Lodging and experience on Del Norte in November...

[katkins_in]

Hello all:

Due to life circumstances I find myself on the Del Norte route in November... The first couple of weeks (started Oct 14) I fell in with cohorts of pilgrims and everything was good... But now most albergues and hostels are closed, most of the people I met ended their walks after 10-14 days, and I am having to stay in hotels alone.

The weather is mostly great! Two days of rain out of 17, and cool hiking temperatures that I love (55-75F, 12-23C).

So now I'm on this expensive, solo walk... Looking at alternatives... I chose Del Norte for coastal beauty (and there's been a lot of that), but I could pivot and go anywhere... Which Camino would still be good between now and Dec 13, when I need to get to Lisbon?

 

[alexwalker]

Frances.

 

[J Willhaus]

Probably either the Via de la Plata or the Frances if you are looking for albergues.

 

[Vacajoe]

France’s is cheaper, better supported, and nearby, Or you can bus ahead to La Coruña, walk the Ingles to SdC and then reverse walk the Portuguese to Lisbon.

 

[Stephan the Painter]

Probably either the Via de la Plata or the Frances if you are looking for albergues.

Is the VDLP pretty good for winter openings of Albergues (for my future planning)? Although I would assume it's also not very busy…?

 

[Stephan the Painter]

Or you can bus ahead to La Coruña, walk the Ingles to SdC and then reverse walk the Portuguese to Lisbon

Great idea!

 

[J Willhaus]

Lots of those smaller, "get the key at the bar" kind of albergues on the VdlP.

 

[Adelina]

A lot of people pivot from the Norte to the Primitivo. They had great weather the last couple of weeks, but albergues are beginning to close there now as well (we closed Grado's albergue on the 31st). It is a beautiful Camino with amenities in the larger towns - fewer pilgrims for sure, but more than they've had in the past!

 

[poogeyejr]

Which Camino would still be good between now and Dec 13, when I need to get to Lisbon?

What did you decide on? What was your experience? Love to hear where you ended up.

Buen Camino

 

[katkins_in]

Hi all:

In the end, I stayed on the Del Norte to Santiago, and it was great, although I did end up in private rooms using Booking dot com fairly often. If I spoke Spanish, it would have been fairly easy to find albergues or pilgrim accommodations, but I couldn't communicate well by telephone, and many of the places listed in our apps didn't respond to whatsapp or text... I had a more tricky time of it.

After Santiago I bused out to Fisterre, then took the bus to Muxia and walked back to Fisterre without carrying my pack. Then I walked to a one-day bus strike stranded me in Cee overnight. Back to Santiago, and then a train down to Pontevedra where I wanted to walk a 5 day section of the Portuguese Central route that I missed due to getting covid and being quarantined in Balugaes two years ago. Finally, I trained back over to Viana de Castelo and walked down to Porto.

I lucked out with weather! I think I only needed my raingear seriously about 5 days out of 58... and a few days I had mist or light rain on and off for half a day. Temperatures were also amazing, mostly in the perfect range for me to hike and not be too hot or cold.

I jumped into the ocean every chance I could, but I learned to try to do it where there was a freshwater stream so I could rinse some of the salt off after. (The first dip I took, early in the trip, resulted in some chafing I didn't want to repeat!) I grew up on the Great Lakes of the US, and the ocean was warmer than Lake Superior normally ever gets...

Del Norte was fairly empty after the first 10-15 days. I think maybe there were 20 of us on any given stage per day. By the time I got to Santiago, late in the day, there had only been 124 pilgrims at the Compostela office.

Ivar helped me by holding a package of clothing and other things that I figured out I wasn't going to need -- I was prepared for colder and wetter weather that wasn't being predicted.

Going backwards down the Portuguese routes (or, forward on the Fatima), I was pretty much alone. I would pass people, and a surprising number for December I thought, going the other way...

So overall, I had an amazing walk... but mostly solo and solitary. Not the usual camino experience, and not what I would wish for friends who I've enthusiastically encouraged to go... but fine for me, I'm fairly used to my own company.

Thanks for the ideas and suggestions and replies to my question, even though I didn't take any of the advice!

-Kevin

(I hope some of the pilgrims I *did* meet see this thread someday and pop in to tell of their own experiences.)