Sleeping out along the Frances, using Albergues occasionally...

[Former member 102840]

Apologies, as I'm sure has probably been asked before:

I'm contemplating undertaking a second Camino Frances in a few weeks, but this time sleeping out a lot along the way and maybe staying in albergues every 2-3 days. I prefer taking things slow, walking late in the afternoon and into the evening, when the heat is less, and the landscapes and light are at their best. Personally, I'm not interested in a Compostela and didn't get one last time. I'm used to sleeping rough all over the world. I just wonder if there would be any resistance or issues pitching up to an albergue with a half-empty crediential? And yes, I'm aware of Spanish vagrancy laws, serpents and other nasties, being stealthy as regards where I sleep and not making a mess, not supporting the Camino economy (I'm between jobs), and all the rest. Any positive thoughts?

 

[dick bird]

Stamps don’t have to be from an albergue: you can get them from any business e.g. a café, or public office, so that needn’t be an issue. The albergue Hospi will just want to be sure you have actually walked that day.

 

[Rebekah Scott]

Millions of people have done it, and thousands continue it now. If you read Spanish, there's "Vicarie Pro," a new Camino memoir by beloved hospitalero Alex Gonzalez Flores that follows a camino done in 1992. Sleeping rough was all there was, for a very long way.
For pilgrims who've been sleeping outside, I've seen credentials where the dates and places where the nights were spent were written into a credential space. Most hospitaleros will be able to tell you're not a con man.

 

[CWBuff]

If you stop at a given albergue and ask if they have a place to pitch a tent and they tell you affirmative - I guess you are still roughing it out but I fail to see why they wouldn't give you a sello in your credential

 

[David Tallan]

I think the real question is whether the albergue policies will allow you to pitch a tent. If they will, I don't see them denying you a stamp. I've gotten stamps from plenty of albergues where I didn't pay for a bunk (albeit, usually where I stopped for a coffee).

 

[MickMac]

The person is not interested in stamps for his Cert only for to stay occasionally in Albergues .

 

[CWBuff]

The person is not interested in stamps for his Cert only for to stay occasionally in Albergues .

That is understood but hence he needs sellos to stay in Albergues so he might as well obtain them anyway and anywhere he could.

 

[MickMac]

If he has an occasional stamp that should allow him a stay, never seen anyone sent away with a passport because they did not have stamps.

 

[David]

As above, sellos not a problem. Anyway, if you turned up in the middle of the Camino with a completely empty credential they would just stamp it, assuming it is your first night - I think the credential is important rather than the stamps - but I may be wrong (I often am).

Your "I'm used to sleeping rough all over the world." I am intrigued .. I am guessing that you won't be packing all that tent stuff but actually 'wild sleeping'? - "dormir sous les étoiles?"

That sounds pleasant .. do you take a sleeping pad? any extras in your pack?

 

[MickMac]

That sounds right It's the passport that is important I have pics somewhere of a guy in a sleeping bag near Herrerias, near the tree woodpiles as you turn right after Villa Franca.
Another of a hammock stretched between two trees.

 

[dick bird]

If you stop at a given albergue and ask if they have a place to pitch a tent and they tell you affirmative - I guess you are still roughing it out but I fail to see why they wouldn't give you a sello in your credential

You don’t even have to do that. It is quite common for pilgrims to ask the hospis in an albergue they are not staying at for just a stamp; they just want it as a souvenir. Most hospis will oblige.

 

[Former member 102840]

As above, sellos not a problem. Anyway, if you turned up in the middle of the Camino with a completely empty credential they would just stamp it, assuming it is your first night - I think the credential is important rather than the stamps - but I may be wrong (I often am).

Your "I'm used to sleeping rough all over the world." I am intrigued .. I am guessing that you won't be packing all that tent stuff but actually 'wild sleeping'? - "dormir sous les étoiles?"

That sounds pleasant .. do you take a sleeping pad? any extras in your pack?

Wild sleeping: usually using a nylon army hammock with built in net, a tarp and a thin mat. Trees, rocky ledges, caves, half-completed houses, bus shelters, beaches, empty boats, old train carriages, culverts, park benches, underneath bypasses, hidden under the stairs in hospital basement service-tunnels (I used to be a nurse) etc, etc. Sometimes using my bike and a tarp as a lean-to. Setup at dusk and gone at dawn. Sometimes nothing at all needed but the grass. Never in the centre of a big city, where people become the biggest danger. And you can't see the stars anyway. Maybe snatch a wash and freshen-up in a fast flowing stream, or a local swimming pool... or albergue ; ) In particularly friendly places like Iran, people will stop you on the road and open up small mosques for you to sleep in and often insist on taking you to their homes tens of miles away, and then return you back from whence you came in the morning. Turkish police once gave me a cell to sleep in when I was lost in bad weather. And a French station-master, a vintage train carriage that was being restored when he found me wandering in the dark on his way home. When you don't have a set destination, or place of guarranteed shelter, things tend to come your way. And when they don't, you keep on walking, looking for a cozy hiding place and catch up with the noise and nonsense of 21st century life down the line. No phone, no computers, no fancy kit.

 

[MickMac]

Wild sleeping: usually using a nylon army hammock with built in net, a tarp and a thin mat. Trees, rocky ledges, caves, half-completed houses, bus shelters, beaches, empty boats, old train carriages, culverts, park benches, underneath bypasses, hidden under the stairs in hospital basement service-tunnels (I used to be a nurse) etc, etc. Sometimes using my bike and a tarp as a lean-to. Setup at dusk and gone at dawn. Sometimes nothing at all needed but the grass. Never in the centre of a big city, where people become the biggest danger. And you can't see the stars anyway. Maybe snatch a wash and freshen-up in a fast flowing stream, or a local swimming pool... or albergue ; ) In particularly friendly places like Iran, people will stop you on the road and open up small mosques for you to sleep in and often insist on taking you to their homes tens of miles away, and then return you back from whence you came in the morning. Turkish police once gave me a cell to sleep in when I was lost in bad weather. And a French station-master, a vintage train carriage that was being restored when he found me wandering in the dark on his way home. When you don't have a set destination, or place of guarranteed shelter, things tend to come your way. And when they don't, you keep on walking, looking for a cozy hiding place and catch up with the noise and nonsense of 21st century life down the line. No phone, no computers, no fancy kit.

I was caught out on Estella a few years ago my own fault, a group of young pilgrims muscled their way in front of me at the Albergue I just was so annoyed I left and walked off. Ended up due to circumstances sleeping out across from the bus station on open ground not a pleasant experience.

 

[MelMc]

Apologies, as I'm sure has probably been asked before:

I'm contemplating undertaking a second Camino Frances in a few weeks, but this time sleeping out a lot along the way and maybe staying in albergues every 2-3 days. I prefer taking things slow, walking late in the afternoon and into the evening, when the heat is less, and the landscapes and light are at their best. Personally, I'm not interested in a Compostela and didn't get one last time. I'm used to sleeping rough all over the world. I just wonder if there would be any resistance or issues pitching up to an albergue with a half-empty crediential? And yes, I'm aware of Spanish vagrancy laws, serpents and other nasties, being stealthy as regards where I sleep and not making a mess, not supporting the Camino economy (I'm between jobs), and all the rest. Any positive thoughts?

I like your style, a free spirit

 

[David]

Jack Reacher plus hammock - what's not to like!

 

[Rebekah Scott]

If he has an occasional stamp that should allow him a stay, never seen anyone sent away with a passport because they did not have stamps.

Occasionally this is an issue.