O Cebreiro - Sarria + End March question

[Davideansa]

Hey all!

I'll start walking on the 25th of March from Astorga, and my flight is the 4th of April from Santiago.
Unfortunately I'll need to plan a bit aggressive plan due to the fact that my days are very limited.
My plan is to do a tour de force walking on day 5 from O'cebreiro to Sarria (40km).
Any experience on that specific path, someone tried the same?

Is there anyone which will be around those days on the way?

Thank you all

 

[Waka]

I'm sorry to hear that you are short of time, you must remember that the camino is not a race therefore not for rushing. IMHO you are better off starting in Sarria and taking a leisurely journey to SDC.
Just my thoughts.

 

[scruffy1]

I have done 40k but never on the Camino, you will loose far too much of the experience. I have found that after doing that 40k the following day can best be called a trial, you may hurt in places you never knew existed, you may start off again but no focus no pleasure no time for sociability, a careless moment and you sprain your ankle, blisters, the guy in the next bunk snored so hard that despite the 40 you could hardly sleep, the option for suffering are endless and you will not be able to complete your days plan. I would try and do two days of 30K passing straight through Sarria - one should never say a dispraging word against the Camino but Sarria is not...well...that charming, you know what I mean.

 

[Peter Fransiscus]

Hey all!

I'll start walking on the 25th of March from Astorga, and my flight is the 4th of April from Santiago.
Unfortunately I'll need to plan a bit aggressive plan due to the fact that my days are very limited.
My plan is to do a tour de force walking on day 5 from O'cebreiro to Sarria (40km).
Any experience on that specific path, someone tried the same?

Is there anyone which will be around those days on the way?

Thank you all

Hi David , why not walk till Samos that’s around 30km. In Samos you can visit the monastary .
Wish you well , Peter .

 

[Tincatinker]

Well, its downhill all the way to Molinaseca which might help but a significant part of that descent is on steep, rough rock and / or loose stone. Hurrying will be a great way to find yourself not going anywhere. You could stick to the road but you'll be adding distance. You're planning on something like 250km in 10 walking days (depending on your arrival time in Astorga and your flight time out of Santiago) which is easily doable for any reasonably fit hiker with a light pack and no injuries. Nevertheless a 40k day will hurt unless you regularly walk those sort of distances with a full pack. I suggest you try and adjust your plans and avoid anything over 30k in a day.

 

[Saint Mike II]

Hola @Davideansa yes it is doable, but it will depend upon how far you have walked in the previous two or three days. Starting in Astorga you are not going to have the kilometres in your legs that a full Camino provides. Remember that from Astorga you have have to climb around 700 metres (2200 feet) in two days or a day and a half to the Cruz de Ferro; you then have that descent into Molinaseca, nearly 900 metres (and there is some really rough ankle twisting country to negotiate). From Molinaseca to O'Cebreiro its another 60km with a 700 metre climb up some tough country. So to sumarise from Astorga you have walked 100 km - in three or four days with two tough climbs and then plan to walk another 40 km - its a tough ask. My suggestion - have a plan B!!

 

[GettingThere]

It's doable if you're used to walking that sort of distance - some people are. O Cebreiro to Sarria has a few deceptively steep uphills and some steep downhills to negotiate, and that following a very steep climb to O Cebreiro the day before. I'm with @Saint Mike II - have a Plan B if you go for this! Or why not think about starting a little closer to Santiago if your time is limited and it's important to you to finish there? Ponferrada could be a good alternative starting-point, and would give you an extra 2-3 days to work with, depending on how much time you've allowed yourself for the earlier section. Something to think about perhaps.

 

[Davideansa]

Dear all,

thank you for the replies!

my issue is:

I'll arrive in Madrid next Saturday, and I'll take a bus until Astorga.
I'll start my camino on Sunday 25th and I have my flight from Santiago on the 4th of April.
on my Pilgrim's guide, there are 11 suggested stages (is the correct word?), but I have 10 days, I could use also the last day to walk but I have my flight at 12.00, so I would have to start walking at 6, to cover the last 20km and arrive in time to catch my flight (losing the deserved time I would like to spend in Santiago).
Now the point is that I need somehow to plan those 262 km in 10 days instead of 11, which is doable in my opinion, but I'm bit afraid of missing very nice villages just randomly splitting the stages to have a fair amount of Km.
Is there anyone that could suggest a good split of those km in 10 days?

I know that the walk has to be taken with calm, but unfortunately my days are very limited
I could start after astorga but connections from Madrid are not the best to those villages.

Suggestions?

Thank you

 

[Kanga]

My suggestion - start walking in Astorga, enjoy walking, keep walking - and on the day before your flight catch a bus into Santiago. The last few days, the Camino path parallels the local bus route. You can catch a bus from Melide or Arzua, it is easy and there are several each day.

You actually pass the airport on your way into Santiago. It is about 12km from there to the Cathedral.

 

[martin1ws]

A plan b can be to take a taxi anywhere to shorten a daily route (not in the last 100km if you want to get the Compostela).
If you want to go your "whole" camino, you could go back by taxi the next day to the point where you ended yesterday.

Or maybe you find a different splitting of the stages:
https://godesalco.com/plan/frances
https://www.gronze.com/camino-frances

 

[Anamiri]

I did a 40+km day. But not by choice, and it wasn't pleasant.

 

[Mackie]

Hey all!

I'll start walking on the 25th of March from Astorga, and my flight is the 4th of April from Santiago.
Unfortunately I'll need to plan a bit aggressive plan due to the fact that my days are very limited.
My plan is to do a tour de force walking on day 5 from O'cebreiro to Sarria (40km).
Any experience on that specific path, someone tried the same?

Is there anyone which will be around those days on the way?

Thank you all

I would consider walking from Ponferrada to Santiago which I did in 9 days in 2016, a distance of approximately 210 kms.

 

[Mark McCarthy]

I would suggest the following stages:

 

[Davideansa]

I would suggest the following stages:
View attachment 40184

thank you Mark! great suggestions! I'll check them!
D

 

[Anniesantiago]

What kanga said.

 

[november_moon]

Now the point is that I need somehow to plan those 262 km in 10 days instead of 11, which is doable in my opinion, but I'm bit afraid of missing very nice villages just randomly splitting the stages to have a fair amount of Km.

The stages in the guidebooks are just suggestions - the author has to organize the walk in some fashion to make it digestible, but there isn't anything necessarily magical about the places at the end of the published stages - some are very nice, but there are really neat places in between stages too. And regardless of where you stop for the night, you'll walk through all the places - stopping for breakfast or lunch in some, maybe a coffee here and a cold beverage there, to see a church or museum...

So, if you want to average 26.2 km per day instead of 23.8 km, then go for it. I don't know what guide you are using, but I used Bierley and there was lots of information about the places between stages too. We sometimes stayed at the end of a published stage and sometimes not - just depended on where we ended up that day.

Below is a link for a nice planning site - you pick your starting and ending point, and then pick potential overnight stops - it will give you a plan with distances, elevations, etc. for your plan so you can see how things would look:

https://godesalco.com/plan

 

[julia-t]

I too was short of time when walking this part of the Camino in March last year; I started in Astorga but as my daily limit is about 20km I had to skip a few km here and there.

So, after a fall on the way down to Molinaseca which shook me up a fair bit, I took a taxi to Ponferrada. I skipped a few km alongside a busyish road. I set out again from Ponferrada, but was not comfortable, so took a bus to Pieros, again only a few flat km. Next day I walked the pretty alternative route to Villafranca, and onwards to Trabadelo. The following day I climbed up as far as Laguna del Castilla, and set out the next morning to climb up to O Cebreiro in 6 inches of snow! It was a magical experience, one I was very lucky to have, but on the trail down towards Tricastela conditions became really nasty and when I found everywhere in Fonfria closed I called a taxi down to Tricastela.

From Tricastela I walked every step of the rest of the way, including the detour to Samos.

I do not regret skipping those few Km, because it allowed me to walk comfortably without pushing myself and risking further injury, yet to achieve my goal within the time I had.

If you can walk those long days, then good for you, and I wish you the very best, but it is always best to have a Plan B - the Camino can play tricks with you to test you...

Buen Camino.

 

[Davideansa]

The stages in the guidebooks are just suggestions - the author has to organize the walk in some fashion to make it digestible, but there isn't anything necessarily magical about the places at the end of the published stages - some are very nice, but there are really neat places in between stages too. And regardless of where you stop for the night, you'll walk through all the places - stopping for breakfast or lunch in some, maybe a coffee here and a cold beverage there, to see a church or museum...

So, if you want to average 26.2 km per day instead of 23.8 km, then go for it. I don't know what guide you are using, but I used Bierley and there was lots of information about the places between stages too. We sometimes stayed at the end of a published stage and sometimes not - just depended on where we ended up that day.

Below is a link for a nice planning site - you pick your starting and ending point, and then pick potential overnight stops - it will give you a plan with distances, elevations, etc. for your plan so you can see how things would look:

https://godesalco.com/plan

I use Brierley too..

you're right, I should try to be more spontaneous

 

[november_moon]

Spontaneity is nice

I found that we usually had the best experiences when we didn't plan - just let things happen as they would. When we planned, we sometimes got in our own way - ended up missing something because we had to continue onto where our planned lodging was, or ended up stopping earlier than we wanted that day.

 

[Louise2016]

Hi David , why not walk till Samos that’s around 30km. In Samos you can visit the monastary .
Wish you well , Peter .

And from Samos you can take the bus into Sarria to save some distance.

 

[Anamiri]

The walk into Samos is beautiful, and the glimpses of the monastry through the gaps in the stone wall looking down, magnificent.