Stove or not?

[migolito]

I'm planning the Camino de Frances this year. I have a lot of backpacking experience and equipment. However, I realize the Camino is not a wilderness trail. It planning my equipment should I plan on taking my stove (and some "emergency" dehydrated food) or is it reasonable to rely on what I find along the way...pardon the pun.

 

[Kitsambler]

A stove, its fuel, the associated cookset, not to mention the dehydrated food -- all add significant weight. I'm sure you have noticed the consistent theme throughout this forum - on almost every thread - that reducing your pack weight to a minimum is the key approach to a healthy and satisfying Camino experience. So, unless you have some overriding and terribly pressing requirement (allergies, religious restrictions, personal insistence on eating your own cooking), you can safely leave the stove and its related burdensome paraphernalia at home.

Many alburgues have cooking privileges and equipment available, if you really get the urge to cook.

 

[nousername]

migolito,

Many a stove is available on the market to choose from. For my walk i choose a sub one ounce DIY stove with a 200ml drink can as container. Total weight about 18 gram. Alcohol is available if memory serves correctly in 100ml containers from food chain stores and pharmacies. Google/youtube one ounce stoves.

I adapted my diet according to the foods and facilities available and used this stove only once to boil eggs with.

As a rule i always carry additional food since Sundays and siesta (closed shops) have caught me off guard until i got my resupply rhythm right.

 

[sillydoll]

We carried a dinky little stove with us in 2002 and bought gas when we arrived in Spain. We only used it a few times because in the 'season' - April to October - there are sufficient places to buy a coffee and grub along the way.

 

[dougfitz]

Like you, I have done a bit of bush walking, and I took a bit of convincing not to take a stove. There weren't any places that I would have used it, provided one accepted using bars and cafes for hot drinks etc.

What I think useful is to have a small supply of trail snacks (gorp, chocolate bars, jelly beans) for the first few days until you get your shopping rhythm right.

Buen camino

 

[Deleted member 3000]

Virtually everything I have brought from home to eat languished in my backpack until I forced myself to eat it. There are groceries everywhere along the Camino (except on Sunday in many places). You won't use a stove along the way unless you force yourself to, as in, "I brought this stove, so I am stopping here to boil some water for tea." After you clean up the wet tea bag, you can dispose of it at the bar in the next town while you have a freshly brewed cup of coffee and ponder why you brought the stove.

To actually stop, cook a meal, and clean up the pots afterward is likely to cost you your bed for the night as other pilgrims stream past. It is my guess that virtually all camping equipment gets shipped home at the first opportunity, except for those pilgrims who plan a camping pilgrimage.

 

[Anniesantiago]

Leave the stove at home.
It is excess weight and you will not need it.

 

[David]

The only thing you will miss by not having a stove is 'proper' tea and hot coffee .... for some reason mainland Europeans have absolutely no understanding of how to make tea .... you have to start with BOILING water ... and the coffee is always tepid ..... verrrr difficult if you are English! :cry:

The other thing to remember is that Spanish cafes are open late, not early - NOT early .........

so, if real tea is important to you then a stove could be quite important - the weight won't be noticed at all if your butler carries it.

enjoy :wink:

 

[Anniesantiago]

Haha! Yes, I forgot about "proper tea."

My Welsh girlfriend shocked us all when we saw her make tea.
She put FOUR teaspoons of sugar in the cup.
Is that normal? :lol:

 

[David]

Haha! Yes, I forgot about "proper tea."

My Welsh girlfriend shocked us all when we saw her make tea.
She put FOUR teaspoons of sugar in the cup.
Is that normal? :lol:

Ah - here we are into class divisions .. the working class tend to take tea strong with milk and lots of white sugar ...
middle class ... medium strong better price tea with milk
upper class --- medium single tea such as Assam with a little milk, milk put in afterwards
those who have lived in France (me) medium good quality, no milk or sugar
(The Welsh don't fit into the English class system - except to loathe it, they are Celts, undefeated by the Romans and not invaded by the Saxons - no idea what they do, sheep are involved somewhere I think ...... :lol: )

Has occurred to me that if Migolito is a Marxist he/she won't drink proper tea anyway as I'm fairly certain that Marx once said that proper tea was theft .....

 

[Deleted member 3000]

British pilgrims should get together for high tea over a camp stove to test the utility of the device. David, Br. David, and Abbeydore would have a lot in common, sharing the same name.

Still, the stove might not get much use on the Camino, particularly if you did not bring along the fine porcelain.

 

[Abbeydore]

.......will take my trusty japanese thermos :lol: :arrow:

 

[BlackDog]

But the water must be freshly drawn and boiled. So, you'll need a bucket to draw the water in as well as the best china. Will there be sugar lumps?

 

[David]

and silver tongs for the sugar lumps of course

(Apologies, should have mentioned it - David and Br. David are the same person, me. When I had to change my life due to familial duties I re-entered the mundane world and am now just 'David', though when this period ends I hope to return, as it were, - same Avatar though, sorry to confuse )

 

[wawpdx]

migolito,

As a rule i always carry additional food since Sundays and siesta (closed shops) have caught me off guard until i got my resupply rhythm right.

I agree, unless you have very specific personal needs that require that you do not eat other people’s cooking, you will never need your stove.

The food and eating part is more like daily foraging in your corner store. It does take some thinking ahead – see the previous comments about adjusting your shopping to when shops are open – but you need to think in terms of food for the morning or the next meal rather than food for the next several days. Bring a few power bars and maybe some instant coffee packets as back-up until you have adapted your habits to the local schedule.

 

[Nicholas Moody]

Stove definitely not needed. I agree that continental tea is awful... and tepid... and weak. Most of it is unfit for human consumption . I started off with my own Yorkshire Tea tea bags but they ran out, alas.

 

[Anniesantiago]

Hahah! I laughed out loud about the Welsh and sheep.
Joe said they were very scary! :lol:

 

[CaminoGen]

There is no reason on the Camino to bring dehydrated food. Even in the smallest town you will find food, fresh food, cheap food.

 

[David]

There is no reason on the Camino to bring dehydrated food. Even in the smallest town you will find food, fresh food, cheap food.

I have to disagree CaminoGen. If you stay in the smaller refuges - in between stages, as it were - you may find that you have arrived at a place with no shop, and with each day being what it is you can easily pass through a town when everything is closed for siesta .... you could end up having to eat in the only restaurant or village bar, at a quite substantial cost too (8-15 euros an evening to eat out I consider to be a lot of money) or have nothing to eat that night.

I always carry sausage and cheese and bread, plus a small container of virgin olive oil and salt and pepper. I also carry a bag of dehydrated pasta. If I boil some of the pasta, add some pared cheese and cut sausage, a little oil and condiments I have a nutritious and delicious meal - if needed there is enough to share as well.

When I do pass shops that are open I may buy ingredients for that evening's meal - if I don't have to carry it too far - but if not I am provided for. So, I really do have to disagree there.

 

[CaminoGen]

When I do pass shops that are open I may buy ingredients for that evening's meal - if I don't have to carry it too far - but if not I am provided for. So, I really do have to disagree there.

That's what I implied. At least once during the day you will cross an opened store where you can buy food for the day. Dehydrated food it therefore not necessary.Except for the Burgos-Hornillos del Camino (the most desolate place on the Camino, I think), you'll find everything you need. Everyone carries nuts, cookies, fruit, bread or a canned lentil salad in his or her pack... not dehydrated stuff.

 

[Abbeydore]

personally, would love to carry my wee burner, but my feet have overuled me

 

[renegadepilgrim]

Ping thanks for the link....been looking at the ETOH stoves for my backpacking adventures back home...however, for the Camino....no thanks. Not necessary, just takes up space, not to mention the trouble to do all that when I can just pop my head into a bar and order a cafe con leche por favor!

 

[renegadepilgrim]

True, but the original poster was asking about the Camino Frances...so I stand by my thoughts on the stove issue. Sure, if you are going to be on one of the more remote routes, I could see why you would want to bring one.

I am looking into making my own ETOH stove...I found a great video that shows you how to make one out of a metal budweiser bottle.