VdlP crowded!

[eamann]

Hello!

Just a short message to warn you that the Via is becoming very popular.

Started out on 28 March and found myself in a convoy of 14 other pilgrims!!!

So far I have not spend a night in a refugio or albergue with less than 8 others.

the passage through the finca Arroyo Mateos (I may not have the name right) is closed.

The albergue in Zafra is also closed.

Not many opportunities to access Internet

 

[peregrina2000]

I am really looking forward to hearing all about your experience. I am planning to walk this route next spring, and actually I'm happy to hear that there will be some companionship. I was eager to avoid the crowds of the Camino Frances, but not so eager to be completely on my own. 14 sounds like a nice number, compared to the multiple hundreds that gather in Roncesvalles!

I have seen information on a private albergue in Zafra, and wonder whether this is the one described in this post, or whether a different albergue has closed: http://www.alberguedezafra.com/es/index.php

Buen camino!

 

[eamann]

VdlP crowded (2)

Now that it is Holy Week, the number of people on the Via has become even bigger! In Alcuescar we were over 30. Numbers in themselves are not so important, it is the number of people compared to the capacity of the infrastructure. Seven people may seem little, but when they are in a room meant for three, then that is too much. Few of the refugios are big and so the result is a feeling of living like sardines!

By the time you do the Via next year the albergue in Zafra will no doubt be open again.

Since access to Internet is liñited to big towns and my time is short, I shall not be posting any more comments until I get back home.

A blessed Easter to all!

Eamann

 

[bjorgts]

A bed on Via de la Plata

Thank you very much for this information, Eamann. Then we are a bit prepared, can make our decisions, relax and look forward to our walking on Via de la Plata in a week or two.

After reading a diary written by a man walking Via de la Plata in spring 2005, which was very much concerned with starting early to get a bed, not beeing past by to many pilgrims during the day to get a bed, not wanting an upper bed (if that is the right word in english?) and so on, I made a decision: "Never worry about where to sleep in the evening! You never did for three years on the Aragon and French routes, and you had some wonderful weeks, which will call you back each year!"

Walking the Camino is a too great experience to let a bed be the thing you keep in your mind during the days. I am looking forward to meet people on the Camino ones more, and do not want to meet them as candidates for the same bed! I have to many wonderfull memories from sharing the Camino with interesting people to afford that, and I think its easier to keep that in mind if you are prepared and know that it may be crowded.

We have been wondering if we should bring a sleeping mat or not, and this information made the decision easy: We bring a sleeping mat. Then all we need is a roof and a floor, and if it is necessary we can do without that too. And then there are hostals...

In situationes when I think, "there are too many people here. Why are they all here? I wanteed a bit more solitude", then I think of a guide in one of the important churches in Jerusalem. There were hundreds of people inside, crowded(!), and when we went into the building, he said: "Remember that they are all here for the same reasons as you are, and that you too are a reason for why there are hundreds here. May be that will make you think of all the others in a different way." I found this a good advice there and then, and I have found it a good advice in many situationes later. So may be this is a good advice to bring with us to the Caminos too? Bjørg

 

[Wannes]

just as long as I don't have to pick up empty cans and/or wrappers along the way...I don't mind people, it's what they often leave behind that bothers me