Michelle Menhennet
Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- Plan to walk around 2022
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I’m just curious what people’s recommendations are for the most accurate guidebook on the Camino Frances. I’ve read lots of comments/critiques of the Brierley guide and while I really enjoy the degree of detail and context he provides, I’m also concerned about the comments that his distances and elevations are off. By a LOT.
So where should I look for a more accurate guidebook? One that maintains a realistic distance in each stage, but also has correct distances etc? I’m just curious what others on the forum would choose.
Many thanks,
Mich
My best advice (without recommending my own series of guidebooks explicitly) is that no matter which book you buy you should immediately put out of mind any noting of pre-defined stages.
Starting in the new year, you won't even need that.All I need is a cell connection
A LOT. In addition, much of his reflections are IMHO an attempt to put YOU into HIS mindset. My Camino is MY Camino.I’m just curious what people’s recommendations are for the most accurate guidebook on the Camino Frances. I’ve read lots of comments/critiques of the Brierley guide and while I really enjoy the degree of detail and context he provides, I’m also concerned about the comments that his distances and elevations are off. By a LOT.
Indeed. The Brierley guide has some outright idiotic long stretches. Completely unneccesary.My best advice (without recommending my own series of guidebooks explicitly) is that no matter which book you buy you should immediately put out of mind any noting of pre-defined stages.
Walking the camino, and providing information on it, are not precision activities. A detour due to road construction can pop up anytime. All of the popular guides including Brierley are accurate enough for your decision-making.I’m also concerned about the comments that his distances and elevations are off. By a LOT.
You can read all the replies and I would like to add that I find most guides are not accurate re distance. There is more to guides than just the distance, My vote in overall all inclusive content in guides is Brierley, with Wise Pilgrim a close second. IanI’m just curious what people’s recommendations are for the most accurate guidebook on the Camino Frances. I’ve read lots of comments/critiques of the Brierley guide and while I really enjoy the degree of detail and context he provides, I’m also concerned about the comments that his distances and elevations are off. By a LOT.
So where should I look for a more accurate guidebook? One that maintains a realistic distance in each stage, but also has correct distances etc? I’m just curious what others on the forum would choose.
Many thanks,
Mich
Could not agree more. No wonder you are the WisePilgrim!My best advice (without recommending my own series of guidebooks explicitly) is that no matter which book you buy you should immediately put out of mind any noting of pre-defined stages.
I use the English version of Rother Walking Guide - liked it v. much. When I went back again for a 500km stretch also on C.Francis, I enjoyed referring to my previous notes in (on?) the book. Like where I had a really good coffee etc. and of course email & tel #s for contacts w/friends I made. Also used 3rd time when I went & did a further 500km. For me Brierley TMI. You will enjoy no matter what guide you use I am sure!
I find all these recommendations and assertions interesting but comfort myself with the thought that, subject to a sudden and significant tectonic event, the distances between two given points on this poor benighted planet remain the same. The assessed, mapped or GPS'd distances will vary, inevitably, depending on projection, scale, datum and the sobriety or otherwise of the track generator. There is a particularly lovely, published, track on GoogleEarth ( other mega-global corporations are available) where you can appreciate the poor sods "digestive disturbances" as they lurch significantly off-trail on a frequent basis. Satellite view makes it clear that they were heading for the bushes every time. In consequence their 'distance' between two given points and their elapsed time is significantly greater than that that might have been undertaken by anyone without that extra challenge.
Brierleys elevations aren't inaccurate. The scale he has chosen to represent them causes some interesting illusions. Nor are his distances. The Camino varies, it moves like a python, it twists and curves and sometimes even goes around on itself. It changes every day as the Amigos, the Juntas & xuntas, the local bar owners and the Concielos move a Mojone, bulldoze a new bit of auto-pista peregrinos, or just spray a bit of yellow paint on a tree. If you really, and I do mean really, want to know how far it is take a surveyors chain with you. Though, of course, the distance you have measured will only be the distance you have measured: it will not be the distance your fellow pilgrims who shook their heads in wonder as they passed you walked. For the more technically minded - bear in mind that subscriber GPS, never mind free-to-view, is about as accurate as St John's obvious guesswork. You don't get access to military precision.
The comfort for us all is that Santiago d' C isn't going anywhere and it will be there, where it has always been, when we get there.
That's the nice thing about the e-book version. Not only no weight, but you can read it again and again and there is no wear on the pages.I love the "village to village : guide book. Find it fun to go back over and over again while home to decide on stages I will walk and have found it very helpful. Actually ordered my 2nd one there my 1st one was worn after 3 camino's. ps I think you don;t need a guide book for directions....the yellow arrows will mostly do. For me it's just fun to read and reference back and forth to it.
I have used his books for two CF and one CP. I don't understand the complaints. Once or twice not all bars were listed but we welcomed the surprises.I’m just curious what people’s recommendations are for the most accurate guidebook on the Camino Frances. I’ve read lots of comments/critiques of the Brierley guide and while I really enjoy the degree of detail and context he provides, I’m also concerned about the comments that his distances and elevations are off. By a LOT.
So where should I look for a more accurate guidebook? One that maintains a realistic distance in each stage, but also has correct distances etc? I’m just curious what others on the forum would choose.
Many thanks,
Mich
I too just used an app. No extra weight and gave me all the info I needed. The one I love is www.caminoguide.net/You don't need a guidebook to walk. I use apps, but you would probably be fine if you only used the one sheet of information which lists albergues, distances, elevations, what services are available, etc in each village, that you can get from the Pilgrim's office in SJPDP.
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