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Camino Routes
🇪🇸 Routes in Spain
🇪🇸 Camino VASCO/BAYONA (Irún-St Dgo/Burgos)
Mountain alternatives for the Vasco Interior
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[QUOTE="peregrino_tom, post: 644524, member: 4307"] Hi Laurie here's my three ha'pence worth, and an attempt to disentangle some of the recent posts: 1. nomemnclature for Vasco / Bayonne seems to have been sorted by Kinky's post and no-one yet has come back with a counter explanation 2. [URL='https://www.gronze.com/etapa/beasain/zegama']Gronze stage 4 Besain to Zegama [/URL] leaves the valley floor after Besain and heads into the low hills via Olaberria. This is much longer than walking directly along the pedestrian paths beside the main roads and river on the valley floor. Consequently some people call the Olaberria route a mountain/hilly alternative. The elderly hospitalero volunteers at Besain (2015) were pretty much advising people to take the lower direct road route. But, as per Gronze, in anything but awful weather the hilly route by Olaberria is the one to take. We very much enjoyed it, passing through typical Basque countryside and villages and finding many ripe cherries beside the small roads at the end of June. 3. On the same stage is the mountain variant shown between Segura and Zegama, via Zerain. There's [URL='https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/anyone-tried-the-mountain-variant-via-zerain.33622/']a whole thread about this, that I started and then concluded when I returned (in 2015) [/URL]and I don't think any new info has been added anywhere on the forum about this since. 4. Back to your original post and mountain alternatives from Hernani to Zegama, which pretty much cuts out all of the discussion on points 2 and 3 above (as they would all be by-passed). There is an alternative route that is documented in the 2011 tourist guide to the northern caminos, which many of us have used as a supplementary guide for years. [URL='https://tourism.euskadi.eus/contenidos/recurso_tecnico/aa30_folletos/en_def/folletos/2011/santiago/Caminos%20del%20Norte%20INGLES.pdf']The PDF is still online and can be found here[/URL] . The regular route and the two variant stages are described in basic terms on pages 138-145. You can see that the first part of the variant shows an elevation gain of about 900m. Nice. Interestingly the second 'stage' suggests going to Zerain and then Segura and then to Zegama. But of course if you take the lovely mountain variant from Zerain you shorten the distance and follow a much nicer path (but miss out on the gothic horror of Segama, where sunflowers are pinned to the front doors to stop the evil spirits from entering... but maybe that's for another thread). Finally, about asphalt on the Vasco. Yes, there is a lot and especially in the first few days, but lots of it is on pavements and pedestrian paths, and walking beside all the intensity of people, industry and commerce here is all part of the Basque experience and the development of Basque culture. For most people, good cushioned shoes and these typically short stages are enough to ameliorate this. I think this camino doesn't fit so neatly with the criteria by which we judge other caminos as being satisfying - it upsets the template a bit and that's no bad thing. PS I always have to say this but it is essential to set aside enough time in Vitoria-Gasteiz to take the guided tour of the old Katedrala Santa Maria, still one of the most sensational experiences of any camino anywhere! [/QUOTE]
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