Can i expect bulls on my route from salamanca to ourense?

[liberte]

in september i want to continue my VDLP pilgrimage; this time from salamanca -the mozarabe way.-
Are there many bulls in the wild. I had to pass one between Grimaldo and Carcaboso. Can i expect more?

 

[JohnnieWalker]

I didn't see any

 

[Rebekah Scott]

If they´re running loose they are heifers or steers. Bulls must, by law, be confined. Or so we are told.

 

[ivar]

If they´re running loose they are heifers or steers. Bulls must, by law, be confined. Or so we are told.

I have lived 5 years in Galicia and I have never seen bulls run loose. They are always fenced in, or sometimes tied to a pole with a long rope.

If you have your walking stick and your (red?) poncho, you could try...

Greetings from Santiago,
Ivar

 

[Anniesantiago]

hahaha! That's hilarious Ivar - exactly my thought!

Sometimes, people who are not familiar with cattle think the horned animal they are looking at is a bull, when actually it is a heifer. Farmers may or may not choose to dehorn their cattle, and often when they are free=ranging animals, they do NOT dehorn the females, as the horns are there for a good reason, protection from predators.

Soooo.... if you see an animal with horns that looks bovine, and it's running loose, look lower to see if there is an udder ... it's probably a female and there's no worry - they're generally not aggressive at all. :lol:

Here is an example of a female with her calf:

 

[Tom Vickers]

The nearest I got to being gored on the route was at the Festa do Boi in Allariz. This is a week long festival ending on Corpus Cristi and the bull (bullock really) is run through the town every day on a tether. The greatest danger is in falling over one of the drunks in the narrow streets. http://www.peregrino.pwp.blueyonder.co. ... eca05.html
Tom

 

[Rebekah Scott]

they´re running several rather jaded-looking young bullocks through the streets this week and next in Sahagun, part of the annual Fiesta of San Juan de Sahagun. Tons of fun for all who are not quite up to Pamplona-style testing of the fates, and the creatures aren´t killed at the end.

 

[Rebekah Scott]

...that said, I can add that I had a very close encounter with these two battling bovines on the Camino del Norte in April. I had to scramble over a stone wall to escape them, much to the cowherds´amusement! (they both were heifers, supposedly harmless. I was kinda worried they might be clumsy, though!)

 

[JohnnieWalker]

The former Home Secretary in the United Kingdon, the RT Hon David Blunkett MP was recently knocked over by a charging cow:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8089498.stm

I always knew rural England was not as safe as rural Spain

 

[miguel_gp]

Watch out for this one just south of Xinzo De Limia

 

[Anniesantiago]

Hahaha! I remember that one!

Is that where all the crosses are in the fence links on the other side of the trail to the right?

 

[Ajda]

I guess it's just a sculpture? :wink:

Just like the one on the Camino frances(or is it the same one?) :roll:

It's good to know what to expect on Camino. If I saw this sculpture, I :mihgt have a heart attact oops: :?

 

[MermaidLilli]

Last night I spent it in Gondan and from my bed I could see all the cows and their babies just outside my window. The Mooooing was non-stop and realized there was a fight going on between 2 cows. One cow was bleeding out of her eye. Yucky.
On the Via I saw many bulls (I looked) and one time they were blocking a gate. I waited for 2 girls who were behind me and we walked side by side to look larger.
Here I saw bear tracks!
Lillian

 

[William Marques]

...that said, I can add that I had a very close encounter with these two battling bovines on the Camino del Norte in April. I had to scramble over a stone wall to escape them, much to the cowherds´amusement! (they both were heifers, supposedly harmless. I was kinda worried they might be clumsy, though!)

We got in the way of a similar tête-à-tête between Maisy and Daisy on the CF near San Xil. Like you we thought the danger was from them bashing into us as they fought each other.

 

[isabelle304]

During my recent VdlP, I came across this fierce-looking animal loitering on the path a few kms outside El Real de la Jara. It looked to me very much like a bull and another Spanish pilgrim who also came face-to-face with it was also convinced it was an escaped bull! Thankfully he ran off in the opposite direction just after I took this photo.