Walking in November

[Rosina Lila]

Hi Gretchen,
    If you begin the pilgrimage in Pamplona you will need about a month to
complete it.  Just how much time do you have?  You can start the pilgrimage
at many other points which may better fit the time available to you.
    In November there will be probably be very few pilgrims (865 arrived in
Santiago in November 2001, and only 349 in December),  therefore I don't
think that I would walk alone, although ordinarily I would prefer it. Also,
many of the albergues will be closed by then.  On the other hand, you will
always find a berth and will not need to hurry to arrive by a given time.
    There is a book called "The Camino of Santiago by car, and the best parts
of it for walking pilgrims"  for those with limited time. The book breaks the
Camino into segments showing  distances, approximate times needed to walk
them, places to stay, etc.  It was published by the Anaya Touring Club  -
www.anayatouring.com - and it is very informative.
    Many pilgrims cannot take a month or five weeks off from work and other
obligations to walk the entire Camino at one time, and they do it in
sections.  In fact, I have been invited to join a group from the Friends of
the Camino Association in Granada that will be walking a section of the
Silver Route, up to Salamanca, for a week this summer.  I expect that the
book was written for  just such pilgrims with limited time.
    Someone recently posted a booklet of albergues in the Spanish list-serv,
and the EXCELLENT Brazilian Camino Web pages have all sorts of information
about albergues, conditions, and everything that anyone may need to find out.
 If you can be more precise about your time restrictions and what you would
like to know, perhaps I can find some answers for you.
    The ISBN of the above mentioned book is  84-8165-554-6.
Best regards,
Rosina