Flower Walk Fromista to Carrion de los Condes

[wichanee]

I always follow the yellow arrow religiously (no pun intended) and feel a
bit apprehensive to veer off the beaten track. Guidebooks describes a boring 9 km walk from Poblacion del Campo to Carrion on the gravel path running alongside the highway. The alternate route is by the riverside even if it is 1.8 km longer.
I am glad I did take the Camino altanativo today. Once leaving Poblacion (the bar here makes a very mean cup of caffe con leche - one tiny little cup sends you up high on caffeine for quite a long time)you come to the bridge and take the right hand fork. Yellow arrows direct you to the path away from the river until you reach Villovieco. Cross the bridge (yellow arrow) and turn right on the track along Rio Ucieza
The Flower Walk starts from here and for approx 4 km you are drifting into the dreamworld of colours, sight and sound. Headhigh walls of purple Thistles, yellow wild Turnips, red Poppies and other pinks, blue, white wildflowers I don't know the names line the river bank and the track as far as the eyes can see. The sun is shining, the river is whispering, the birds are singing and the frogs - yes the frogs are croaking- even at midday. We walk, stop, take a thousand photos, start and stop again.
On the left hand side, you see the yellow wild turnip field and on the right hand side, the red poppies fields here and there. What a wonderful world.
6 of us stumbled out of this dreamland at the sealed road in front of Ermita de la Virgen del Rio and all of us put our backpacks down and beamed at each other. Even the old Camino hands among us have to admit this is the most magnificent walk they have ever done!
I am not a Catholic, not even a Christian but I pray to St.James today without whom I would not have been here on the Camino.

 

[sillydoll]

Flowers on the camino

Wanachee - that is why I love the camino in Spring!

If anyone is interested in the flowers of the camino, Piers Nicolson has a lot of photographs on his website at:

http://www.santiago-compostela.net/flowers.html

You can also see pictures of sundials (Piers is a sundial maker of note!) and many photographs of the different camino routes.

 

[pjdine]

Wichanee - you are making me homesick for the Camino already, and I've only been home for two weeks! I hope you put some (all?) of your photos on the forum.

One of my resolutions was to find a small field guide to local flora and fauna for my next trip - does anyone know of one?

Buen Camino from all of us who wish we were there!

 

[oursonpolaire]

I have done this detour and quite enjoyed it -- the alternative, of course, is to walk alongside the highway and while it is a quiet highway, it is not as meditative as the banks of the river.

Its only rival as a worthwhile detour is the walk through Samos on the way to Sarria.