Hiking El Camino Primitivo In Spain

After about 5 years of talking about it, I finally made it over to Spain to hike one of the “Caminos”, El Camino Primitivo.

I have always wanted to travel to Spain.  Maybe it was all the Spanish classes or the lively culture.  When I was laid off in 2016, I thought the trip might finally happen.  But life took up soon enough and the trip did not materialize.

My mom had talked about joining me and I decided 2019 would just have to be the year. So, we bought our plane tickets and took 4 weeks to walk and explore the northern coastal area of Spain.

We were not in a hurry!  Both my mom and I love history and I want plenty of time to stop at points of interest along the way.  Plus, my mom was in her 70s so a slower pace allowed both of us to adjust our miles to fit how we are doing physically each day.

Let me tell you all about our hike on El Camino Primitivo!

 

 

Why Hike El Camino Primitivo?

Okay, who has not seen The Way with Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez? What a wonderful way to travel Spain!

But I was not exactly thrilled with the idea of all the crowds or so much road walking so when I was doing my research I discovered there was more than one El Camino!

El Camino Primitivo was the original walk to Santiago believed to be walked by King Alfonso from Oviedo in Asturias to confirm the remains of Saint James in 814 AD. It is less popular by far than the French Way (seen in the movie and typically referred to), more mountainous in its duration and less commercialized. This means it also has less services and fewer places to stay in between stages until the last 100 kilometers where it joins the French Way (and other trails) to join in Santiago de Compostela. However, it grows in popularity and is now the 4th most traveled.

It is about 200 miles or 322 kilometers in length to Santiago and for the more hearty you can add 55 miles (89k) to Finisterra and the Pacific Ocean. We chose to do this as a guided bus day trip from Santiago second day after we arrived (we spent 3 nights in Santiago). Very touristy but so relaxing after 18 days of walking.

 

 

Our Daily Itinerary

We budgeted four weeks in Spain and 18 days actually walking El Camino Primitivo.  Flying into Madrid, we took a train and spent a few days in Oviedo acclimating. After our trek, we visited a few days in Santiago and had some vacation time in Toledo and Madrid before flying home. We used our feet, buses and the trail to get around for the entirety of our trip.

Our El Camino days looked like this, the links will take you to my journal entry for that day:

We stayed in a mix of public albuergues, private pensions and hotels in the larger towns. We made time for short side trips and called ahead to make reservations most days so that I could rest easy we would have a bed to stay in.  My mom sent her bag ahead and carried a small day pack about a third of the time (mostly on the longer days). Each place we stayed had the information for sending bags ahead ready, all we had to do was ask or look for it on the check in counter. Mom’s is the smallest one…

 

 

My Camino Primitivo Gear

Walking El Camino Primitivo is mostly a slack packing affair. Meaning, since you don’t have to carry most of your food or sleep system you pack is fairly light.  Some folks who go to Spain take another suitcase they bounce ahead to Santiago but Mom and I opted to do carry on for our flight so everything we took for the month in Spain fit in our backpacks.

 

 

My trusty Gossamer Gear Murmur 36 was my backpack and my mom used a similar pack. I had one day hiking outfit (short sleeve, skirt), a town outfit (tank top, skirt), something to sleep in (t-shirt, running shorts), a warm layer (long sleeve wool, fleece, running tights), a rain jacket and umbrella.  The light Sea to Summit Cool Max sleeping bag liner with insect shield for keeping bed bugs at bay. We picked up our cheap poles at a Decathlon in Oviedo rather than risk losing poles at the airport.  I did take an inflatable neck pillow for the plane and train rides, so worth it.

 

 

 

I carried my same bathroom essentials minus the trowel, vitamins, first aid kit, extra long charging cord, convertor plug and battery charger, and a travel wallet that hangs around the neck.  I took minis of most hygiene items because although you can buy all these things in Spain, they definitely are not small. We managed to only have to pick up contact lens solution and nasal spray for my mom at the pharmacy.

 

What Did I Eat In Spain?

I know some of you are wondering about what I ate while we were in Spain since I follow a paleo lifestyle and limit nightshades.  Well, I did pack some snacks but knew I would be there for a month and was just going to have to do the best I could.

In Oviedo, I stocked up on some basics at the grocery store like olives, nuts, ham, tuna and vegetables.  There were more stores along the way for doing this than I anticipated.  So many kinds of ham and olive oil! However, aside from restaurants in large cities, most meals were what was served in albuergues and hostels and none of it was paleo friendly.  Think pasta, pasta salad, bean soup and homemade bread.  Lots of homemade bread.  Sometimes we could order from a pilgrim menu but the options were limited. Tasty but limited.

 

 

After a few days, I was pretty much eating like anyone else and astonishingly, not having any ill side affects from the food.  Nothing. Maybe that is one of the reasons I love Spain so much, I could eat all the things.  There are many people who report this when eating abroad, the food is simply different outside the United States.

So if you need or want to, I would say it would be possible to eat paleo or any other way you would like to.  However, expect to carry most of your food and be the only one doing so at your albuergue.

 

Lessons I Learned

  • Well, first off I LOVE Spain. If I could find a way to live there I would.  I see why pilgrims return again and again to do more Caminos.  I hope to return myself and even do it on a bike with my husband as I saw a few folks doing.
  • Walking a Camino is similar to walking other long trails. I think if this had been my first, it would have had more shine but having already walked 1000 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail and knowing what that was like, it was a little different than what others walking their first Camino might experience.
  • It was still a LOT of road walking.
  • My mom is my favorite person to hike with. But a month in another country where my companion does not speak the language and I do was a tad too long to have someone that dependent on me.  And to make matters worse it was my mom.  I was not my best self. I will admit I was probably an “ugly American” a few times.  It was like a precursor to what it might be like if my mother ever becomes dependent on me for day to day living. I wrote about it pre-hike. For the most part we had a wonderful adventure but I was ready to be home by the end of the trip and back to where she felt the most comfortable and spoke the language.
  • From Oviedo to where El Camino Primitivo meets El Camino Frances, expect to be with mostly Spanish speaking pilgrims and find English speaking Spaniards few and far between.  Once you join with the crowds, you will hear more English, see a larger variety of pilgrims and find English spoken in more shops and restaurants. You should still learn some basic Spanish for sure, Google Translate will only get you so far.

 

 

 

El Camino Primitivo Resources

These are some of the resources I used to plan my trip and I highly suggest them.

Pilgrim Traveler

Great overall day to day journal with lots of tips and contemplation.  I used a lot of her suggestions about what to pack or not to pack.

Stingy Nomads

I used their detailed list of all the stops along the way to plan our itinerary. They have a new guide for 2024!

Camino Adventures

I enjoyed reading the backstory to walking the El Camino Primitivo.

Wise Pilgrim

I ordered my El Camino Primitivo guide and our Camino Credentials from here.

Camino de Santiago Forums

This is where I found out current information and had my questions answered before the trip.

Spain Revealed

So this is not necessarily Camino related but I fell in love with the videos shared by James Blick and his wife Yony on Spain Revealed.

Renfe Trainline

We traveled on Renfe for our longer trips from Madrid to Oviedo, Santiago to Madrid and Toledo.

Decathlon

This is where we picked up our poles in Oviedo. I would not trust them to have the same thing in store as they have online.

Orange

This was the phone company store in Oviedo where I picked up my SIM card for my time in Spain. They even installed it for me!  Having a SIM card in Spain was invaluable for being able to call albuergues and make reservations and look a few things up on the internet when we needed to.  The WiFi was unreliable for the length of our walk if we were not in large towns.

 

 

Please let me know if you have any questions!

 

 

 

Thank you so much for stopping by Must Hike Must Eat.

If you need some healthy eating inspiration start here:..

Recipe Index

Need some eating out suggestions when friends want to stop after a hike? I have a Pacific Northwest Eating Guide here.

Want to know where Must Hike Must Eat has been last?  Check out the Latest Trip Reports.

Find out what’s been happening outside the blog:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

The Must Hike Must Eat Newsletter keeps folks up-to-date on events both on and off the blog.

If you have a question you don’t want to post in the comments, you can ask them here:

Contact Me