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The Epic Ride - El Camino de Santiago - The Cycling Pilgrim

El Camino de Santiago (The Way of St James) is an ancient pilgrimage route running 800km from St-Jean-Pied-de-Port in the south of France to Santiago de Compostela in North-west Spain. The faithful have traced its steps to gain forgiveness for their sins and worship at the tomb of St James (one of the 12 disciples) for well over a thousand years. Increasingly however, the motivation to complete the Camino comes from the stunning architecture, varied scenery, wonderful wine, camaraderie and culture you will encounter on ‘The Way’. This has to be one of the best and easiest to accomplish (both physically and logistically) long distance off-road cycle tours in the world.

The Trail

For the most part it winds its way on a dedicated off-road track through countryside and small villages. With virtually no exceptions we rode the off-road trail the entire way. The riding is mostly easy to moderate, with a few more technical descents if you seek them out! There are many options to hop onto sealed road if you need to, but we enjoyed the challenge of sticking to the trail.

The Camino crosses three mountain ranges, so there are days with some good climbs where we averaged 50-70km per day; but there were also some ‘big kilometer’ days where you scoot across the plain towards and away from Leon and can relatively easily cover 120+km. To give you an indication of distance for planning, we did the whole route and some extra side trips in a relaxed 10 days. Some girlfriends of mine did it the week before with much longer days (start early, finish late) in 8 days.

We did the whole route and some extra side trips in a relaxed 10 days...

The proliferation of ‘albergues’ (hostels) means you don’t have to plan ahead much – we usually rode until about 5pm or so then started flicking through the guide book to find one that sounded good. The navigation is mostly straight forward, the Camino is marked with yellow arrows and clam shells and you will become expert at spotting them. Sometimes in the bigger towns things can get a bit confused – generally if you head west and keep your eyes peeled you will get back on route. Or just ask a local – they will be well used to pilgrims, and are always very friendly and happy to point you in the right direction.

Highlights

The great thing about the Camino is it takes you on a backcountry tour through some of Spain’s best regions. The Camino always leads you right to the churches and cathedrals in the villages and towns you pass through, and a whole infrastructure has grown up to support (and make money from) pilgrims coming through, so food and accommodation is very easy to find.

Rather than pushing on to clock up the miles, take time out to visit some of the cathedrals and historical buildings en route – the cathedrals in Leon and Burgos are particularly impressive. One particular highlight we keenly looked forward to was the ‘Fuente del Vino’ – a FREE wine fountain for pilgrims outside the Monastery of Nuestra Senora la Real de Irache, just past Estella. We filled up our bike bottles and sat in the sunshine eating jamón (ham) and strawberries - very nice! Even when you need to buy it, wine is dangerously cheap – there are quotas on how much can be officially labelled ‘Rioja’, with the result that you get it ‘off label’ for a couple of Euros per bottle! The other highlight has to be the people you meet on the way – people come to do the Camino from all over the world, for all sorts of reasons, and it was great how many languages and cultures we encountered on the trail.

A highlight for us was the ‘Fuente del Vino’ – a FREE wine fountain!

Accommodation

In 2010 nearly three hundred thousand people completed the journey, with over 30,000 of these on bikes, so don’t expect to be the only ones out there! However, this does have its advantages; at least every 3-4km along the Camino are albergues, or guesthouses run by the local parish council, church or some smaller ones by volunteers. The accommodation is basic with dorm style beds, but very cheap (we paid from €4-8 per night), and for a few Euros more many will provide breakfast and dinner. If your albergue doesn’t provide dinner then all villages will have somewhere providing a ‘Pilgrims Menu’ – a 3 course meal with wine for around €8-10. Again, food can be fairly basic but will be filling. We found it best to eat in the albergues where we could, especially in the smaller and more personable ones as this was very sociable, and the food tended to be better than the restaurants. Some albergues give preference to walkers over bikers, but just head on to the next one, they are never more than a few km apart after all!

The accommodation is basic with dorm style beds, but very cheap at €4-8 per night

Timing

We did the Camino over Easter in April/May. This is the ‘shoulder season’ with the busy season being July/August. Quite apart from the searing heat, I would recommend avoiding the summer crowds and opt for a Spring or Autumn journey - easier to find accommodation and less people to dodge en route (although more chance of the odd shower to cool you down).

Sellos

Before you start, pick up your Pilgrims Credential either from CSJ (see below) or from the Pilgrims office in St-Jean. This allows you to stay in the cheap pilgrims accommodation along the way, and to prove that you are a true pilgrim and not cheating by hopping in a car or train. You need to collect stamps or ‘sellos’ in your Credential along the way. All the albergues will do this every night, but on a bike you should collect at least one more each day. The sellos are pretty special in themselves – each one is its own unique design and they make a great souvenir of your trip. The cathedrals, many restaurants and other points of interest will offer sellos if you ask. At Santiago, you present your stamped Credential to the Pilgrims Office near the Cathedral and receive your ‘Compostela’ – a certificate of completion that for the Catholic amongst you grants forgiveness for 50% of your sins to date.

The sellos (stamps) are pretty special in themselves – each one is its own unique design and they make a great souvenir of your trip

Buen Camino!

Useful websites

The Confraternity of St James – a UK organisation run by and for ‘peregrinos’. You can organise to get your Pilgrims Credential (or passport) before you leave, and they publish an invaluable guidebook with accommodation, restaurant, route and historical information updated every year. They do also publish a cycle guide, but we found it to be a bit conservative. We rode the true camino track for the entire route with no problems. Any half competent rider will have no issues.

The best map of the camino is from a Canadian company. It is a compact ‘flip over’ style, very easy to use, and also has accommodation, food and some historical highlights marked. Larger scale town maps were a big help finding your way through the bigger cities.

Don’t go without your...

• Earplugs and eye mask. Trust me on this – the walkers get up about 5am!
• Small country flag to hang off your backpack or pannier.
• Pillowslip and silk liner. (We’re not sure how often they change the bedding in the albergues!)
• Bike bell to scare those pesky walking peregrinos out of your way!
• Spanish phrase book, especially a menu deciphering section so you know what you are ordering!
• Patience. Spain has its own daily rhythm, with mealtimes maybe different to what you are used to. Don’t fight it, just try and eat when the locals eat and keep some snacks handy in case of ‘hangry’ (hungry + angry) emergencies. I recommend finding a cafe/bar around 10am every day for a coffee and boccidillo (sandwich) break – breakfast at the albergues can often be a little disappointing.

Sample Itinerary

There are so many options for accommodation, side trips and route choice that I think 100 people could do the camino and they would all take a different way, and have an equally great experience. It is completely up to you to choose how hard you make your Camino. It would be perfectly possible to smash through in a few very long days, but you would miss seeing so much on the way. As a wise man once said, it’s about the journey not the destination!

It would be perfectly possible to smash through in a few very long days, but you would miss seeing so much on the way

Stage, From - To, distance, total climb

01, Saint Jean - Zubiri, 45 km, 2012 m

02, Zubiri - Ayegui, 65 km, 1681 m

03, Ayegui - Ciruena, 65 km, 1118 m

04, Ciruena - Burgos, 70 km, 1291m

05, Burgos - Ledigos, 95 km, 1279 m

06, Ledigos - Leon, 120km, 1169 m

07, Leon - Foncebadon, 70 km, 1017 m

08, Fonce - Ruitelan, 78 km, 1721 m

09, Ruitelan - Portomarin, 65 km, 2066 m

10, Portomarin - Santiago, 67 km, 1813 m

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