Listening to "the locals"

[peregrina2000]

I've just finished another camino and have had many occasions to ask local people for advice. And also many occasions in which local people gave advice that was unsolicited. Though you will frequently see forum members suggesting that pilgrims "ask the locals," I would like to inject a note of caution, maybe skepticism. I have no doubt that in some instances, the locals DO know exactly what they are talking about, and peregrinos disregard that advice at their peril. I'm thinking here of St. Jean and the Pyrenees crossing and I'm sure there are other examples. Hospitales on the Primitivo and the Poladura-Pajares stage on the Salvador are probably places where checking with knowledgeable locals is a good idea. But Herminia in the bar in Campiello before the Hospitales route, though she is local and well-meaning, doesn't really know anything about the conditions up in the mountains.

The locals just don't always know what they are talking about. For one thing, if they are not walkers, many locals will ALWAYS tell you to take the highway, because it's more direct, paved, and easier. And in many other cases, the locals don't have any first hand evidence. I can think of a couple of examples just on my recent Camino de Levante. In one case, a man walking his dog literally ran after us to warn us about the camino path leaving Medina del Campo. You'll get lost, it's just wild fields, stick to the road. We thanked him and ignored his advice, and it was well-marked, beautiful off-road terrain. Leaving Laza, we had two or three people tell us to stay on the road up to Albergaria because it had been raining a lot. That was what I was told the last time I walked the Sanabres, and I followed that advice -- and as a result had an awful walk on the side of a narrow road with a fair amount of traffic. But this time my French friends insisted we just forge ahead. And that was a very good decision, because this section is primarily on a logging road, with a very short section on slate rocks that would be slippery in the rain, but walking on the side of the highway in rain would generally be more dangerous than taking the off-road section up to Albergaria.

Last year on the Primitivo, the owner of the bar outside Fonsagrada/Padron in Paradavella told everyone to stay off the camino and stick to the highway to Lastra. That was because it had been raining the day and night before. That was terrible advice, he didn't know what he was talking about, and as a result many people missed one of the most gorgeous sections of the Primitivo.

I am not a risk-taker, and I'm not encouraging people to be reckless. I only want to make the point that just because someone is "local" doesn't mean they have a clue about conditions on the camino. So take it all with a grain of salt. There are many beautiful stretches of camino that the locals will tell you to avoid in many circumstances that really don't require you to stick to the highway. And remember you are not going to the moon. If things get really bad, you can retrace your steps and get off the Camino.

Buen camino, Laurie

 

[Rebekah Scott]

Before I say "hear, hear, Laurie!" I will inject a Caveat:

Laurie is talking about Camino 202+ routes. Advanced, alternative routes. Laurie is an experienced long-distance camino hiker who speaks Spanish and knows her way around remote parts of Spain (and Portugal, too.)

If you are walking on the Camino Frances and you have little experience with long-distance hiking, do not hesitate to listen to the locals -- they may send you along the roadway to the next town, but they will not steer you wrong. (It is really kinda hard to be steered wrong on the Camino Frances.)

IMHO, on the Frances, it is your fellow pilgrims you gotta be careful of -- the know-all guys who want you to "try this new alternate route that isn´t waymarked but makes sense if you look at this map here." Stick with the waymarks. If you lose the waymarks, do not hesitate to ask a local how to regain the camino. And if you are lost, specify "Camino de Santiago," because "camino" just means "the way," y´know!

All that said, I say "Hear, hear, Laurie! So many of those locals haven´t walked 100 meters out of town since they were 18 years old!"

 

[peregrina2000]

Very good points, as always, Reb. And you're right, my experiences come from some of the lesser known caminos, where locals frequently don't even know there's a camino running through their village, much less where it goes between villages.

So I should definitely revise my comments to reflect that difference. I was prompted to write it by a friend who is now on the Norte, and she was pretty unhappy to learn that she had taken a local's advice to avoid the ups and downs on a headland, when she later learned that it was a beautiful segment of off-road walking she had missed. And when you're on the Norte, missing any piece of unpaved camino is a real bummer, since you spend so much time on pavement. Really, my only point was to encourage people to use their own independent judgment to evaluate the advice-giver.

Maybe I'm also still bummed by the fact that, unlike you, Reb, I was never brave enough to try the way from El Acebo to Penalba de Santiago, mainly because the locals told me I was headed to certain death!

 

[fraluchi]

Very good points, as always, Reb. And you're right, my experiences come from some of the lesser known caminos, where locals frequently don't even know there's a camino running through their village, much less where it goes between villages.

Where we live there is a saying: "ask three people for the way, if two answers match, this is probably the right way". What if each answer is different? :mrgreen:

 

[andy.d]

Thanks - this has brought back memories of the Levante. On the final stages through La Mancha, there was a section where the Camino was a dirt track parallel to a busy-ish road. I found another dirt track parallel to the Camino but slightly further away from the road. A car stopped on the road, and the man inside was insistent that I walked along the marked Camino (which I could clearly see from where I was) as this was the authentic Way.

Or when I got lost in one of the small towns after Algemesi and the only person who knew the way out (and who i didn't listen to at first) was a very drunk man.

Andy