walking the via de la plata in winter

[piogaw]

hello everyone.

i want to thank everyone and this forum for all the advice, comment, guidance and recommendation in making it possible for me to start the el camino de la plata this winter. i am finally leaving london this friday, the 1st of february, for sevilla. god willing, i hope to make it all the way to santiago starting the camino mozarabe from sevilla connecting the camino sanabrea to santiago.

i hope to start a blog or diary to document my camino. i do not have any time limitation. i will be having rest days in sevilla, maybe zafra, merida, caceres, a longer rest days in salamanca to visit friend, zamora, ourense, santiago.

any suggestions, advices will be greatly appreciated. hopefully i will be in communication through my ipad and smartphone with this forum. my sincerest thanks to john walker, alan sykes, litsl, ria for all the helps. also in grateful appreciation to the camino de santiago forum, eroski consumer, godesalco, mundicamino, csj, theviadela plata for all the information. i hope to be able to provide feedback to update their site. god bless.

 

[mmm042]

Have a great time!

My personal suggestions:

*Definitely plan to spend an extra day in Merida, Caceres, Zamora and Puebla de Sanabria.

*For a treat (and a mere 25 euros), book a room at either Abuela Maxi or La Troje (both casas rurales) in Riolobos. They're very, very nice accommodations, and the owners are super friendly and accommodating, too.

*Take the detour to Oseira and the monastery.

*Take a dip in the free hot springs in Ourense (catch the cute little tourist train in the town center).

Buen Camino!
Melanie

 

[piogaw]

After 36 days and more than 1006 kilometers (actually i got lost quite a few times due to lack of waymarkings) from sevilla via camino sanabrea, i have finally reached santiago de compostela. It is with great relief to have finally arrived. From mombuey all the way to santiago it was raining very hard everyday, except for the last two days when the sun came through before santiago. Also two days of snow-one in which i saw sleet, snow flurries, snow, rain and eventually sunshine. Many of the municipal albergues were closed for the winter, in which i believe when talking to the local authorities, were due to economic reasons. Also i hardly met any other pilgrims. Most of the time i walked alone. Many of the trails were full of water making it hard to navigate. Infrastructures for stream crossings are very poor starting from the province of sevilla, to the provinces of badahoz and caceres. Then it gets easy as you enter the province of salamanca. As you enter the province of zamora there are many, many detours due to the construction of the AVE train line for connection to madrid. These detours added many kilometers to the regular trails. Also some of the detours have very poor temporary waymarkings. Most of the time i have to ask the local people for the correct direction. From mombuey on i walked quite a bit of time on the road as the path is full of water and red soil that stick to your hiking boot making it impossible to walk. I will try to provide more info for anyone who is interested to walk the via de la plata vis sanabrea (laza).

 

[piogaw]

Just a short note to let you know that i am still in spain visiting friends. Right now i am in salamanca and it is raining cats and dogs since last night. I will be going to visit a friend in madrid and will not be returning to london until the 25th or the 26th of march. One other note of advice, do not worry if your spanish is patchy.by the time you finish this camino you will be shocked to learn how well you speak spanish. I will have more time to organise my notes when i get home for other observations and comments.

 

[alansykes]

Congratulations! And happy St Patrick's day. Glad you made it safely, even if it was clearly very damp in many places. Those AVE detours are a nuisance (but should be finished fairly soon). Quite agree that the VdlP is better than an intensive language course if you want to learn Spanish.

Once you get back home it would be interesting to hear which municipal albergues are closed, and whether it's just for late winter or permanent - when I was passing through in December virtually everything was open (Albergueria, a private albergue, was my only disappointment, and I think that was only closed for a week over Christmas).

 

[fortview]

Sounds like quite a journey piogaw ! I just saw this, after asking some questions about walking this route in Jan. would love to hear more about your experiences ! Well done

 

[sulu]

Congratulations piogaw
This year the weather has really been very bad, last year it hardly rained at all!

 

[piogaw]

Hello alan,
Sorry to hear that the albergue in albergueria was closed when you were last there. It was a very hard climb of almost 1000 meters just to reach the bar with conchas of names of everyone that passes thru the town. I think you were right, the place was just closed for christmas.
I was treavelling on this particular day with a spanish pelegrino who started from valencia. I did met the owner of the bar and the albergue, luis. He is a very nice religious man. Each one of us have had two glasses of orujo, it was delicious. This was just to keep us warm. I was afraid to have anymore in case we have problems on the downhill walk on the road. Luis did show us the albergue which was extended. The albergue is donativo. There is only one toilet facility. Also the albergue is open throughout the year, maybe closed just for christmas. It is a shame luis does not serve any meals when i was there, just some chorizos and bread.
I hope you get a chance to go there again.

 

[piogaw]

Hello sulu,

The weather from sevilla to caceres was quite good. The only rainy days i encountered were from gallisteo to carcaboso (heavy downpour), caparra to aldenueva del camino (also heavy downpour), valdelacasa to fuenterroble de salvatierra (light rain), san pedro de rozados to salamanca (downpour). From mombuey on the heaven opens up everyday with very heavy downpour and also with wind blowing very hard. Also two days of snow. Only the last two days on the approach to santiago did the sun came out. Then it rains again the next two days.

 

[piogaw]

I will tried to provide more information on my camino while the experience is still fresh on my mind. Please note these observations are all my actual experience on this particular camino. It is not intended to be offensive or to cause offense to anyone. In situation where i find something not right i will not mention names except to ask fellow pelegrinos to be attentive and beware.

In sevilla, triana backpackers is a very nice place for pilgrims to start their journey. The family run business is a very friendly place with all the facilities. Please beware that this pension caters to pelegrinos and non-pelegrinos and is opened 24 hours a day. I will recommend that you do not take up any room on the ground floor as you will not be able to sleep (especially on saturday night). This is due to the constant checking in of guests at all times during the night with all the banging of doors and usage of toilets and flushings of toilets next to the reception area. Ask for room in the first and second floors. There is a very good fish and chips shop at the corner where they served take outs at very reasonable price. All kind of cooked seafoods and fishes are available. I think most of the food is selling at 4 euro per 1/4 kilo. You can also buy drinks in there for takeout.

Guillena: be careful when approaching the last section of guillera. Either i missed the yellow arrow or the waymarking disappeared. I can see a petrol station which is in guillena on the main road but still a couple of kilometers from the town where the municipal albergue is located. Either the albergue is closed down for the winter or closed down permanently. Telephone answering service was not answered, local police has no key, unable to get hold of anybody. I was finally helped by a local businessman and was told the albergue is closed (permanent or just for winter?). I ended up staying in a private hostel, bar frances 21 euro. (Cont'd).

 

[Luka]

Thanks for sharing your experiences! I hope to walk there in 6 weeks and am very curious about your adventures! I hope the albergue in Guillena was only closed for winter...

 

[DjennyHeart]

Thanks for your informative posts... I am in Sevilla now, and starting my Camino in two days. I am very excited... and also wondering what I have gotten myself into

Jenny.

 

[piogaw]

Hola jenny,

Buenos dias. I notice on the spanish weather report that it is raining today in sevilla. The coming days are not any better in terms of weather report. A couple of advice while you are in sevilla, do not miss the historical sites to visit like the santa maria cathedral, the giralda, the alcazar, plaza de espana. Your first credential can be stamped at the cathedral (i believe it is through the door to the museum). Try to look for the yellow arrow as you go out of barrio triana. Make sure you did not get on the motorway (autovia) as it is against the law to walk on the autovia.

Check on the spanish weather channel, aemet, for weather reports in the area. But most important, check with the local farmers and local inhabitants for weather reports, they are much more accurate than the official channel.

You will enjoy the solitude, the tranquility of the walk. Your best friends and companions on the trail are the solitary cow, horse, a bunch of ewes, some black iberian pigs in the first two weeks. On the way to guillena, italica is worth a 1 hour stopover to visit the ruin, free admission for eec nationals. Also try to visit the amphitheatre on the opposite side of the road.

Be careful about crossing the streams after castilblanco de los arroyos. You will notice the first stream is uncrossable. Look to the right, someone has place a couple of pallets on the narrow end of the streams for crossing, but it is not steady. Try to get a couple of walking pole or tree trunk (baston) for support. After the first crossing at the stream, there should be another three crossings, but shallower.
But because of the bad weather, there maybe more.

Give me a shout if there is anything i can help you with. I heard the municipal albergue has reopen in castilblanco de los arroyos.

Que tenga un buen camino.

 

[madrid12]

Hola Pio
Enjoying reading your reports, I know just how hard some of those sections were!
Elizabeth

 

[piogaw]

Congratulations to you too. You made it to santiago from verin. I hope you did not get as wet as i am every day. The strong wind with the rain in a gudina is really scary as you walked over the motorway overpass going into the pueblo.

I was told i am mad to walk in such bad weather by many locals. But when it rains heavily with strong wind everyday, you just get used to the condition. Many of the cafe-bars owners on the via de la plata Are quite nice and friendly to the pelegrinos. When you dropped in to their businesses, they will place more firewoods into their stoves and helped you dry your wet gears, at the same time keeping you warm. This gesture is very appreciated on my part. At the same time i was able to talk to them as i acquire quite a bit of the spanish language.

 

[Saint Mike II]

Hola Piogaw. Thank you for a great series of post. You have provide a lot of useful, and very up to date info. I start my camino in mid-May so hopefully the rain will have decreased significantly - still a couple of rainy days will keep the country green and fresh. Your advice about significantly improving ones Spanish is reassuring - but I will keep up the lesson. Cheers 8)

 

[piogaw]

Hello alan and john,

Thanks to you two and other veteran pelegrinos for all the good advice regarding walking the via de la plata in winter, for which i would not have been able to complete.

Que dios os bendiga