Minimum distance between accomodation

[carolyn]

I am "hoping" to walk from Leon to Santiago with my 6 yr. old and 9 yr. old daughters this summer. I was wondering what is the minimum distance we must travel each day in order to find a place to sleep. I.e. if one day we can't make it beyond 10 km, could we find ourselves in the middle of nowhere?

[HuskyNerd]

Hi Carolyn ~

There are some stretches of Camino between Leon and Santiago that have up to 15 kms between accommodation -- between Virgen del Camino and Villadangos de Paramo and also between Samos and Sarria (if you choose that option as most seem to). You can use this resource: http://www.godesalco.com/plan/frances to see the distances and consider your options.

That said, if you were a close friend or relative of mine I would tie you to a tree rather than let you drag your kids along with you on this walk. I was overnight in an albergue last year with a German family who had their 5-year old with them in a stroller. They were all hot and miserable and I helped them for about 1 km as they tried to manage their stroller through large rocks and tall bushes on the trail. Though he could walk, the stroller was the only way they could manage their bored child through the endless marches. At night at the albergue pilgrims were astounded the couple would subject their child to this -- one hospitalero seriously considered not letting them stay. An important issue is albergue life and its unisex bathrooms and showers and large group dressing and undressing. Most adults can handle this with modesty and by averting their eyes at personal moments, but to "expose" kids to this seems to me a little sketchy. Even as a fairly relaxed and non-body-conscious individual, I'd have to think twice about undressing/showering/primping knowing there are a couple of very young girls who might be observing. Frankly I'd rather not have that complication and I'd certainly be on guard knowing they were nearby.

And unless your kids are vastly different from mine at that age (who are now 27 and 23), they likely won't tolerate long walks that well -- particularly day after day after day. Let's face it, the Camino can be drudgery for someone who's not into the community, the spirituality, and/or the physical challenge. Sorry, but I predict your girls will consider their mom's Camino dream to be their personal nightmare. I traveled with my younger son to Italy for 2 weeks when he was 11 and the poor kid was bored to tears by the treasures of that beautiful country -- he just wanted to swim in the hotels' pools! (Ten years later did his first Camino (in 2009) and loved it. I'm returning with him this year to share our love of the Camino together.) In short, I'm advising either patience (like 10 years' worth) or a grandparent or dear friend with whom you can entrust your daughters while you make your pilgrimage.

[BHinSanDiego]

I can't remember specifics from my guidebooks that I passed along but I do remember some alburgues wouldn't accept pilgrims that had walked from the previous village, And I gotta add to what Husky said. If the kids are tired and want to rest a day you still have to leave, you can't spend more than one night in the alburgue and you could possibly be in a small village with no other accomodations. Think about the walking, the childrens strides are shorter, for every step you take they will be taking two, that's going to add up real quick. I think others have had similar reactions that I get when I tell people I walked 790 km or 500 miles, I get "that's crazy", when I think of a child taking on this journey and I don't say this to be mean but that's how I think of this. You are right about your concern, one day you could find yourself in the middle of nowhere, much of the Camino is near roads but there are legs through forests and mountains where assistance would be difficult to find.