Arles Route

[Miss Diesel]

Orolon St Marie to Sanguesa has anyone walked this section. Any hints on accommodation and gettingbag carried? Is there a lot of road?

 

[sulu]

Hello and welcome to the forum.
I walked from Toulouse to Sarrance in October 2012 and did the Aragonese in March 2014. You can see the results in my blog: notdunroaminyet.blogspot.com
You don't say when you are walking, that will affect your walk a lot. I stopped in Sarrance because I got rained out and had plantar fasciitis. The accommodation is good from Oleron onwards, the route is off road but will be seriously affected by heavy rain. I can't comment on bag transfers. From Oleron to Canfranc the road is positively dangerous, narrow with heavy traffic and no footpath so it is important to take the path.
I only know about municipal and parochial accommodation and these don't take bookings so it is not possible to send bags on ahead.
It is a beautiful area so good luck with your plans.

 

[Deleted member 3000]

When it rains, the path is slippery and dangerous with the possibility of being saved from sliding into the river only by a barb wire fence! The road is more dangerous, and you need to make each turn cautiously facing traffic. Accommodations are fine. The French Randonneur association recommends that walkers take the bus from Borce to just before the climb to Somport. Part if it is politics to get the government to improve off-road paths. I don't know if it is working, and the road walk in that section is not as bad as leaving the hillside for the road closer to Oloron.

I have no experience on having a bag carried in that stretch; it is not a camino that attracts pilgrims who do not carry their packs, so there may be very little demand for transport. Taxis will always move your pack for you at their meter rate of about 1E per kilometer.

 

[frida1]

I walked this route in May of this year. We didn't have rain, so I can't speak to that. We found the route from Oloron to Somport very nice. We stopped in chamber d'hôte in Bedous and Borce before Somport. Both were good, the villages are very quiet. We had a few kilometers of road walking after Borce with views of an old prison built into the rocks high above. Aside from this short stretch, the walk to Somport and then on to Canfranc is path, not road, and quite beautiful.

After Jaca, the villages until Sanguesa have no food stores, you need to be aware of this and prepare by carrying sandwiches, etc. from a bar or restaurant, or other food for he day. There are albergues in some villages, and other accommodation that will include an evening meal, or there will be a restaurant.

After Sanguesa, there is really no accommodation until Monreal, aside from a couple of casa rural not quite on the path.

We took an extra day in Jaca and got the minibus to San Juan la Pena built into the rocks near Jaca. There is a variant of the path that you can walk to San Juan la Pena and then on to Santa Cecilia, but it is a very rough trail, steep and a long way to go with no facilities. The minibus doesn't go every day, you can ask at the tourist office. We walked the path down from the monastery to St Jose de Seros and then managed to hitchhike back to Jaca.

There is not much road walking between Somport and Puente la Reina, and we very much enjoyed this lovely, solitary journey. It does require a little extra planning and making inquiries as you go to be sure your destination will have food and lodging.

Santa Cecilia albergue has an advertised taxi service you could use to carry gear, and I suspect some other lodgings could get you a taxi for gear, but it's not a regular thing. Santa Cecelia, Arras, Artier and Undues de Lerda have albergues, but it's good to check ahead because some others have closed, or were closed when we were there.

 

[Miss Diesel]

Thanks that is great to know