sippymarie
New Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- doing my first camino in september 2023!
For 2024 Pilgrims: €50,- donation = 1 year with no ads on the forum + 90% off any 2024 Guide. More here. (Discount code sent to you by Private Message after your donation) |
---|
The benefit of starting in one of the bigger cities is that you spend less time travelling to the start, making the most of the days you have.hello everyone! i recently decided to do my first camino this september (alone!) and i am wondering if anyone here has any advice about which portion(s) of the camino frances i should do if i only have about 16 days to walk? eventually i want to do the whole thing, but i have schedule constraints and it's just not possible for me this year. it feels really important to me to do it now, even if it's incomplete, rather than wait until next year! i was originally thinking i should just start somewhere that's roughly 12 days from santiago and then maybe do finisterre at the end, but based on some other things i've seen, it seems like maybe i could start at the beginning and then skip to the last 100km? thank you! buen camino to all of you!
It might help if you change your thinking about what the pilgrimage is, or isn't, for you. For a start, every pilgrimage is a complete thing within itself, whether you walk for five days or fifty. Even if you might think that one day you might walk all the way from SJPP, Lisbon or somewhere else, if you walk a section now, that will be your pilgrimage.hello everyone! i recently decided to do my first camino this september (alone!) and i am wondering if anyone here has any advice about which portion(s) of the camino frances i should do if i only have about 16 days to walk? eventually i want to do the whole thing, but i have schedule constraints and it's just not possible for me this year. it feels really important to me to do it now, even if it's incomplete, rather than wait until next year! i was originally thinking i should just start somewhere that's roughly 12 days from santiago and then maybe do finisterre at the end, but based on some other things i've seen, it seems like maybe i could start at the beginning and then skip to the last 100km? thank you! buen camino to all of you!
I’d agree with the recommendation to walk from Porto. If history is a guide the Frances will be very busy indeed in September. Do you have any flexibility in your timing? If you are committed to the Frances, August or late September through October would be better.
.If you feel the need to walk now, then it won't really matter too much where from or where to
I'd echo those who say from Porto would be manageable and give you a sense of completion if that would help
As the song goes " Let's Start at the very beginning "hello everyone! i recently decided to do my first camino this september (alone!) and i am wondering if anyone here has any advice about which portion(s) of the camino frances i should do if i only have about 16 days to walk? eventually i want to do the whole thing, but i have schedule constraints and it's just not possible for me this year. it feels really important to me to do it now, even if it's incomplete, rather than wait until next year! i was originally thinking i should just start somewhere that's roughly 12 days from santiago and then maybe do finisterre at the end, but based on some other things i've seen, it seems like maybe i could start at the beginning and then skip to the last 100km? thank you! buen camino to all of you!
Congratulations!!!i recently decided to do my first camino this september (alone!)
I am not going to give suggestions or advice on a route, just on language.i only have about 16 days to walk?
Forget about the concept of the "entire Francés.". Walking into Santiago from any spot on any route makes it a complete Camino for you. SJPdP is an arbitrary starting point. There's a long thread about it here: https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/whats-so-special-about-sjpp.80751/Trying to negotiate more time off from work so I can walk the entire Frances,
What is the reason for you to do the Camino? It sounds like doing Europe in 5 days, running very quickly through very historical and famous places, not really getting the deep feeling for this religious pilgrimage, only to proof to friends and yourself that you could have walked a part. Lots of people run instead of walk this way just to proof the fitness. But is this the reason for this Camino? You fly in over a very long distance just for running? Don't you have nice walking challenges in your country? Sure, in these days it is easy to fly and book and run.hello everyone! i recently decided to do my first camino this september (alone!) and i am wondering if anyone here has any advice about which portion(s) of the camino frances i should do if i only have about 16 days to walk? eventually i want to do the whole thing, but i have schedule constraints and it's just not possible for me this year. it feels really important to me to do it now, even if it's incomplete, rather than wait until next year! i was originally thinking i should just start somewhere that's roughly 12 days from santiago and then maybe do finisterre at the end, but based on some other things i've seen, it seems like maybe i could start at the beginning and then skip to the last 100km? thank you! buen camino to all of you!
In the “early Frances” the first step will be the hardest (SJPDP-Roncesvalles). It’s useful to start well trained.Personally - For the Frances I would start in SJPDP and walk until I need to catch a bus/train to my departure point and pick up where I left off next time.
You could do the Primitivo in that time, but I personally think the Frances is the best starter route with all of it's infrastructure and history. Primitivo is easily done in 2 weeks, but it is a more challenging route with longer distances between accommodations.
Same as Frances - but on the Frances, there are accommodations and other services frequently at every 3-5km intervals. That is not the case on the Primitivo. There isn't as much flexibility to walk your preferred distances vs the stages on the Primitivo compared to the Frances.In the Primitivo the longest distance without services is the wonderful route called “Hospitales” (17km).
A lot of people fly in just to do Sarria to Santiago in under a week - at least the OP has over 2 weeks time.What is the reason for you to do the Camino? It sounds like doing Europe in 5 days, running very quickly through very historical and famous places, not really getting the deep feeling for this religious pilgrimage, only to proof to friends and yourself that you could have walked a part. Lots of people run instead of walk this way just to proof the fitness. But is this the reason for this Camino? You fly in over a very long distance just for running? Don't you have nice walking challenges in your country? Sure, in these days it is easy to fly and book and run.
Again, is this the target to walk this way.
thank you, this is very good advice! 16 days of walking (plus a couple travel days on either end) will still be the longest solo trip and most walking i've ever done, by a LOT, so you are absolutely right that i should banish the word "only" from my vocabularyCongratulations!!!
I am not going to give suggestions or advice on a route, just on language.
I'm a big believer that the language we use is very important - even, especially, the language we use in our internal monologues.
"Only" 16 days is a lot longer than others can manage!
If I tell myself I "only" have x amount of time to do something I can already feel a little pressure, a little tension in my neck and shoulders. Of course, that may just be me.
One person's 16 days of walking could be another person's month or another's week!
It might help if you change your thinking about what the pilgrimage is, or isn't, for you. For a start, every pilgrimage is a complete thing within itself, whether you walk for five days or fifty. Even if you might think that one day you might walk all the way from SJPP, Lisbon or somewhere else, if you walk a section now, that will be your pilgrimage.
Unless you have a definite plan to complete a particular route in sections, which I think is a perfectly good way of doing some of the longer routes, I would be inclined to think that ending in Santiago would be a better option. There is something very special about arriving there at the end of your pilgrimage that you can take away that I don't think you would get stopping somewhere else.
Splitting the camino over two or more discrete sections is clearly an option. When my wife got ill when we did the CF together, we in effect were forced into doing that. I wouldn't do it voluntarily myself. It was too disruptive of the flow of the camino for me, even though that is what we did to make it work. We saw others doing something similar, such as crossing the Pyrenees, and then taking the train or a bus to Sarria and continuing from there. Some were walking several sections, including from Sarria. That seems rather artificial to me, trying to pick the good or interesting towns to visit. It seemed more like a sight-seeing walk than a pilgrimage.
My last point is to echo the suggestion that you consider the Camino Portuguese route, starting at Porto. I have walked several different routes now, including the Central route from Porto. It seems to me that for someone doing their first Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, it has the same advantages as were lauded of the Frances in terms of places to stay, the numbers of other pilgrims walking, etc, but doesn't have the same crowding after Tui that seems to be occurring on the the Frances. You would still need to determine which of the routes to use leaving Porto, but it appears to me that none of them would present any particular difficulty if you plan to do sensible distances.
What is the reason for you to do the Camino? It sounds like doing Europe in 5 days, running very quickly through very historical and famous places, not really getting the deep feeling for this religious pilgrimage, only to proof to friends and yourself that you could have walked a part. Lots of people run instead of walk this way just to proof the fitness. But is this the reason for this Camino? You fly in over a very long distance just for running? Don't you have nice walking challenges in your country? Sure, in these days it is easy to fly and book and run.
Again, is this the target to walk this way.
If you only have 16 days to walk and eventually want to do the whole thing and want to do the Frances, I would start wherever you think the "whole thing" begins. That's a pretty fraught topic here. You could pick St. Jean Pied de Port, Roncevalles, Pamplona, Puente la Reina, or somewhere further from Santiago than SJPdP. Then walk as far as you get in the time you have available and resume your Camino from there next time. Get a stamp where you stop; keep your credential and next time restart it with a stamp from the same place. Many Europeans do this and complete their Caminos in sections over a number of years.hello everyone! i recently decided to do my first camino this september (alone!) and i am wondering if anyone here has any advice about which portion(s) of the camino frances i should do if i only have about 16 days to walk? eventually i want to do the whole thing, but i have schedule constraints and it's just not possible for me this year. it feels really important to me to do it now, even if it's incomplete, rather than wait until next year! i was originally thinking i should just start somewhere that's roughly 12 days from santiago and then maybe do finisterre at the end, but based on some other things i've seen, it seems like maybe i could start at the beginning and then skip to the last 100km? thank you! buen camino to all of you!
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?