Via de la Plata in May 2007

I walked the VDLP last may/june and had one afternoon of light rain after about 30 days. I had a rain jacket (which I used once) and a poncho (which I lost). Coffee and something to eat was always a problem not only in the morning abut at most other times. I gather this is quite different from the CF which caters a lot more to pilgrims.
Albergues were a lot scarcer too-the worst experience was the firtst town-guillena-where there is one hostel (which I heard was usuallly full and overpriced) or the 'sports stadium'-where I stayed. This was actually a changing room with 4 mattresses and , at a pinch, could sleep 6 people. You do not need a sleeping mat, at least I never did and the albergues were never full-although there were ones I didn't stay in out of choice but went to a hostal instead. You'll love it-it has the isolation that I think is missing from the CF.Have a look at the VDLP page on this web site for more info.

I agree with all of this having walked to Salamanca in January. I wil be setting off again at the end of April. I used a couple of web sites for weather forecasts/historic info: http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/Europe.htm

http://tiempo.meteored.com/weather/weat ... ceres.html

Funnily enough in most places I found a bar open very early for coffee and I avoided the Guillena problem by walking there and bussing back to Sevilla. The albergues were very a solitary experience as you might expect in January but I am not expecting them to be busy in April/May either.

Regards

John