Hola First name / pilgrim 👋

👣💙💛💙👣

 

How's your Camino planning going folks?

 

This is the current state of my spare room as I decide what to take on my next Camino TOMORROW 😯

 

I decided to celebrate my 13th sobriety anniversary (tomorrow) with a Camino 😉👣💙

Yep, I'm heading off on the Camino Lebaniego and Vadiniense in the morning.

I am meeting up with a friend in San Vicente de la Barquera who is joining me for the first few days.

 

The Lebaniego goes to el Monasterio de Santo Toribio de Liébana where many pilgrims deviate from the Camino del Norte (70km) or Camino Francés to venerate the relic of the Lignun Crucis, Leño de la Cruz, the cross of Christ, and ask for good adventure for the Way.

 

According to Gronze (find out more here), the Vadiniense is “the toughest of all the Caminos de Santiago through Spain than we are dealing with in Gronze” and continues from the Lebaniego to join the Camino Francés in Mansilla de las Mulas just before León.

 

The Caminos go through the eastern foothills of the Picos de Europa, hence the massive 1,800m I will get to just over halfway.

The trickiest part has been the planning, as there are not the plethora of albergues along the way as some of the more well-known routes (Gronze said only 200 pilgrims did the Vadiniense in 2021!). That with the fact it is a national holiday here next Thursday and Friday, so lots of places were full and some albergues aren't open for one reason or another.

 

It's involved calling a lot of places and even begging for a camp bed in the living room at one 🤷‍♀️ 

 

Here is my plan that involves a mix of albergues, hostals and Casa Rurales. Excuse the scrawl - this is how I detail in a snapshot the info I need.

 

Place name, accommodation name and number, day and date and if I have reserved, how many beds, if i can reserve f not and cost, distance to walk and rough elevation.

There is much more about my planning process in my book which you can find out more about below

I will be posting on socials and my website and I hope to update you next week in my newsletter on my progress, so keep an eye out 🧐

 

It's going to be a toughy, so the odd encouraging thought wouldn't go amiss 🙏

We also went and joined the Amigos de los Caminos de Santiago de Álava this week and are looking to get more involved and see what we can do to help where we livein Vitoria-Gasteiz.

Please pop me an email