Has anyone used Brierly's Guide for Ingles?

[Anamya]

Hi there!

I see in the Forum store that the Brierly Guide for Finisterre now also includes Camino Ingles.
Has anyone used it? Is it any good?
I used Brierley for CF and CP and liked it - of course he has a style and some mapping issues, but it was very handy and I was wondering if the Camino Ingles one was good as well.
Thanks in advance!

 

[andycohn]

I’m a great Brierley fan. However, unless he’s revised it in the last year, the guide to the Ingles is a maps-only edition, and the routing on the Ingles has been substantiially revised since his latest edition. We walked the ingles in June, and we found that the only guidebook that’s up-to-date with the new routing is the CSJ guidebook. Even Gronze, Wise Pilgrim and the Cicerone guide are now out-of-date (unless something’s changed since June). Of course, you don’t really need a guidebook for navigation; the route is exceptionally well-marked. The stopping places remain the same, at least, so for lodging information, Brierley and Gronze (and the other guides) remain useful.

 

[Anamya]

Thanks a lot, Andy!
I noticed, reading Gronze and some posts here, that the route changed a lot. I had the 2016 Johnny Walker Guide, I may wait to confirm when/where I'm going to get the new one. And maybe the Brierley, if it gets a revamp.

 

[andycohn]

The Johnny Walker Guide is the CSJ guide I alluded to, which was revised late last year to reflect the new route - though there have been minor changes to the route even since the revision. Johnny Walker’s new guide, supplemented by Gronze for lodgings, were all we needed. I’m sure Brierley, Wise Pilgrim and Cicerone will eventually get on board.

 

[peb]

I would vouch for the Johnnie Walker / CSJ guide, which was (mostly) up to date when I used it this year.

Brierley does say it is a 2018 edition, but the Ingles route has changed so much in the last year, that to be accurate, there needs to be a complete rewrite of some parts, and that can only be from someone walking the route. The CSJ was a complete rewrite, but even then was not completely up to date.

That said, the Ingles was pretty well marked and I only really needed a guidebook once or twice a day. I found the (now out of date) Cicerrone guide also useful, because of the maps. That helped me have an idea of how far I was versus how far I had to go at various points. If you need good maps, the Brierley guide may be useful for the above reason. The maps in the CSJ guide are not as good a quality.

 

[wisepilgrim]

FWIW I will be publishing an updated Ingés guide in the coming months, I don't know if you are walking this Summer or next.

 

[peb]

more up to date guidebooks the better.

FWIW, there were four parts where it appeared even the new CSJ guide needed updating, as the Ingles route may have changed even more recently. Something to double check on.

1. At Vilar de Colo, where the waymarks appeared to have been taken out of the ground, and the old guidebooks send you down the road to Pontedeume at the roundabout before you walk under the motorway, but you need to walk under the motorway and right at the next but one roundabout. The CSJ guide was not as clear as it could be here.

2. At Cos, where you come up the small road out of the village to DP105 main road. The CSJ guidebook sends you across the road into a field, but the waymarks send you left onto the main road. Indeed the waymarks keep you on the main road for about 4km all the way to Presedo.

3. Walking along the side of the motorway (albeit the path is fenced off from the motorway) for about 6km on the way to Sigueiro - not mentioned in any guidebook

4. After Sigueiro, where you now turn right and walk up the hill, parallel to the main Santiago road past the village of Marantes, instead of walking the other side of the road round the back of Hotel Casa San Vicente.

If your new guidebook can be clear on these four points, then it will be the most accurate and up to date.

 

[Spammy]

There are still changes happening (I returned last week) so go by the waymarkers, NOT the JW guide! Too many cooks and all that...