Camino Con Baby

[rebecca]

Hola peregrinos!

We are a small Irish family of three living in Barcelona, and we're hoping to do two weeks of the Camino from St Jean Pied de Port to, well, wherever we get to in the time that we have. We have two weeks paternity leave, at the end of October and beginning of November.

We have a small baby, only two months old and I am nursing her. We have a few small questions about the technicalities of this trip:

1. Are babies allowed stay in refugios/albergues/pilgrim's accomodation? She sleeps in the bed with us normally.

2. We are using cloth nappies. Do any of the refugios have washing/drying facilities for washing nappies?

3. What is the weather usually like in late October/early November? We may need to hand wash our nappies and leave them to air-dry - would that be possible?

4. What's the average distance between refugios? If, perchance, I cannot complete an entire stage is there likely to be other accomodation available?

If anyone else has done this trip with a baby or infant and they have any words of wisdom to share with us please do!

Gracias a todos y buen camino!
Rebecca xxx

[Covey]

We did have a lady living in Southern Spain who walked the Camino Frances with a baby and she managed OK, but if memory serves me correctly, she used the bag service to send the bulk "luggage" to the next Albergue so she could carry baby and baby kit.

The albergues will be fairly quiet when you are planning to walk, but some might not accept a baby, although I suspect the private albergues will.

Washing nappies is going to be a problem. In the summer months Pilgrims can hand wash their clothes and they will be dry in a couple of hours. When you are walking, there will be less heat during the day and some days you will find it difficult to get things dried in time. The only practical solution is disposable nappies, and those you can buy almost everywhere along the trail.

Some official albergues have washing machines and all private ones do, but driers are a rarity, and when they exist, they are expensive to use. To wash and dry a load, you can expect to pay around €5-€7. Very few albergues have any heated drying rooms.

I would suggest you start at Pamplona or Roncesvalles. The walk from St Jean to Roncesvalles is the hardest day of the Camino Frances and is basically 20kms straight up, followed by 8kms straight down. There is an Albergue at Orison which is 7kms from St Jean, but after that there is nothing in the way of café's or anywhere to break the journey. You could do St Jean to Roncesvalles on the winter route via Valcarlos, but with a very young baby, I would suggest you do not risk it.

After Pamplona, there are albergues roughly every 10kms or so and other places to stay in Casa Rurals and bars etc.

The route is often walked by those with infants, but you are going very late in the year and that takes you in to potential problems with cold and wet weather and the need to protect your child.

Whilst I admire the spirit of those who want to take their children on the experience of a lifetime, taking a baby down the route during the onset of Winter is in my humble opinion, a risk too far.

In summer, even the rain is warm, in winter it falls as snow!!

[rebecca]

Thanks so much Covey for your help. We have done a few 'test' hikes here in Montseny with baby and weighted rucksacks over the past fortnight and we feel confident that we can manage, so we are going to go ahead with the Camino. Starting point is at yet undecided, and end point is totally flexible - we'll take a bus out when we have done what we can.

We'll bring our washable nappies and wash by hand and air dry each day on our packs; if we can't get by with them, then we'll post them home and buy dispoasables.

We have exposure gear for us and baby.

Just a couple more questions. Are there drinking water access points along the route, or must we carry bottled water all the time? Are most of the refugios/private alergues still open until the first week of November?

Thanks again for all your help, we're super excited!

[Leslie]

Hi Rebecca,

there are lots of drinking wells and taps along the way - however I did get something once and had a couple of days of the runs - covey swears by buying bottled water.

One thing that comes to mind is this, and bear in mind I am a man and don't really know - if you get ill from the water would your baby end up being ill also if you are feeding her? Just a though.

Hello from sunny Dublin.

[rebecca]

Heya,

Thanks for your reply, Leslie, good to know there are wells, and good to know about the after-effects. To be honest, a breast-feeding baby wouldn't necessarily pick up an infection from the mother, but would get the anti-bodies. However, the nursing mother would be very run-down by a bug while feeding, so I'll def want to avoid any risk of that.

Getting very excited now, we're leaving on Saturday. Woop woop.

[rebecca]

Hola peregrinos!

Well, I just thought I would post a quick update on our Camino Con Baby. We had an amazing time and we're already planning to go back and do some more at Easter.

We arrived in StJDPP, checked the weather and sampled some Gateaux Basque. The following morning we crossed the Pyrenees on a beautiful clear, fresh day. There was some strong wind around the Virgin but with hiking poles and good jackets we were fine. I must say that we were very lucky with the weather. The views were precioso, magnificant.

We later heard reports from other peregrinos that the following day the weather had been very bad - heavy rain and strong winds. If you are reading this and wondering if you can or should do this with your baby, I would recommend that you do go to StJDPP but be prepared to skip the first day if the weather is against you and be happy that you have tasted the best Gateaux Basque around. Hiking poles are absolutely necessary if you are hiking with a baby.

There was some light rain on day 2 walking out of Roncesvalles, but no more than we would expect on an average hike in Wicklow and thanks to leather boots and good waterproofs we were happy enough. Of note, on this day I nursed sitting under a tree and covered with a space blanket, which was probably overkill, but made for a funny photo, which you can find on our miniblog Oh Piglet...

Day three was tough because I had developed blisters, but baby was very happy in the sling and we made it to Pamplona in good time, where I discovered cuajada, a delicious sheeps milk yoghurt. Day four saw us walking out of Pamplona to Puente, where we took a rest day to avoid what was predicted to be bad weather, and which turned out to be very heavy, very persistent rain. We carried on and eventually reached Logrono where we paused our peregrination for the time being, as the weather was turning. We took a bus to Bilbao for a few days and pottered around the Guggenheim and ate Pastel Vasco and cuajada with honey.

Of note:
-We stayed in pensions at an average of 35e per night. One night we stayed in an albergue, the lovely Casa Austria in Los Arcos. The baby slept in the bed with us each night, and also slept all day in the sling.
-We used washable nappies as far as Pamplona. It was certaily possible if you stay in pensions, but made the evenings less relaxing since we had to wash and dry nappies every day straight after a 6h hike. The weather was dry (for we didn't walk if it looked like rain) yet it wasn't warm enough to air-dry nappies by day.
-I carried the baby and my partner carried our rucksack, which weighed about 12kg.
-I had splashed out on a Kid Cashmere baby hood and mittens and they were totally worth it. Other than that we one all-in babygro and a couple of vests. We used a Kari-me sling.
-I'd walk over the Pyrenees again with my baby in a heartbeat (weather permitting!).
-We loved Gateaux Basque.



Soooooo... At Easter we're planning to use bikes, because our baby will be too heavy to carry. Does anyone have any experience of using bikes with trailers?


Hope some of this information is useful to somebody,
gracias a todos, y buen camino!
Rebecca xxx

[Lipka149]

-I'd walk over the Pyrenees again with my baby in a heartbeat (weather permitting!).
-We loved Gateaux Basque.

Hope some of this information is useful to somebody,
gracias a todos, y buen camino!
Rebecca xxx

Rebecca !

What a great story ! Thank you ever so much for sharing. Gotta try some of that Gateaux Basque !

Your family images were great. I particularly enjoyed seeing how happy you were with Piglet snuggled up next to you. Seeing the smile on your partner's face as he did diaper duty was absolutely precious ! Ha ! Good man ... good man !

Hitting the trail with bikes should be a great challenge. There are some tough stretches ahead ... gravel on inclines is rather common ... but I know you will figure out a way. What an inspiration the 3 of you are !

All the best -