amancio
Veteran Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- Frances, Norte, Primit, Salvador, Portug, Arag, Ingles, VdlP, Leban-Vadin, Fisterra, Invierno, LePuy
Hola amigos!
an expert pilgrim was walking the Torres a few days ago and he is asking me to post this here in English
Please post these few points in the English forum so that people are well aware of where they are heading and the challenges they will be facing. These are a few:
a) Following this Camino without a GPS is a the perfect way to get lost, I strongly recommend taking one with you. Despite Father Blas and Fuenterrobles people's efforts to signpost the way, it is not an easy task, you would need to place stakes along the way, and it would take LOADS of stakes, there are no surfaces where you woudl be able to paint an arrow. They did their best, they did a good job, but there is simply not enough signposting.
b) Obviously, this is only referring to the segment I was able to walk, only in Spain, between Salamanca and Aldea del Obispo, where I had a bad fall. Crossing rivers and streams is an issue here. Some crossing points are perfectly indicated, (NOT signposted, though), and very often you have no choice but to take of your shoes and get your feet wet. It all depends on weather and rain, of course.
c) Please do bear in mind, not all rocks you see on a river are perfectly settled, balanced and stable; when you try to walk from rock to rock as you cross a river, do be carefu, some are not stable and are also quite heavy too. The place where I had the bad fall had had lots of stones moved by some police officer who also happened to have a fall in the same spot
d) Do not even think about this CAmino unless you are an experienced pilgrim. Not only you will be on your own, like in Mozarabe, but also the available infraestructure is quite limited or simply does not exist. I am talking about things that you need when walking, like non signposted river crossings, not enough arroas painted, and so on. To put it plain words: this Camino has NOTHING to do with Francés or La Plata. The university of Salamanca has published some photos on their web site, but those images can be misleading. The photos were taking in high sommer, and the landscape is quite different in spring. Where you see a glorious meadow to walk on, you are likely to find high grass up to your waist, and visibility is very poor so it is very easy to fall because you cannot see where you are putting your feet. It is quite risky, there is not even a path, since only one or two pilgrims a month would cross such places.
e) People you find in villages... I cannot find the words to expresss my gratitude to them, they welcomed me and helped me or at least tried to help me. For example: you might enter a bar where the old folks would be playing cards or domino, most of them above 80 years of age, they would stop playing and would come to talk to me, they would walk me to the albergue... anything! You feel really welcome!
f) In towns where you can find an albergue, it would normally be and old school house that had to be closed because there were no children to attend school. The local town halls have adapted them, they are simple modest, yet comfotable and clean too
g) As a cultural experience, Ciudad Rodrigo is exceptionally attractive. It is truely quite impressive. The rest of towns are small Castillian towns who knew better times but at the moment are losing a lot of their inhabitants.
That was it, 5 and a half stages in Camino de Torres. For the first stage, leaving Salamanca, I did take a bus in order to shorten mileage, since I had a bat tendinitis at that stage.
I am dying to finish this camino, first I need to recover, my knee is wounded and it it is not healing as quickly as I woudl like. I will go back around mid or end of September, I want to avoid big crowds of "tourist piligrims" between Ponte da Lima and Santiago
an expert pilgrim was walking the Torres a few days ago and he is asking me to post this here in English
Please post these few points in the English forum so that people are well aware of where they are heading and the challenges they will be facing. These are a few:
a) Following this Camino without a GPS is a the perfect way to get lost, I strongly recommend taking one with you. Despite Father Blas and Fuenterrobles people's efforts to signpost the way, it is not an easy task, you would need to place stakes along the way, and it would take LOADS of stakes, there are no surfaces where you woudl be able to paint an arrow. They did their best, they did a good job, but there is simply not enough signposting.
b) Obviously, this is only referring to the segment I was able to walk, only in Spain, between Salamanca and Aldea del Obispo, where I had a bad fall. Crossing rivers and streams is an issue here. Some crossing points are perfectly indicated, (NOT signposted, though), and very often you have no choice but to take of your shoes and get your feet wet. It all depends on weather and rain, of course.
c) Please do bear in mind, not all rocks you see on a river are perfectly settled, balanced and stable; when you try to walk from rock to rock as you cross a river, do be carefu, some are not stable and are also quite heavy too. The place where I had the bad fall had had lots of stones moved by some police officer who also happened to have a fall in the same spot
d) Do not even think about this CAmino unless you are an experienced pilgrim. Not only you will be on your own, like in Mozarabe, but also the available infraestructure is quite limited or simply does not exist. I am talking about things that you need when walking, like non signposted river crossings, not enough arroas painted, and so on. To put it plain words: this Camino has NOTHING to do with Francés or La Plata. The university of Salamanca has published some photos on their web site, but those images can be misleading. The photos were taking in high sommer, and the landscape is quite different in spring. Where you see a glorious meadow to walk on, you are likely to find high grass up to your waist, and visibility is very poor so it is very easy to fall because you cannot see where you are putting your feet. It is quite risky, there is not even a path, since only one or two pilgrims a month would cross such places.
e) People you find in villages... I cannot find the words to expresss my gratitude to them, they welcomed me and helped me or at least tried to help me. For example: you might enter a bar where the old folks would be playing cards or domino, most of them above 80 years of age, they would stop playing and would come to talk to me, they would walk me to the albergue... anything! You feel really welcome!
f) In towns where you can find an albergue, it would normally be and old school house that had to be closed because there were no children to attend school. The local town halls have adapted them, they are simple modest, yet comfotable and clean too
g) As a cultural experience, Ciudad Rodrigo is exceptionally attractive. It is truely quite impressive. The rest of towns are small Castillian towns who knew better times but at the moment are losing a lot of their inhabitants.
That was it, 5 and a half stages in Camino de Torres. For the first stage, leaving Salamanca, I did take a bus in order to shorten mileage, since I had a bat tendinitis at that stage.
I am dying to finish this camino, first I need to recover, my knee is wounded and it it is not healing as quickly as I woudl like. I will go back around mid or end of September, I want to avoid big crowds of "tourist piligrims" between Ponte da Lima and Santiago
