Hi, peregrinos,
I have just completed a new draft of Rebekah's guide to the Camino de Invierno. I will eventually post it in the Resources section, but before that happens, I wonder if there are any forum members who have walked the Invierno, or parts of it, who would be willing to take a look and offer suggestions, criticisms, changes, etc. Just let me know and I'll be happy to send it along. I'm hoping to get it on the forum in the next couple of weeks, so I can then turn my attention to the Portugues guides. Thanks and buen camino, Laurie
We recently, October/November 2014, walked the Invierno. I thought you might be interested in a few of our observations.
We saw no other pilgrims except one on the morning of the last day at a distance, although strictly it was the Via de la Plata by then and he must have walked along the road as there was no evidence of his passing along the marked way.
We used
http://hiking.waymarkedtrails.org/en/relation/112925 , taking screen shots when we had access to wi-fi of the route. This served us well on the Camino de Madrid, on the few occasions when the route was not clear. The only times the route differed from the one marked here was out of O Barco when the marked way leaves the town to the left and on the way from Monforte when the option to go left and rejoin, mentioned by others as being problematic, was not marked anyway. The marked route follows the road until it goes off left. However, reading the advice of others, and as it had been very wet the day before, we followed the road all the way to Diomonti. It was a pleasant walk. On the whole though, the whole camino is extremely well marked. We did lose the signs for a while coming out of Lalin but ran into them after following the road signs to Santiago. On the way to Quiroga, there are a number of times when we seemed to be scrambling up hills just to avoid being on the main road and nearly didn't go up to the Castillo but in hindsight glad we did as the route after that is charming. On the way to Rodeiro, we also lost the route when only a few km out and ended up following the road - but I believe that had I used the screen shot, I would not have diverted from the route. By the way, they are digging up the marked track from the windmills down into the valley. The markers are still there but it is like walking along a road-building-project-in-progress.
It is a very up and down route compared to both the Madrid and the Frances (which we used to connect between Shagun and Ponferrada), and we were pushed most days but it is spectacular and the people amazingly encouraging and welcoming despite our lack of Spanish. Horns beeped regularly when near a road and rarely did we pass people without a 'Buen Camino.' The climb up to the castle on the first day was amazingly uplifting - I just could not believe we would be going up there when I saw it as we took a rest by the chapel in the woods just before we started climbing.... And note that there is no supermarket in Las Medulas. Having walked back down the long hill to a small shop to get some supplies, we arrived back to find travelling grocers, fishmongers, bakers all arriving within the next hour!
We stayed in two Aubergues, A Rua and Quiroga, and as sheets were available at each, could have managed without taking sleeping bags. We had no trouble finding cheap hotels and, as there were two of us, this often worked out little more than an Aubergue anyway.
The walk from Quiroga to Monforte was 41km on my GPS - a long and hard day but we wanted to beat the rain forecast and have a rest day -A good move as it turned out but it would probably be better to do this in 2 days. It was hard to believe we went through so many different and varied landscapes in the same day, all stunning in their own way.
We carried food and water most days as cafés/ shops were not many in number. However, we stopped and ate when we could, never seeming to need to pay too much. One evening in Quiroga, for example, we had 4 glasses of wine (freshly pressed) and 4 substantial ordered raciones for 8 euro! The cook at the Aubergue even did our washing for free despite my futile attempts to pay her.
Do not miss the walk up to the church marked by crosses on top of the hill after the climb up from Chantada. An amazing experience in the clouds - just wish we could have got inside. It moved us more than the cross on the Frances.
We loved it!