- Time of past OR future Camino
- Via de la Plata, Portuguese, Ingles, Levante
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Hi again, planning my next section of the Camino de Levante, continuing in April from Casas de Los Pinos. So, I am doing some homework in the route especially through many towns and villages that I will pass through on my next visit.
Some of you will have noticed that I posted an interesting chart last year, showing graphically the contrasting routes between Caminos Sureste and Levante, where they converge, diverge and co-exist along the way. I am attaching that map again. In a number of towns, they diverge on separate paths which, by definition means that there two routes out of some towns. Minaya, Tembleque, Toledo etc.
I was studying the route out of Tembleque and there are Camino arrows guiding you out of town from the Cathedral. However, if you follow that path, you will find that you are heading to a town called Vilanueva de Bogas and you actually come across a camino sign which says Camino del Sureste. Sure enough, this route out of Tembleque is on the Camino de Sureste. So, there must be another route out of Tembleque on the Camino de Levante. And another bit of research finds that route heading out (southwest of Tembleque) towards the highway CM-410, this route leading to a town called Mora. Well that makes sense since all the documentation will say that Mora is the next town after Tembleque on the Camino de Levante (25 klm). So problem solved!
But the puzzling part for me is that, when I search the web, I see that many people walking the Levante actually walk to Vilanueva de Bogas and then on to Mora, effectively walking two sides of a triangle instead of one. I have two GPS tracks, one on "map-me", which include Vilanueva de Bogas on the Camino de Levante and, separately, there is a Camino de Levante blog by a very nice member of this group who walked it in 2013 and, again, walked through Vilanueva de Bogas.
So why do people not go on the direct and official route from Tembleque to Mora which is marked with Camino signs? Perhaps it is to avoid such a long stint without any places to break? Not even sure that there is a marked Camino path from Vilanueva de Bogas View attachment 69058to Mora since the natural progression on the Camino del Suresta is from Vilanueva de Bogas on to Almonacid de Toledo?
And to compound the puzzle even more, both caminos converge again in Almonacid de Toledo, so if you go to Vilanueva de Bogas, why would you bother going across to Mora when you will tie up again with the Camino de Levante on Almonacid de Toledo,
If this is confusing then simply put, pilgrims appear to be walking two sides of two triangles (4) instead of one side twice (2). A bit of a puzzle. I think that I will take the direct route to Mora. Your thoghts?
the puzzling part for me is that, when I search the web, I see that many people walking the Levante actually walk to Vilanueva de Bogas and then on to Mora
But I don't want to ruin your day with (animal) details about using the showers as a first one after the winter closure
Neither Villanueva de Bogas nor Almonacid have (I guess I should say "had", because I haven't been there in 5 or 6 years) a place to stay.
And to compound the puzzle even more, both caminos converge again in Almonacid de Toledo,
Hahahahaha, yes. Dozens of cockroaches came out of the shower the minute I opened the water. It was so funny. But they were all flushed back from where they came. I guess they sent a message to others in other showers that the showering season has come. That night when I was there the villagers were filling the swimming pool. So maybe I spare some cockroach lives that eveningSo YOU were the one that stirred up the cockroaches that I had to sleep with the following day…!(I remember I was just one or two days behind you at that point on the Sureste… I remember we talked about it a few years ago !)
I got "lost" on the Levante, walking on the highway all the way to Toledo. But arrows were there. I guess they were old and that official Levante was rerouted after Nambroca by the time I passed through there???Perhaps this is off topic, but in Almonacid de Toledo the Levante and Sureste split again (unless re-routing was made since 2015). Levante goes through Nambroca and is well marked. The Sureste was trickier: I got lost and had to make a grand detour to reach Burguillos de Toledo. A Sureste bicigrino got lost at the same spot the same day! I think Levante is the better option here.
I walked twice this stage by Levante without problems the first time and just some short doubts the second.
View attachment 69091Signals out of Tembleque, going by streets Hospital, Pozo Blanco, San Anton, then the way left.
View attachment 69093One doubtfull point after some 10 km, next to the road. Go by the left route, which is better, although the right one permits to connect further.
View attachment 69094Some broken sign is something we can find on the way
Second doubtfull point, where to cross the road and the Rio Algodor. An old sign points to the right out and along the road. A yellow arrow points direct to the road to be crossed immediately (jumping the rails on the other side) to go by the old bridge over the river.
View attachment 69092Landscape some 3 km before going down to Mora, with the castle of Peñas Negras on our left side. Just before those mountain there are a few km on asphalt, but with very few cars traffic.
I have this guide, and effectively Gérard Rousse, its author, aka Gérard Ducamino, recommend it, but only to have a stop at Villanueva.(I was walking with two Frenchmen, and I believe the French guide to the Levante, written by someone named Gerard, recommends this alternative).
Eek...at the risk of sounding trite...take the road you intended to walk in the first place. Sometimes the alternate seems shorter and shinier but having walked the Camino de Levante, I would say I did not regret walking the odd step or two further than I might have had to. It is simpler that way.Hi again, planning my next section of the Camino de Levante, continuing in April from Casas de Los Pinos. So, I am doing some homework in the route especially through many towns and villages that I will pass through on my next visit.
Some of you will have noticed that I posted an interesting chart last year, showing graphically the contrasting routes between Caminos Sureste and Levante, where they converge, diverge and co-exist along the way. I am attaching that map again. In a number of towns, they diverge on separate paths which, by definition means that there two routes out of some towns. Minaya, Tembleque, Toledo etc.
I was studying the route out of Tembleque and there are Camino arrows guiding you out of town from the Cathedral. However, if you follow that path, you will find that you are heading to a town called Vilanueva de Bogas and you actually come across a camino sign which says Camino del Sureste. Sure enough, this route out of Tembleque is on the Camino de Sureste. So, there must be another route out of Tembleque on the Camino de Levante. And another bit of research finds that route heading out (southwest of Tembleque) towards the highway CM-410, this route leading to a town called Mora. Well that makes sense since all the documentation will say that Mora is the next town after Tembleque on the Camino de Levante (25 klm). So problem solved!
But the puzzling part for me is that, when I search the web, I see that many people walking the Levante actually walk to Vilanueva de Bogas and then on to Mora, effectively walking two sides of a triangle instead of one. I have two GPS tracks, one on "map-me", which include Vilanueva de Bogas on the Camino de Levante and, separately, there is a Camino de Levante blog by a very nice member of this group who walked it in 2013 and, again, walked through Vilanueva de Bogas.
So why do people not go on the direct and official route from Tembleque to Mora which is marked with Camino signs? Perhaps it is to avoid such a long stint without any places to break? Not even sure that there is a marked Camino path from Vilanueva de Bogas View attachment 69058to Mora since the natural progression on the Camino del Suresta is from Vilanueva de Bogas on to Almonacid de Toledo?
And to compound the puzzle even more, both caminos converge again in Almonacid de Toledo, so if you go to Vilanueva de Bogas, why would you bother going across to Mora when you will tie up again with the Camino de Levante on Almonacid de Toledo,
If this is confusing then simply put, pilgrims appear to be walking two sides of two triangles (4) instead of one side twice (2). A bit of a puzzle. I think that I will take the direct route to Mora. Your thoghts?
The sign where we left Levante and chose Sureste for Villanueva de Bogas, and the bar.
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