yellow arrows

[runboyrun]

Is it possible and wise to only follow the yellow arrows on the Camino del North to find the way, or is a map required?

 

[Tincatinker]

Is it possible and wise to only follow the yellow arrows on the Camino del North to find the way, or is a map required?

Perfectly possible, though you are likely to miss out on some of the lovely coast hugging alternative routes. And you are likely to get lost a few times in the likes of San Sebastian, Bilbao, Santander and Gijon. However, keep heading West and you'll not go far wrong

 

[oursonpolaire]

Sea on the right; mountains on the left. Keep heading toward the sunset.

However, it seems to be well-signed.

 

[BombayBill]

I’d say it’s wise to have some sort of map at hand. While the Camino arrows are wonderful sometimes you want to go off-piste for a ️ or or or something. Then you need a map to find your way there and your way back. .

 

[dougfitz]

Not just on the Norte, but most other places, it all seems easy if you find and follow the arrows. If, perchance, you wander off the waymarked route, it might mean back tracking some distance to find where you 'missed' a waymark that would have taken you on the 'correct' path. Some places have a strategically placed cross to indicate not to follow a particular option, but I found these relatively rare, and wouldn't want to rely on that.

 

[David with new Kit!]

The Norte had lots of alternative routes and sometimes the arrows took us further inland from the coast than we expected.

The deviations are not over large distances but they can be annoying.

I took two different apps to compare their routes with the yellow arrows. And yes, all three had conflicting advice at times.

 

[michal.don]

In my experience, the Norte was pretty well marked most of the time. There were a few exceptions though, I regularly checked my maps, and a couple of times I found out that I took a wrong turn and had to go back a bit. And the cities can be a bit confusing at times as well, using an online map (ah, I have to follow this street for a kilometer or two, and turn right after crossing a bridge) is easier than constantly looking for an arrow. I'd suggest getting an app with the map of the whole route, such as "Buen Camino", or my favourite not just for caminos, but for hikes in general, "mapy.cz", in which you can download the maps you like beforehand, and then use it even offline.
Michal.don

 

[BombayBill]

I’m going to contradict my previous advice and put in a vote for living by your wits. One of the joys of walking is paying intense attention to your surroundings. Navigation by landmarks, puzzling over foreign language signs, and keeping the sun in the correct aspect. Yes you’ll get occasionally lost but it doesn’t matter where you are, only that you know where you’re going. This method requires a bit of patience but the reward is renewed confidence in your abilities and the joy of finally finding the arrows.

Here’s a podcast about the benefits of navigation and walking to the aging brain. At about minute 11:00.

The Current with Matt Galloway: Daniel Levitin on how to age well

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-jan-13-2020-1.5424683/a-neuroscientist-s-tips-for-helping-the-brain-age-well-1.5425549

 

[Pilgrim Patricia]

I’m going to contradict my previous advice and put in a vote for living by your wits. One of the joys of walking is paying intense attention to your surroundings. Navigation by landmarks, puzzling over foreign language signs, and keeping the sun in the correct aspect. Yes you’ll get occasionally lost but it doesn’t matter where you are, only that you know where you’re going. This method requires a bit of patience but the reward is renewed confidence in your abilities and the joy of finally finding the arrows.

Here’s a podcast about the benefits of navigation and walking to the aging brain. At about minute 11:00.

The Current with Matt Galloway: Daniel Levitin on how to age well

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-jan-13-2020-1.5424683/a-neuroscientist-s-tips-for-helping-the-brain-age-well-1.5425549

@BombayBill, I was so happy to see you recommend this podcast! I listened to it back in 2020, and have heard other experts on how valuable it is to the [aging] brain to use maps and other low-tech means for navigation.

 

[Anniefish]

I’ve never used an app and if I did go astray there was usually someone to re-route me. Perhaps I’ve just been lucky x

 

[JerryStroebele]

Hopefully it has been repainted in the interim, but in 2017 when I got to the radio station fence at the top of the high route out of Irun I did not see the yellow arrow. I tried buswhacking for awhile along the ridge but the gorse was a no go. I backtracked to the radio station fence and found a very faded yellow arrow at the bottom (to the right, northwest) corner of the fence. On a clear day the struggle up the incline up to the high route is worth it. I like some kind of map, paper or app, to see where I am going and what to look for. For example, the Museo Altamira near Santillana de Mar or the Bufones de Arenillas later on. Buen Camino

 

[CTLawGal]

I can only speak to the first part of the Norte, which I walked this spring before turning south onto the Primitivo. I can't compare it relative to how well other routes are marked.

As others have indicated, I found it pretty well-marked, most of the time, so for the most part just following the arrows was enough for me, but not always. Some of the times where I wandered off-route it was relatively easy to correct, other times not so much. I was often walking alone, the distances each day were long and with significant elevation gain and it was my first Camino. I also find it particularly hard to navigate cities in the best of circumstances, but found it particularly hard to find the arrows in certain cities along the Norte.

I was glad to have the Wise Pilgrim app to confirm I was on the correct route, and Google Maps to find my lodgings once I arrived in at my destination. I also used Google Maps from time to time to check just how far away my destination was because often my route planner or the markers indicated the day would be X km, and it was often X x 120%-150%, and while Google Maps wasn't entirely accurate as to how much further I had to walk on the Camino (and instead was providing distances based on a road route), it at least gave me some idea how much further to walk when my information wasn't matching the actual number of kilometers I was walking.

Over the course of my 6 weeks, I managed to take a number of wrong turns, none of them too dramatic, and of course I eventually found my way back, but when you're super tired already, walking 30 minutes off-piste means adding an extra hour to your walk as you retrace your steps (and on the Norte, likely some significant extra elevation gain), although it does provide a good occasion to practice that self compassion and not allow yourself to get angry about it. So if markings weren't clear at transition points, or I had walked for a distance without seeing an arrow or other marker, I would just check Wise Pilgrim to see if I had wandered or was indeed on the right path. There were definitely places where it was easy to miss the markings, although fortunately that was the exception and not the rule.

One other thing I learned fairly quickly though, was do not just assume that the pilgrims in front of you are going in the "right" direction and follow them! They could be headed somewhere else, or they could have taken a wrong turn. I subsequently heard many stories of someone inadvertently leading a pack astray, only to have to reverse course an hour or so later after the mistake was realized. I'm glad I wasn't responsible for any of those adventures, although maybe they all bonded on the return trip to find the route and had a great experience notwithstanding the extra hours of walking. Also, I definitely experienced situations where others called me back before I went off in the wrong direction, and times when we all stood puzzled at a cross-road trying to figure out which way to go and Wise Pilgrim got us going in the right direction.

For someone for whom this is a first Camino or who doesn't want to experience whatever magic wandering off route can provide, I definitely recommend using one of the apps just to check your route from time to time. I get it that there are others who will want to just wing it and live that experience, but I'm not sure that's for everyone. I should also note that Wise Pilgrim wasn't perfect either - there was one spot in particular on the way to Ribadesella where the path was not well marked, and Wise Pilgrim showed crossing a stream where it was not possible and required 30 minutes of backtracking and the fortunate appearance of a local to help us find the way across. That was my 25 mile day, and as beautiful as that alternate route was, I would have been happier at the end if it had been 1-2 hours shorter without losing the trail.

 

[WGroleau]

I’ve encountered four places on francés where depending on arrows might be a problem. One, I passed many times while hospitalero nearby. The arrow post was in a ditch and it was usually hidden by a parked car—on a five-way intersection. Another time, I went a long way before starting to think I was on the wrong path. Upon returning to the previous intersection, it took me a bit of searching to find that the arrow post was a few meters down the right road instead of at the fork. In one city, a churlish hotel operator had painted arrows to redirect pilgrims to his lobby. And there was one arrow that was actually correct but was suspicious because it was on the corner of a hotel’s billboard.

 

[trecile]

Hopefully it has been repainted in the interim, but in 2017 when I got to the radio station fence at the top of the high route out of Irun I did not see the yellow arrow.

I had the same issue at that spot this past May.