but I don't know what the other brand was. From experience, variations across types are typical, and they tended to pause them during our breaks which might have made a difference.
I'd love to do San Salvador one year as a warm-up!
 
Thanks for your reply! :) I didn't use a GPS but my friends both used watches. One of them was a Garmin, but I don't know what the other brand was. From experience, variations across types are typical, and they tended to pause them during our breaks which might have made a difference.
I'd love to do San Salvador one year as a warm-up!
Oki. Had a Garmin my self. I tend to run around a bit with the camera and measured albergue to albergue. No stopping during the day normally so my lunch breaks can be some distance when the gps goes banans. It can be good for others to know.

If I hadn't walked San Salvador already I might have done a combination with Camino Madrid first.
 
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Interesting read. I walked the Frances this year, rather speedy with daily distances between 23 (when I had fever) and 45 k – so I wondered if I could do the Primitivo in under two weeks. There is so much talk about it being the hardest Camino so I was not entirely sure if it would be a good idea. But reading your pace now, I feel encouraged to give it a try :cool:
 
Interesting read. I walked the Frances this year, rather speedy with daily distances between 23 (when I had fever) and 45 k – so I wondered if I could do the Primitivo in under two weeks. There is so much talk about it being the hardest Camino so I was not entirely sure if it would be a good idea. But reading your pace now, I feel encouraged to give it a try :cool:
2 weeks on Primitivo is really doable. I wouldn’t say it is particularly hard. But I’m a fast walker in almost all types of terrain. You should have time to do San Salvador as well ;-)
 
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Hi Beatrice.
I'm planning a Christmas Primitivo from the 19th Dec to 28th Dec and I'm very encouraged by your Success and your positivity. I wont be able to follow your steps exactly due to scarcity of accommodation during the holiday season But I expect to do 35 to 40 km per day. Thanks for a very useful post.
jim
 
Hi Beatrice.
I'm planning a Christmas Primitivo from the 19th Dec to 28th Dec and I'm very encouraged by your Success and your positivity. I wont be able to follow your steps exactly due to scarcity of accommodation during the holiday season But I expect to do 35 to 40 km per day. Thanks for a very useful post.
jim
Good luck and buen camino. And remember to listen to your body.
 
Good luck and buen camino. And remember to listen to your body.
And remember to listen to the locals with regard to weather conditions! There is always the possibility of a "white out" when going over 1000 mts. in December.

Blessings on your Camino
Tio Tel
 
St James' Way - Self-guided 4-7 day Walking Packages, Reading to Southampton, 110 kms
Thanks Beatrice, I'm guessing that a white out is fog not snow , though either one would not help my progress.
I hope that there are more paths than roads as I have suffered from shin splints in the past from walking long distances on roads. I expect some joy and some pain , as in life, one has to take the good with the bad.Thanks for your blessings and advice.
Jim
 
Thanks Beatrice, I'm guessing that a white out is fog not snow , though either one would not help my progress.
I hope that there are more paths than roads as I have suffered from shin splints in the past from walking long distances on roads. I expect some joy and some pain , as in life, one has to take the good with the bad.Thanks for your blessings and advice.
Jim

Fog is not too bad, it does not generally hide the marker posts. What I regard as a "white out" is snow!
20 / 30 cms of snow can hide the markers, any more can be dangerous. The "snow poles" marking the road are about 2 mts high!
You may have a relatively open and mild spell of weather (plenty of mud) -
or you could have frost, snow and a bitingly cold north wind (temporal). -
As the Galicians would say "Depende!"

Blessings on your planning!
Tio Tel
 
Thanks Terry B, The Galicians are correct ,another way of saying "in the hands of God" The pictures from the first link are really beautiful, life in the video of the second link seems a bit harsher, the thing is be prepared for the worse and try to stay positive. Jim
 
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Your post has given me some ideas Beatrice. I, like you, want to keep moving. My plan is to travel the Primitivo May next year, and follow your steps, more or less.

Did you plan accommodation before you started the route or just trust the camino to provide you with a roof for the night?
 
We were 4 walkers and did our second camino with no prebooked accomodation. Part of the UNESCO heritage is not..."drawing a line" to walk through to Santiago but the collective support to walkers along the route - catering for water, food, shelter through the years and seasons. There is capacity and open-ended days leaves you with more flexibility along your way. Have faith that even on the primitivo it is not far to the next possible cover and (heart)room . This means that if a given site is full you ask & are able to walk to the next site. -as walkers we are rarely at the "end of our string", and we have found space within few hundred metres when this has been an issue. (I can be more specific: in general If you allow for 1-2 hours you have a range of 10-14 km to the next accomodation which is fine along these routes, you are rarely that remote. we have headlamps if the light goes).
 
The Primitivo was busy at its peak this year and that seemed to last until late Sep. It seems that the first few days are the key. There is adequate accommodation on this route but there are a few stages with little other choice.
 
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Keen to avoid my walk becoming an "albergue dash". That's not really the idea of the camino. On longer days on the trail it becomes more of an issue.

As you suggest though I will change my attitude and put faith in the camino. There will always be something. I guess realizing this is part of letting go and making it part of the journey. Still, it's a bit of a leap for me.
 

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Can anyone recommend a good snack to buy for the hospitalès route Nothing major just something to keep me going Many thanks

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