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Growth on the Invierno -- finally!

peregrina2000

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it looks like we are finally seeing that much anticipated increase in pilgrims on the Invierno. According to this article, the numbers have really spiked.

http://www.laregion.es/articulo/val...arios-costa-frances/20161227100811673658.html

Asunción says that the figure is about 5000, which seems very high to me, since the pilgrims office only recorded about 300. But it is true, as she says, that people who go into the pilgrims office and give their starting point as Ponferrada will be counted as pilgrims on the Frances unless they specify that they have walked the Invierno.

Hurry up and walk the Invierno if you want a beautiful solitary Camino!
 
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Not sure that figure is correct! I live a couple of miles from the Invierno near Monforte, run several times a week along or across the route, drive along parts of it on a daily basis, and rarely see pilgrims - perhaps once every couple of weeks, if that.
 
Hi, Pablo,

Welcome to the forum. Good to have contact with someone with an eye on the Invierno!

My gut agrees with you that 5,000 is too many, but I think 300 may be too few. In any case, I think it's very likely that there will be snowballing type growth in the next few years. (but even a doubling in a year won't get to very big numbers, so it will take a while).

Are you planning to walk it? As you know, the area is beautiful!

Buen camino, Laurie
 
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I slept in that bed!!!

http://www.lavozdegalicia.es/notici...-peregrinos-provincia/0003_201612O30C5993.htm

Dona Mañuela, (Asún's mother) who is pictured here, is now 93. I bet every forum member who has stayed there has a fond memory of her. I remember she told me that she was a cook in Paris for many years, for, I believe, a French cabinet member. I think she left Spain at the end of the Civil War. Now back home living with her daughter, she told me that she has a little garden down by the river, and she insists on going every day. Asún tries to dissuade her, especially when the path is muddy and slippery, and I remember Mañuela telling me: "I have to go down there, I put my hands in the earth and I feel the universe coursing through my veins. The day I do not go down to my garden I will die."

Ah, the Invierno.... what a great Camino.
 
I think I slept in that bed too, Laurie! Finding Asun's house was something, I felt like I walked forever through the town in a downpour, following little stencil drawings of her house on the pavement. I stayed a rest day with Asun, and made a chicken dinner for her and her mom. We drove up into the hills and saw a Romanesque church high over the town. Asun can hardly see over the steering wheel, so it was an adventure! She's a huge promoter of the Invierno, so maybe she exaggerated just a tad....When I walked the route in June, I saw just five other pilgrims on it. I have to say, I feel mixed about it getting more popular. If it get just a little busier, well ok, but not tooooo crowded, I hope....

What her mother said about the garden giving her life is so evident in Galicia. It's a province run by older people, and you can feel their love of the land in how they tend their gardens, fields, orchards and vineyards.
 
sabbott said:
. When I walked the route in June, I saw just five other pilgrims on it. I have to say, I feel mixed about it getting more popular. If it get just a little busier, well ok, but not tooooo crowded, I hope...
Click to expand...

Hi, sabbot, you are my hero! I would hazard a guess that you are the only person (or one of a very few) ever to have started your first camino from SJPP on the Francés and then veered off in Ponferrada onto the Invierno.

I agree that overcrowding would be terrible on the Invierno, but it's kind of a "goose that laid the golden egg" problem. Unless there are more pilgrims on the Invierno there will never be good infrastructure, and if there is good infrastructure there will be more pilgrims, so what are we to do? For the moment those of us who enjoy solitude can enjoy the Invierno, no doubt about that!
 
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peregrina2000 said:
Hi, sabbot, you are my hero! I would hazard a guess that you are the only person (or one of a very few) ever to have started your first camino from SJPP on the Francés and then veered off in Ponferrada onto the Invierno.
Click to expand...
Well, Laurie, you are my hero, given all of your adventures! You gave me the courage to take the road less traveled.
I found a xerox shop in Ponferrada and printed out the digital pdf of your Invierno guide that I had stored in my phone. That was my bible for the next three weeks. Even with those directions in my pocket, it certainly felt odd on the morning I started the Invierno route to watch the river of Camino Frances walkers turn right, and then turn left myself and climb the hill up and away into rural Galicia. What a walk.....
 
I think that i'll be there more or less in 20 days from now...
 
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I'm thinking about repeating the Inverno this summer - plans are not clear yet but if I have enough time, I will. Reasons (except the scenery & nostalgia): Learning from where I went wrong last time (personal revenge on the camino), staying at Asún's place (which I couldn't last time), the well-measured stages (suited me perfectly), I can use the guide that Laurie & Co have put together which will be extremely up-to-date, and I can give you a subjective report of how crowded it is, he he (between 300 and 5000 can mean anything?!) although I won't have the statistics, of course. I'll go in July, as always...

/BP
 
So the more I read about it the more I want to walk it. Laurie... where do I find your pdf. Tx
 
I've run parts already, but will be using the section from Quiroga to Chantada to practice for my first camino. I am planning to walk the Via de la Plata from Seville via Sanabrés starting in April.

If you ever need details or changes in my area checked for the guide then just let me know.
 
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sabbott said:
I think I slept in that bed too,
Click to expand...

I am also recognising that bed as one which I spent a night.

A claim of 5000 walking the Camino de Invierno - I have my doubts that the annual total from 2016 is even 10% of that number. Just tried to look at the statistics from the Pilgrim Office, but was challenged in loading the page. Maybe will try again, if I remember, in a few days.
 
I walked the Invierno at the end of October. I didn't see another pilgrim until I hit the Sanabres (and then only 5), though I followed the footsteps of another pilgrim, and though I never saw him he was walking at the same rate as me - others told me of him.

There was no accommodation in Las Médulas, and so I walked onto Borrenes, intending to take the shortcut and miss the long uphill trudge, but somehow missing the turn and crossing the road straight up hill. Well worth it though. Leaving Borrenes I was asked to sign a pilgrim register book. It had started in June and I was pilgrim no. 232 in late Oct. Obviously that would only be a small portion who stay at the reasonably expensive Casa Rural. My host and a large group from the amigos group walked walked my third stage the next day.

I posted the details on my blog of where I stayed (http://offwanderingagain.blogspot.com.au). I opted for rooms rather than albergues - I preferred to just get up, get dressed, and hit the road rather than pack sleeping bag etc. I had already walked the Camino Ignaciano. (The distances are using my route tracker app and from room to room including the odd detour!)

Day 1. Thursday 20th Oct. Ponferrada to Borrenes, 22. Kms. Centro de Turismo Rural Cornatel. €40
Day 2. 21st Oct. Borrenes to Puenta de Domingo Flórez de Valdeorras, 17.3 Kms. Hostal Restaurante La Torre. €34
Day 3. 22nd Oct. Puenta de Domingo Flórez de Valdeorras to O Barco de Valdeorras. 22.1 Kms. Pensión do Lar €25
Day 4. 23rd Oct. O Barco de Valdeorras to A Rûa de Valdeorras. 14 kms. Hostal Niza €18. (own shower & basin, shared toilet)
Day 5. 24th Oct. A Rûa de Valdeorras to Quiroga. 29.5 Kms. Hostal Quiper €17
Day 6. 25th Oct. Quiroga to Pobra do Brollón. 26.03 Kms. Hostal As Viñas, Dinner, bed & Breakfast €34
Day 7. 26th Oct. Pobra do Brollón to Monforte de Lemos. 16.7 Kms. Hotel Puenta Romano room + brekky €20
Day 8. 27th Oct. Monforte de Lemos to Chantada. 32.7 Kms. Hotel Mogay. €33.
Day 9. 28th Oct. Chantada to Rodeiro. 24.4 Kms. Hospedaxe O Guerra dinner bed and breakfast €32
Day 10. 29th Oct. Rodeiro to Lalin. 19Kms. Hotel Palacio. Dinner, bed and breakfast €35
Day 11. 30th Oct. Lalin to Ponte Ulla. 38.6kms. Bar Rios. Dinner, bed & breakfast €27
Day 12. 31st Oct. Ponte Ulla to Santiago de Compostela. San Martin Pinario €92 (€23 per night - pilgrim room) bed & breakfast for 4 nights
 
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I have stayed in 9 of those 12 places!!!!!!
 
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Charrito said:
I have stayed in 9 of those 12 places!!!!!!
Click to expand...
You beat me, Charrito I've only stayed in 7 of them. Maybe I need to go back so I can add to my tally! Seriously, working on the guide revisions are starting to make me think I should go back to the Invierno again this year (maybe somehow in connection with the Lana) rather than walking on the Norte, which is my current plan. You guys are planting all these dangerous seeds in my fickle brain.
 
I was also seriously thinking of the Norte this year. We were up there over Christmas, and I just love Asturias.

However, thanks to you and your editing, I'm now more or less clear that it will be my third Invierno this June.

See you there?
 
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peregrina2000 said:
Hunting around for updates for the forum Invierno guide, I came across an article that reports plans to open an albergue in Borrenes in 2017. Good news!

http://www.diariodeleon.es/noticias...ca-subida-numero-peregrinos-2016_1125749.html
Click to expand...
Borrenes needed something! The bar is always closed when I get there, the Casa Rural is expensive, the only place open is a sort of drugstore. There is a lovely cold fountain in the square, though, and you can walk down to Carucedo for a meal easily enough (1.5 kms?).
 
KinkyOne said:
That would be great. This way you can have short stage next day to Las Medulas and more than whole afternoon to spend there and enjoy the remains of Roman mines.
Click to expand...
Borrenes to Las Médulas would be a very short stage, but - as KinkyOne says - it would enable you to spend a lot more time up there. Most people would probably go on to Puente de Domingo Flórez from Borrenes.
 
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I started in late August from Leon and walked into Santiago 14 days later and I didn't see another pilgrim on the Invierno portion. I caught up to a very nice lady a day out of Santiago on the Sanabres who had also finished the Invierno just a couple of days ahead of me and she hadn't seen another peregrino either. I can't imagine that the figure of 5000 is even remotely accurate. The small hotels I stayed in confirmed that they were seeing very few pilgrims. I did tell the Pilgrim Office that I'd walked the Invierno and they told me that this Camino wasn't very popular, but that they had heard it was very special. Perhaps they added an extra zero to the total by accident...a typo? I doubt that there is enough infrastructure on this route to support 5,000 pilgrims, so the total just doesn't make any sense.

By the way, I loved the walk and I found it much better way-marked than I expected. I had a few issues with aggressive dogs, but had learned how to deal with this on the Plata a few years ago, but I can see how this could be upsetting for some. I enjoyed hot sunny days and the locals treated me wonderfully, except for one restaurant proprietor (recommended in the guide) who for some strange reason wouldn't serve me...just left me sitting there and ignored me. I finally left in some confusion, having never experienced this sort of reception on my prior journeys. However, as always on the Camino I was looked after soon after when I walked into the middle of a motorcycle gathering of several hundred bikers just down the street. They invited me to join their 'closed' gathering and provided me with food and cold beer. It was a very special experience, these tough looking bikers who individually approached me to offer food and drink then each touched me on my arm or shoulder and wished me a buen Camino. It was pretty amazing! I walked away with a much better perspective and sense of appreciation. A great experience!

I would recommend this route to anyone who enjoys a quieter Camino and is comfortable walking alone and meeting the local folks. They were extremely supportive and seemed genuinely pleased to see me walking the trail and often stopped me to chat for a few moments. One day I hope to walk it again. Thanks for your efforts Laurie to continue the guide.
 
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Hi High Endeavors. If you have any comments to add or corrections to make to the guide, I'd love to get them. I'm in the process of revising the guide for this year, and can use all the help I can get. For instance, comments about bad experiences and restaurants are important. I would put them in discreetly and without attribution, but I think it helps to have a balanced picture.
 
peregrina2000 said:
For instance, comments about bad experiences and restaurants are important. I would put them in discreetly and without attribution, but I think it helps to have a balanced picture.
Click to expand...
Hi Laurie,

Because one never knows who will be attending in a restaurant, and because someone may also be having a bad day, I don't know that I would list any comments about how welcoming a restaurant has been or not. Times and days it opens at yes, but I don't think anything else in necessary for our pilgrim needs which are: something to eat and drink. I find guidebooks and general critiques can have such a dramatic impact on small shops that we can cause them a really important diservice for a long time based on a single experience. On a Camino like this one where we want to encourage growth of both walkers and services to an extent I would tread lightly.
 
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I agree. But there are some places with consistently good, some with consistently bad, and some with consistently mixed reviews. When I see that three Invierno pilgrims over a two year span have walked a fair distance to eat at a place recommended by two of us in the guide, and they all report that it was a bad experience, I think it's fair to put in a comment that points out that not everyone had a great experience at that place. And that has happened several times since we started this guide.
 
My point being that perhaps it should not have been warmly recommended in the begining.

Maybe the day you were there the husband who is usually the cook was off running errands and replaced by his mother who actually knows how to cook and you got the exceptional meal rather than the norm.
 
So are you suggesting we print no recommendations at all? No opinions about services on the camino? Over time, I think we get a balanced picture of what you can expect. And I think that's helpful. I would be much more likely to walk 700 m to a restaurant that gets consistent rave reviews than one for which there are mixed reviews. Same is true for accommodations. I can think of a number of places where the guide has alerted pilgrims to really bad and dirty places or has suggested that walking 400 m off camino to a place like Torre vilorino is a great idea. That's an essential part of this or any guide I think.
 
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Hi Laurie,
Yes I did make a few notes to send to you, but I walked a fair bit last year and arrived home for Christmas then began preparing for Japan. Sorry about that. After walking to Ponferrada, I crossed to Santiago in 10 days.

- in Las Medulas I really enjoyed staying at Casa Socorro.
- if just walking through Puente de Domingo Flores it's easy to miss the Restaurante La Torre if one follows the Camino markers. I found it a bit by accident for morning coffee by asking in the Dia where one takes a hard left on the route. I was told a very short 50 meters to the right would take me to the bar where I was treated very nicely at coffee time! I thought a note in the guide directing pilgrims to turn right at the Dia would be helpful for others.
- Sobradelo: did stop for an excellent and very friendly lunch at Restaurante Museo with a great view back to the bridge. A hilite meal!
- in A Rua stayed at Casa Rural Pacino do Sil. The family treated me very well with a good breakfast. The main house was occupied by the French during the Napoleonic wars and when the owners renovated the place they found old rifles and many other historic items which have been proudly displayed around the place. The owner's daughter was home from Madrid and she had very good English which was a nice change. Was provided with a full tour of the premises...they are super friendly and welcoming. Their location provides a nice start out of town the next morning without the slow climb up to the highway.
- the walk from A Rua to Quiroga was beautiful. Quiroga was the place where the bikers were gathering and the refused service happened. It was Bar Dino's who were not hospitable or welcoming. The guide says that they have a sello they are anxious to use, but I guess not on the day I visited. Who knows what was happening that day, but the other restaurants in town were doing a good business with all the bikers in town, and yet they were still welcoming.
- in Monfote stayed at Hostel Medievo ph. 34617987588. Great location right across from the Monastery. €22.50 I think, with breakfast included.
- the church Diomondi was closed, but the work looked to be completed, at least on the outside.
- after the beautiful descent to the Rio Mino I found the marina bar in Belesar doesn't open daily until 1:30, so if you arrive before that then one can save some time and effort by just continuing on across the bridge. The Rio Mino valley is a true gem, but on a 34+ degree day the climb up the trail was hot, sweaty work! But the views were outstanding. I felt that I'd discovered something special without a single sign of mass tourism. Had this been a more accessible place in France or Italy, it would have been overrun. A nice find.
- in Chantada the three gerations of ladies where extremely welcoming at Bar Lucas, the excellent food plentiful and the vino tinto most welcoming! Hotel Mogay was ok, but I had to wait for three hours after arriving as they closed reception for the afternoon for a reason that I didn't quite understand. Seemed odd, but they did provide me with a nice breakfast hamper when I told them that I would be gone before breakfast to beat the heat. All in all an ok stop.
-Rodeiro: Hostal Carpinteiras was very good with a wonderful meal! They were open and welcoming when I arrived early afternoon.
- Lalin...liked the bronze hog!
- Ponte Ulla, stopped at the Bar Rios again (stopped there walking the Plata in 2014) and as before the welcome was wonderful, the room good and the operator treated me like I was her long lost son. So much excellent food! I couldn't eat it all and felt badly about that, but it seemed as if she expected this result. It's funny, I remember being sort of 'mothered' by nice families at many places along the Invierno and I'm not a young kid. They just seemed to take pleasure in making sure I was well fed and ready for the next day. It was unexpected and kind of nice.

I think that's about it. Sorry this was long, but I was having fun reading through my notes in your guide that I carried and reviewing my blog and photos.

Geoff
 
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I did think about my position regarding places to sleep and would treat them differently than a bar/cafe/restaurant because one spends many more hours in one, and necause of the risk of ned bugs. Also because once in your bed, in your room, you really don't care if the hospitalera, receptionist was nice or not, you care that the place is clean. And remember, how many times do people who post about ned nugs here or there are told that it's unfair to paint this picture of a place because of bed bugs.

And yes perhaps highlight exceptional places, but the idea that the bar mentioned by a member earlier today would be now avoided by all using your guide because he was ignored by the only staff member makes me Uneasy.

It's not like Tripadvisor where everyone was eats there can chime in, giving an overall appreciation over a number of days, weeks, months.

Just go read the Ersoki comments. If you read just the first three you might run, but when you read after that you realise the place may not be as bad, and perhaps even ok, or heaven forbid good.

I remember reading about the albergue in Sta Irene. The lady was supposed to be horrible, nobody should stay there and allow her to stay in business, etc. I show up and the place is like a doll's house, beds made with real linens, communal meal was the freshest fish I had had in 3 weeks, huge backyard to rest, upper floor with 4 single beds only. Ah, maybe before those posting a review on Eroski she had just had to deal with people like AnnieSantiago had to put up with in her group this fall.

So maybe just highlight the exceptionally good?
 
Thanks so very much!!
 
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Well I guess I don't agree. I plan to do this version like every other -- put in pilgrim opinions and note where there are mixed opinions. I think I've been fair and balanced and you can take a look when the version is ready. I'm always happy to get opinions, especially if people think my comments are unfair. I am willing to let forum members and other users make their own assessment of the opinions. I can't believe that they don't have their own ability to assess reviews. This is no different than any other place that gathers opinions, and then it's up to the reader to figure it out.
 
Great notes from High Endeavours!

Regarding restaurants, I would agree with peregrina2000 that it's a good idea to have all sorts of comments on here. Here's one from me regarding one of the places that High Endeavours mentioned (the bad experience):

As I recall, O Recuncho de Dino is a small place at the entrance to Quiroga. It's much better to go into town. Whether you're staying in the Albergue Municipal or in the excellent (and cheap) Hostal Quiper a bit further along, it's better to eat in the marvellous (excellent value Menú del Día) Restaurante Aroza, just up to the right off the main street. Recommended by peregrina2000 and I've eaten there twice. Mammoth pinchos too.

By the way, O Recuncho de Dino only serve meals if you've previously contacted them, so that could explain the weird treatment!
 
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I slept in that bed too (July 2015)
 
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