Hi Carel5
I will think I have decided to walk from Almeria, next year probably starting around 8th April, I walked from Malaga to Merida in 2015 with Maggie, (well known on the forum, the best walking companion you could wish for)
Is there any particular info you could pass on re the Almeria - Granada - Cordoba section... river crossings, poor waymarking etc etc.
Regards
George
Hi George,
Indeed I followed the Magwood blog. Her reports were a great inspiration before leaving the Netherlands.
The first river crossings were after Villaharta, so you know them already.
However, in the first days after Almeria some parts are through ramblas, gravel roads in the dry river bed. Sometimes they are flooded. If so, the Amigos in Almeria give warnings on their website and Facebook page, and you have to walk around them. I was there in April without any problem.
There have been some route changes since the route was created a few years ago, but it seems that this map is now up to date between Almeria and Granada.
http://www.caminomozarabedesantiago.es/
The waymarking is very good. I also had GPS tracks. Sometimes there are differences between the GPS data and the yellow arrows. In that case I followed the yellow without problems.
There are also small changes after Granada. Before Pinos Puente there is another route because of works on a new TGV railway line.
Between Pinos Puente and Olivares are two routes. I followed the one without river crossing. It was changed in the last miles before Olivares, but with good waymarking. All in all, the waymarking between Granada and Baena (where you join the Malaga Camino) was much better than I expected.
The only place with really poor waymarking was between Medellin and San Pedro de Merida where the yellows suddenly stopped a few miles after Yelbes. With help from local people in the fields we found a river crossing that was not in my GPS. I think Maggie and you did the same crossing.
After all the stages between Almeria and Granada there are now albergues. Between Granada and Merida I had a mix of albergues and hostals.
So I wish you buen camino, George