Arrow trickery after Cea

[peregrina2000]

A few days ago, I left Cea and intended to follow the "alternative route" to the Monastery at Oseira, fully understanding that this is not the official route. But it is well marked. About three kms later, we came to a junction with a lot of yellow arrows pointing us to the left. It seemed like the wrong way to go, but there were lots of arrows and I have no directional intuition. So we took the left hand turn. Imagine our surprise when about 15 minutes later, we were back on the N-525 in Cotelas, and only two kms north of Cea.

I am pretty sure that what happened is the following -- there is a new private albergue in Cotelas. on the N-525- The owner there must be unhappy that some peregrinos opt to go off route to take the way to Oseira, and so he does his best to bring them back to Cotelas. Once in Cotelas, the way to Oseira is 7 or 8 km of highway walking, not at all nice.

So the bottom line is, if you are planning to go to Oseira from Cea, once you are on the route, ignore those very insistent signs directing you to take a left hand turn a couple of kms after Cea, or you will wind up back on the "official" camino from Cea to CAStro Dozón.

Hope this makes sense, buen camino, Laurie

 

[Anna-Marie]

It looks like this problem is being fixed: http://www.laregion.es/noticia/142986/xunta/jacobea/pinor/excluyendo/oseira/. Both routes are now supposed to be clearly marked.

Anna-Marie

 

[peregrina2000]

Thanks for this link, Anna Marie. Well, this is interesting and confusing at the same time. Pinor is not where I had the problem, it was a few kms earlier, in Coutela/Cotela.

This may be way too much information, but for those who want to take the unofficial detour to the monastery at Oseira, you should do it directly from Cea, not from Pinor. The official Vdlp goes from Cea to Coutela to Pinor, and then on directly to Castro Dozon. (google maps show this pretty clearly, it's along the old Ourense highway 400). If you wait to Pinor to take the turn-off to Oseira, you will have gone some kms out of your way and then will be on a road all the way to Oseira.

From Cea, there is a walking alternative clearly marked for the monastery. I was on it, and it was all through undeveloped land on dirt paths. It more or less went straight north from Cea. At some point on that path, there was an arrow turning us off the path and to the left. This arrow took us right into the town of Coutela and from there it was all highway walking to the monastery (google maps shows this as the Antigua Carretera OU-343, or the "old highway OU-343.") There is a casa rural or albergue of some sort in Coutela, and residents told us the owners were the ones who painted the arrow.

So, if you make it all the way to Pinor, it's nice to know you'll see a branching of the alternatives, but my recommendation would be to head towards the monastery directly from Cea and never go to Coutela or Pinor. And if that deceitful arrow is still there, a few kms after leaving Cea, just don't turn left! Laurie

 

[Anna-Marie]

Hi Laurie,

From what I understand, the sign problems that they're fixing were in Cea. The problem was that a bar owner from Piñor was changing the arrows (in Cea) so that pilgrims would go to Piñor instead of to the Oseira monastery. Now both routes will be well way marked, and there'll be signs explaining both options.

Anna-Marie