New off-road route into A Rúa - highly recommended!

[Bad Pilgrim]

Ok, I got it. First time walking that new-ish route now!

 

[Bad Pilgrim]

Better than the road..!

 

[VNwalking]

Wooooooow. Way better!
Someone did a ton of work.

 

[Bad Pilgrim]

 

[Bad Pilgrim]

 

[Bad Pilgrim]

This alternative is 100 % approved by Bad Pilgrim

 

[peregrina2000]

This alternative is 100 % approved by Bad Pilgrim

Just to be clear. BP. You are talking about the off-road route into A Rua, which is now the official marked Camino, and not Charrito’s suggestion about crossing the river in O Barco and walking through Arnado. Is that right?

 

[Bad Pilgrim]

Off-road into A Rua. But it is marked "Alternativo" on the mojones (instead of the distance to Santiago).

 

[peregrina2000]

I pulled this out of a more general Invierno discussion, because it is a recent and hugely improved way to walk into A Rúa.

You will have two choices — the roadside or the route that is shown in BP’s pictures above. Since the mojón indicates that the off-road route is the “alternativo”, I think we should give a general heads up that it is a far superior alternative. In fact, I can’t think of any reason to leave the mojones and arrows along the side of the road into A Rúa, but there must be some rationale that someone is applying somewhere.

 

[C clearly]

I walked this very pleasant new route in May 2022.

At the point where the Camino reaches the road just after the dam, there was a large noticeboard that showed some options and said the road route was hazardous. I found the board to be confusing, and the only mojón I saw was still pointing down the road. However, I decided to go for the new one.

You have to cross the road to go under the highway overpass, and then you will see a new mojón pointing leftward to the new path on the north side of the highway. The first part of the path was a bit overgrown when I was there, so I initially had some doubts, but it soon became a nice new path with great views. After initially diverging, it continued closely paralleling the highway but up high above it.

This Wikiloc track shows the new route.

​

 

[VNwalking]

I think we should give a general heads up that it is a far superior alternative.

Absolutely. And far safer.
This is wonderful news!

road route was hazardous.

Scary as can be. You walk on the edge of a road with no shoulder - just a retaining wall above a drop-off (photo is looking back the way I'd come):

Fast local traffic sspeeds around a blind curve, and clearly are not expecting pilgrims when we appear in front of them.

After threading that needle, it's unpleasant on the straightaway into town, too. Not a lot of room for error. Finally closer to town, there's an Invierno signboard followed by a sidewalk.

[Edit - messing around with Googlemaps, I see that since I took this photo the Camino Invierno sign has been removed.]

 

[SioCamino]

I walked this "alternativa" today and it was very well marked. Very pleasant walk. I found the info board ok and once you understand that you need to go under the underpass, there is a mojón there that shows the way.

 

[SioCamino]

I might add that the tracks on the Wise Pilgrim app don't show this alternative yet but the gronze tracks do.