OVERCROWDING!! 350 - 400 PEOPLE IN RONCESVALLES!!
These are the most talked about posts on the forums this week.
From http://www.pilgrimage-to-santiago.com/
On April 30th nearly 300 pilgrims crossed the Pyrenees into Roncesvalles. . .so you can imagine what it was like on May 1st. too, they were overwhelmed.
3rd May:
Don't start your walk on a long weekend! Three days ago there was a post on another forum that Roncesvalles was totally overbooked with between 350 and 400 pilgrims. I read this post an a peregrina's blog: This weekend was a holiday weekend for Spain so there were a ton of Spaniards who had taken four days or so to do a chunk of the trail, which is what lots of people do. I continue to be impressed and amazed by the amount of older people and the distances they do each day. Got to an albergue a couple days ago and it was full, which I couldn´t believe, as it was only 3 in the afternoon. Got the last beds in a private one, and others who came later had to sleep on the floor or walk on to the next town.
But it got worse:
My daughter started from Pamplona on Tuesday 29th and by Thursday 1st May everywhere was absolutely packed - they had to work 14 km further than they intended before finding an overflow sports hall with mats on the floor and they have been wrecked ever since . . .
I seem to be in the middle of some kind of bubble of pilgrams and it has been very difficult to find room in the refugios. I had to rent a house in Los Arcos with some other pilgrams and a hotel in Logroño. I know of four people that have left the camino due to the stress of trying to find a bed.
I´m now in Astorga, a long way ahead of where I would have been if Id stuck tó the vague schedule i´d planned. this is partly because i have the flu, had very sore feet but a large part due to not wanting to rush for beds each day. its a bit like an episode of the Amazing Race - if you are not at your destination by about midday-1pm and have you pack in the line outside the albergue you will likely find trouble getting a bed, well at least an inexpensive one, or you may have to walk a lot further.I´ve decided to cut my camino short, laugh about it all and walk only 10-15km a day till i finish on 28 May, that way I can stay in smaller and perhaps less crowded places.
From what I experienced in my starting group, there were many Germans, some French, Italians, English , South Koreans, several Scandanavians,and only a few Americans. There seemed to be a race each morning at 4:30 to see who could get out the door and on the road, to be the first at the refuge at the end of the day. I was a bit surprised and disappointed at some of the rudeness displayed, but in any group ofpeople there will always be a few...
And, on Santiagobis:
Today Tuesday, May 6, a dead pilgrim was found outside Puente La Reina, on the steep slope climbing towards Mañeru. The Navarrese police had cordoned off the area and covered the corpse with a blanket, but itseemed to be a man. I could only see his hiking boots sticking out and his staff nearby. That made me sad. It will be hard to get over that sight for a while. I am reporting from Ciraqui.
News coverage in Diario de Navarra.
French Pilgrim Dies of Heart Attack in Mañeru
Early this morning other pilgrims saw the victim collapse and called SOS Navarra.- The victim was 60 yrs old and lived in the locality of Limoges.A french pilgrim of around 60 years who was walking the Camino de Santiago died this morning as he passed Mañeru due to a possible heart attack as reported by the government. At 8:20 other foreign pilgrims who were walking behind saw how A. G., from Limoges, collapsed as the crossed the rest area near that locality.After calling 112 of Navarra, the first to reach the area were police agents from Estella who were patroling the vicinity. They practiced resuscitation techniques but the pilgrim did not respond. A doctor in Puente de la Reina could only certify his death. His body is currenttly at the Navarra Institute of Legal Medicine where an autopsy will be performed.
From http://www.pilgrimage-to-santiago.com/
On April 30th nearly 300 pilgrims crossed the Pyrenees into Roncesvalles. . .so you can imagine what it was like on May 1st. too, they were overwhelmed.
3rd May:
Don't start your walk on a long weekend! Three days ago there was a post on another forum that Roncesvalles was totally overbooked with between 350 and 400 pilgrims. I read this post an a peregrina's blog: This weekend was a holiday weekend for Spain so there were a ton of Spaniards who had taken four days or so to do a chunk of the trail, which is what lots of people do. I continue to be impressed and amazed by the amount of older people and the distances they do each day. Got to an albergue a couple days ago and it was full, which I couldn´t believe, as it was only 3 in the afternoon. Got the last beds in a private one, and others who came later had to sleep on the floor or walk on to the next town.
But it got worse:
My daughter started from Pamplona on Tuesday 29th and by Thursday 1st May everywhere was absolutely packed - they had to work 14 km further than they intended before finding an overflow sports hall with mats on the floor and they have been wrecked ever since . . .
I seem to be in the middle of some kind of bubble of pilgrams and it has been very difficult to find room in the refugios. I had to rent a house in Los Arcos with some other pilgrams and a hotel in Logroño. I know of four people that have left the camino due to the stress of trying to find a bed.
I´m now in Astorga, a long way ahead of where I would have been if Id stuck tó the vague schedule i´d planned. this is partly because i have the flu, had very sore feet but a large part due to not wanting to rush for beds each day. its a bit like an episode of the Amazing Race - if you are not at your destination by about midday-1pm and have you pack in the line outside the albergue you will likely find trouble getting a bed, well at least an inexpensive one, or you may have to walk a lot further.I´ve decided to cut my camino short, laugh about it all and walk only 10-15km a day till i finish on 28 May, that way I can stay in smaller and perhaps less crowded places.
From what I experienced in my starting group, there were many Germans, some French, Italians, English , South Koreans, several Scandanavians,and only a few Americans. There seemed to be a race each morning at 4:30 to see who could get out the door and on the road, to be the first at the refuge at the end of the day. I was a bit surprised and disappointed at some of the rudeness displayed, but in any group ofpeople there will always be a few...
And, on Santiagobis:
Today Tuesday, May 6, a dead pilgrim was found outside Puente La Reina, on the steep slope climbing towards Mañeru. The Navarrese police had cordoned off the area and covered the corpse with a blanket, but itseemed to be a man. I could only see his hiking boots sticking out and his staff nearby. That made me sad. It will be hard to get over that sight for a while. I am reporting from Ciraqui.
News coverage in Diario de Navarra.
French Pilgrim Dies of Heart Attack in Mañeru
Early this morning other pilgrims saw the victim collapse and called SOS Navarra.- The victim was 60 yrs old and lived in the locality of Limoges.A french pilgrim of around 60 years who was walking the Camino de Santiago died this morning as he passed Mañeru due to a possible heart attack as reported by the government. At 8:20 other foreign pilgrims who were walking behind saw how A. G., from Limoges, collapsed as the crossed the rest area near that locality.After calling 112 of Navarra, the first to reach the area were police agents from Estella who were patroling the vicinity. They practiced resuscitation techniques but the pilgrim did not respond. A doctor in Puente de la Reina could only certify his death. His body is currenttly at the Navarra Institute of Legal Medicine where an autopsy will be performed.
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