Mozarabe accomodation & advice

[Seabeggar]

Preparing to walk Almeria to Grenada in April 2018. It will be our first Camino experience. I see a number of pilgrims are starting next Spring. I note that there is limited accomodation & long distances in between. How do pilgrims manage if you arrive & the beds are all gone, or you have phoned ahead & been advised everything is full? I guess some groups maybe booking several days in advance? We will be 3, so not so easy just to squeeze an extra person in. We are used to sleeping rough under the stars, but would rather avoid it.

I am confused about the range of maps/resources for the route, what are the essential maps/guide in English for this first section of the Mozarabe?

 

[peregrina2000]

Hi, seabeggar,
Welcome to the forum.

I am one of those starting in Almería in April with some other forum members. As far as guides go, the one published by the Almería association is a combined effort with other regional associations and is updated monthly. You can find the most recent version on their website.
http://www.almeriajacobea.es/ (I just checked, and you can get the "guía completa" from Nov. 2017 over on the right hand side with a click).

You are right that albergue accommodation is limited, but most of the places have other reasonably priced alternatives. If you look at the guide you will see lots of options. I don't think you should worry about a pilgrim crunch on this route. I do not want to "sleep rough under the stars" either, but I am confident things will work themselves out as we go. Walking every year since 2000 and I have never gone without a bed. Knock on wood.

Buen camino, Laurie

p.s. When are you planning to start?

 

[Seabeggar]

Thankyou Laurie for your reassurance and advice, we (my wife & daughter) will be setting out in early April. We are working on our Spanish, but suspect it will be too rudimentary for booking accomodation phone calls.

 

[Marbe2]

Though
I am bilingual, I do not speak Spanish...have had a couple semesters of it. What I do - is use google translator from a place that has WiFi and translate what I am asking for into Spanish. I get on the phone and tell the person who answers in Spanish that I am sorry that I do not speak Spanish and continue to ask for a twin bed room or two bunks depending on what we are looking for! Have not had a problem so far! Do not let language be a barrier!

 

[AlanSykes]

I don't want to be alarmist, and I've never had to sleep in a church porch either, but some of the albergues on the Almería section have very few beds and no other accommodation in the pueblo (Rioja, Alboloduy, ?La Peza spring to mind).

It probably won't be a problem, and the hospitaler@s on the route use whatsapp to let them know who's coming, but it would only take two groups of 3-4 to overfill some of the places.

 

[george.g]

Hi Seabegger
Look in the resources section of this forum for a couple of guides, the info there plus the site tha Laurie mentioned is all you need.
I walked this route this year and Alan is right about the limited accommodation, it might be an idea to check with Laurie and don’t start on the same day.
I had gps tracks loaded on a iPad for navigation.
Regards
George