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Disparities between Wise Pilgrim and Brierley distances

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Dearest Pilgrims,
Perhaps the answer is obvious to others, but I am unable to determine why Wise Pilgrim provides a distance of 767km from SJPDP to SDC and Brierley gives a distance of 778.5km.

Wise Pilgrim on the Napoleon arrives at Roncesvalles with 742.7km left to SDC while poor Brierley must walk 753.4km to reach the same destination.

Again, at Pamplona, WP is only 700.4km from SDC while unfortunate Brierley is 731.5km distant.

Does someone know why WP doesn't need to walk as far as Brierley? Seem unfair to me.
In my 3 weeks on the Camino so far, I have leaned to take the Brierly, Wise Pilgrim, and posted distances as helpful guidance rather than scientific fact.
 
The focus is on reducing the risk of failure through being well prepared. 2nd ed.
There is (or was) a shop in Llanberis selling coffee and outdoor gear. Run by a New Zealander. On a shelf there was a basket of those long metal spiky things campers use to hold the tent to the ground. The handwritten label on it said "tint pigs". :)
Must have know you were coming otherwise because we all know it should have been tunt pugs
 
The 2024 Camino guides will be coming out little by little. Here is a collection of the ones that are out so far.
Transport luggage-passengers.
From airports to SJPP
Luggage from SJPP to Roncevalles
Dearest Pilgrims,
Perhaps the answer is obvious to others, but I am unable to determine why Wise Pilgrim provides a distance of 767km from SJPDP to SDC and Brierley gives a distance of 778.5km.

Wise Pilgrim on the Napoleon arrives at Roncesvalles with 742.7km left to SDC while poor Brierley must walk 753.4km to reach the same destination.

Again, at Pamplona, WP is only 700.4km from SDC while unfortunate Brierley is 731.5km distant.

Does someone know why WP doesn't need to walk as far as Brierley? Seem unfair to me.
I'm on the Mozárabe atm so can't consult the books you cite, but my first thought is WP uses satellite positioning and Brierley adjusts for terrain?
 
St James' Way - Self-guided 4-7 day Walking Packages, Reading to Southampton, 110 kms
My wife calls these 'walkers lies'. She coined the phrase when we were walking the Milford track nearly a decade ago. When she asked a DOC worker repairing part of the track what the track was like ahead, the response was 'its level for quite a while' despite the climb we could see ahead of us.
Like Mr Google. 1.5km fairly flat. Lol. Lol.
 
This seems like a strange place to post this. There is another thread discussing privacy in showers active at the moment. It would seem this would be more appropriate there.
It is! There recently was a thread about privacy issues in communal dormitories, but can't recall where it was.🤔
 
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
Dearest Pilgrims,
Perhaps the answer is obvious to others, but I am unable to determine why Wise Pilgrim provides a distance of 767km from SJPDP to SDC and Brierley gives a distance of 778.5km.

Wise Pilgrim on the Napoleon arrives at Roncesvalles with 742.7km left to SDC while poor Brierley must walk 753.4km to reach the same destination.

Again, at Pamplona, WP is only 700.4km from SDC while unfortunate Brierley is 731.5km distant.

Does someone know why WP doesn't need to walk as far as Brierley? Seem unfair to me.
I walked the same general route and according to my GPS I walked 816km exactly. The difference being that in towns we walk to different destinations. Also, during certain stages I chose to walk an extra distance to see something of interest. Therefore, no two pilgrims wil have the same distance. The same applies to WP & PB
 
3rd Edition. More content, training & pack guides avoid common mistakes, bed bugs etc
When I get back home, I will review my GPS tracks for a variety of relatively common phenomena such as rogue data points walking in cities with tall buildings and narrow streets. Doing this, I realised that my handheld GPS seems to want a social life of its own, and when I stop for coffee, wanders around all over the place. I presume it is looking for fellow GPS units to chat to and compare notes about where they have been that day. I found that it did anything up to 10% more distance than I thought I did.
All the way down one section and back on the same narrow path, mine told me it was accurate within five meters. Yet when I displayed the trek on a map, the two paths were mostly twelve meters apart. And, due to the "wandering" you mentioned, I try to remember to pause whenever I stop. Usually, before trying to map my tracks, I run code I've written which replaces each position and time with the average of it and its two neighbors. Makes the map a bit more accurate except where I turned a sharp corner or stepped off the path.
 
All the way down one section and back on the same narrow path, mine told me it was accurate within five meters.
The accuracy guaranteed by the USSF on the GPS constellation depends a little on what satellites are available, but it appears to be between 3.8m and 9.7m for 95% of the time. My only difficulty is that it seems this is the promise at the top of the troposphere, and my arms aren't long enough to get my GPS up there! It won't get any better than that on the earth's surface.
 
... and I have super short legs, so what about pedometers then, that's so unfair, I probably walk many more steps than everyone else combined.. 🤣
 
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I start in SJPDP and finish in Fisterra. The actual distance is immaterial. I am doing the Portuguese next from Porto by inland to Redondela then train back to Porto and walk the Coastal to SDC. I don't care what the distance is.
 
I don't see the problem. It is your way what will count, not what the authors tell you. Depending on your sleeping places you will earn even more kilometres than the two authors wrote. Don't forget to count the kilometres when you walking around in the town to find food beer or something interesting to look at it.
Buon Camino 😇
My distance from Cádiz to Santiago de Compostela didn't match the distance I calculated by my Outdooractive app. But I arrived and got a Compostela. So what. 😎
 
Dearest Pilgrims,
Perhaps the answer is obvious to others, but I am unable to determine why Wise Pilgrim provides a distance of 767km from SJPDP to SDC and Brierley gives a distance of 778.5km.

Wise Pilgrim on the Napoleon arrives at Roncesvalles with 742.7km left to SDC while poor Brierley must walk 753.4km to reach the same destination.

Again, at Pamplona, WP is only 700.4km from SDC while unfortunate Brierley is 731.5km distant.

Does someone know why WP doesn't need to walk as far as Brierley? Seem unfair to me.
Hey!
For what its worth- the Compostela reads 779km...but I was told that excludes the 30 KM part in France that you walk.
I used the Stingy nomads plan in general when thinking about the stages for each day- it was "accurate" in terms of mileage I thought. While walking- I used Camino Ninja app at times to also gauge distances and it was very accurate too.
There are occasional times where you can go an alternate route, but the two meet up again. Some of the alternates vary in slight distances by a few KM from the main one- Usually one is a little more scenic (less walking near a busy road). Off the top of my head- I recall splits after Leon, Sahagun, Hospital de Orbigo, Tri-Castela, and PortoMarin. After Leon- was the longer of the splits-you have a left/right choice where you spend the night on one or the other route before meeting up on the same route again.
Here were the choices I made:
Leon- left through country
Sahagun- followed route on Camino Ninja- was shorter
Hospital de Orbigo- sign after town shows sad face to left and happy face to right- long story I went left (sad face) and it was shorter, but along busy highway and meant to go right through little towns
Tri-Castela- left along river and past Monastery, (I had already seen Monastery)- so I went right/hillier
Porto-marin- right hillier less crowded (short split) - left was along the river
I walked to Finisterre too and I think my pedometer on my phone (I never recorded workouts) showed I had about 650 miles all together- but that included walking around towns for Mass and dinner ect
 
St James' Way - Self-guided 4-7 day Walking Packages, Reading to Southampton, 110 kms
Out of interest I saw a distance certificate issued yesterday that has the VDLP from Seville measured as 1007 kilometres.🙂
 
Out of interest I saw a distance certificate issued yesterday that has the VDLP from Seville measured as 1007 kilometres.🙂
I think this is correct. As I got 1207 kilometers from Cádiz. Via Augusta VdlP and Sanabrès Way in 44 days 😇
 
What they put the number of days you take now as well 🤣 Mine has 1172 from Cadiz and I went to Astorga and then along the Sanabres but who really cares ??
 
Last edited:
3rd Edition. More content, training & pack guides avoid common mistakes, bed bugs etc
"Yesterday, six kilometres outside of Carrion, there was a road sign that said Santiago 463. Now, still inside the limits of Carrion we see another sign that says Santiago 401 Km! Back home there’s a guy works down the chip shop swears he’s Elvis. Well, he’s a liar and I’m starting to have doubts about these road signs."
 
St James' Way - Self-guided 4-7 day Walking Packages, Reading to Southampton, 110 kms
There is (or was) a shop in Llanberis selling coffee and outdoor gear. Run by a New Zealander. On a shelf there was a basket of those long metal spiky things campers use to hold the tent to the ground. The handwritten label on it said "tint pigs". :)
Tint Pigs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
The posts are rather 🤣. Yet, I have to go a little against the grain on this one. It's not so much that I expect the measurements to be spot on due to all the reasons stated above... However, the OP has a point. The measurements are stated in the guides down to the 1/10 which will likely never be accurate for anyone. Perhaps 🤔 this is why road signs are stated in whole numbers.

Shouldn't the guide give approximate walking distance between towns in whole numbers too? If a person is using a guide they expect accurate info. This is part of the provided info. The variations of what makes the data true should not be left to the imagination.
 
The measurements are stated in the guides down to the 1/10 which will likely never be accurate for anyone. Perhaps 🤔 this is why road signs are stated in whole numbers
Just pointing out the distance markers placed by the government in Galicia measure down to the metre (that is, km with three decimal places).
 
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€46,-
Just pointing out the distance markers placed by the government in Galicia measure down to the metre (that is, km with three decimal places).
They COULD go down to six places or even more and still be accurate. It's all a matter of finding the path that is that exact length. ;)
 
I would be a little reluctant to mistrust Brierley's distances based on his bio:

John Brierley
"Formerly a Chartered Surveyor in Ireland, when John was at a career mid-point he decided to take an opportunity for a business sabbatical, what he calls being “off the treadmill for a year!”

Dearest Pilgrims,
Perhaps the answer is obvious to others, but I am unable to determine why Wise Pilgrim provides a distance of 767km from SJPDP to SDC and Brierley gives a distance of 778.5km.

Wise Pilgrim on the Napoleon arrives at Roncesvalles with 742.7km left to SDC while poor Brierley must walk 753.4km to reach the same destination.

Again, at Pamplona, WP is only 700.4km from SDC while unfortunate Brierley is 731.5km distant.

Does someone know why WP doesn't need to walk as far as Brierley? Seem unfair to me.
 
€2,-/day will present your project to thousands of visitors each day. All interested in the Camino de Santiago.
The difference is completely irrelevant. My 796k quickly turned into 998k. A simple stroll through a town to buy a yogurt for breakfast, a "rest day" on which you walk 15k in your flip flops, it is all part of the journey. And it doesn't matter.
 
My friend and walking companion walk similar distances at the same time. Same route. She has a different gait and foot stretch. Different step counts.
Much as I hate this phrase: go figure!
Guidelines are just that.
Welcome them.
And then report back.
Whenever you do set out, and however it does turn out, your reports will be welcomed and included in resources for others with similar questions to yourself.
I forget when you are actually about to set off, but whenever - be there, and forget all the irrelevant noise.
 

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