Ola! Bonjour! Hello!

[Greenbean]

I looked around a bit before posting this but didnt seem to find anything that fit my question.
SO, I plan to walk the Camino Frances starting the first of August (If you're doing this time as well please PM me!) and I had a few questions that I'd like to get cleared up before I finish my trip. I want to get the most out of my camino experience, but due to college classes starting the third of september, my flight home is the first of september. I want to do the entire Camino, but I want to be able to spend a day here and there to poke around a bit. For those who have walked from JPDP, how hard is it really to do it a bit faster than four weeks? I'm 20 years old and consider myself in shape, but I've never really done anything like this. Basically, I'm wondering if its possible to walk from JPDP in 24 consecutive days, or should I start from somewhere like Pamplona? after researching the other routes I don't feel as though I'd be getting the real experience starting from anywhere else. Sorry for the long question but this has been bugging me for weeks.

 

[vagabondette]

Well, you could probably do it but why push yourself that hard. Assuming you take 4 days to explore various cities along the way, you'd have to average 40 km/day every day. That's a bit nuts IMO. Why not either just walk part of it and come back in the future to finish it or bus ahead on parts to make up kms.

40 km/day day after day if it's not something you're used to is a really great way to injure yourself and if you can't take some time to enjoy the days walk, what's the point in walking at all?

 

[Deleted member 3000]

If you are pressed for time, you probably can do it. Starting in Pamplona would save you the travel day to get to SJPdP, and then the three days return walking. It has gotten harder, or at least more expensive, to get to France with the shutdown of Express Bourricot, so you could start on the standard 30-day camino from Pamplona and do it in 24!!

 

[Sagalouts]

Hi Greenbean
you say your after the real experience of the Camino,if you don't mind an input from an old hasbean-chasing the clock isn't going to do it,just stroll from SJPP breath deeply enjoy and savour each minute of the day by the time you get to Pamplona you will have fallen in with a crowd of people from all over the world,these people will become your Camino-you can't pour a pint into a half pint pot-chill enjoy the time given you and catch a bus to your finish from were ever you are at the time.
this oldie has seen so many young bulls trying to do it all in 5 minutes,I pass them all the time as they have to rest up with injuries through pushing too hard,this gives me no pleasure at all 8)
have a great time whatever you decide your going to love it.
Ian

 

[fraluchi]

Basically, I'm wondering if its possible to walk from JPDP in 24 consecutive days, or should I start from somewhere like Pamplona?

Start from Pamplona!
My wife's nephew did a few years ago what you would like to do, and he did this brilliantly!
Only a few years older than you, he was in excellent physical shape, well-prepared and motivated.
He also managed to enjoy some of the salient aspects of the Camino.
You can always return and dig into those parts which perhaps you feel to have missed.
Do it!

 

[julie]

You should be OK if you start from Pamplona. SJPDP in 24 days would be too much of a push. It's not just your fitness level that dictates how far you walk each day. Sometimes you just feel the need to stop, to reflect, to be still. It's often at these times that your greatest insights come.

What a shame to go on pilgrimage and be so busy hurrying to meet a deadline that you don't have time to stay wherever or do whatever feels right on the day.

This will sound contradictory but ... I did my first pilgrimage at the age of 54 so certainly didn't have the same amount of energy that you would. It took me 28 days from SJPDP. Why 28? Because I had allowed 39. I wasn't in a hurry but on some days I just didn't want to stop so often covered some reasonably long distances.

The psychological difference between having to cover the distance and choosing to cannot be underestimated. To ensure you have that choice I would even start a little closer to Santiago than Pamplona.

 

[scruffy1]

Hello Greenbean Judios in Spanish, Greetings from Jerusalem

I am just another old geezer sticking his nose into other peoples business. Ask yourself why you are walking the Camino and what you hope to achieve. Are you doing this to prove something and for whom, yourself or somebody else? You will be walking through magnificent scenery, passing through marvelous villages and meeting wonderful people, you will witness amazing medieval art and architecture, experience great spiritual uplifting not necessarily in a church, you will be walking in August when the temperatures approach 40 degrees Celsius and overexertion, dehydration, and sunstroke are not theoretical subjects. Do you absolutely need the Compostela certificate to hang on your wall or is self fulfillment enough? And there is also the StJP mythological pilgrimage that must be confronted by all those who do not start there - “only real pilgrims” do this that or the other syndrome. Lastly, I walk the Camino Frances very slowly, savoring every kilometer, six good weeks and I always feel that I missed seeing something, that a certain experience should have been prolonged, that I should have stayed behind another hour or so until the church opened, I should have enjoyed another day with those fantastic people I met. Everyone is entitled to his or her own Camino, do it as you see fit, I heartily recommend to slow down enjoy the ride and do it all in two stages, half now and finish off in 2013.

 

[wayfarer]

I would have to agree with sagalout and scruffy. I started on April 20th and I met a few young and very fit people who ran marathons etc and who were trying to do the walk in 25/26 days. Well I met them a week later in trouble with feet and exhaustion. They then had to skip large sections to make up time. This is just about doing the walk not the camino, take your time, enjoy the countryside and the company, have some wine, finish early. chill.