Misleading signage from Puebla de Sanabria to Requejo

[sillydoll]

Any comments on this pilgrim's report back? Anyone else find misleading signage between Puebla and Requejo?

We set out from Puebla de Sanabria to walk to Compostella leaving Puebla on June 26, arriving at Compostella on July 13. As you can see, we were in no hurry. At that time, she was 77 and I was 68, so you can see that we aren't spring chickens. However I must tell you that there is a problem of a [deliberate? ] misdirection between Puebla and Requejo.
I can't say that it was enjoyable as such; it was very hard work. Galicia, as you must know, is very hilly and June/July is hot. One part of the walk that was enjoyable was, given the fact that we have excellent Spanish, the ability to interact with the locals.
Suffice to say that we felt a great feeling of accomplishment when we arrived at the San Lazaro albergue in Compostella.

 

[peregrina2000]

Hi, Sil,

When I walked last May, I did have a few moments of confusion, but this wasn't one of them. The camino leaves Puebla de Sanabria from behind the castle, goes out of town along side a fairly busy road, and then goes off to the left and along the right side of the river. This is probably where the confusion was -- the markings along the river were not clear, and we wound up leaving it and heading up to the road at an obvious point (my vague recollection here is that the river path comes into an industrial site, and then you have to turn right, since turning left will take you into the river and continuing straight will take you into the industrial site). We never felt lost or disoriented, though.

BTW, there are two points on the Vdlp where there is some intentional misdirection. One is after Tabara and before Santa Croya. The "real" camino goes through a village where a bar has closed. The bar owners in a town a little off camino have taken it upon themselves to point pilgrims through their town. In honesty, though the albergue owners in Santa Croya are outraged at this, the stop was quite welcome. It was hot and there are two nice places with outdoor seating. And someone who is far better with maps than I told us the total distance was about the same. I don't have the names of the places handy, but I'm sure I can dig them up in my journal.

The other place is after Cea, and that was an intentional misdirection that had substantial kilometer consequences for me. We were taking the route to Oseira monastery, and somewhere along the way, an arrow pointed us to the left. It took us out to the highway, and essentially made us double back and added many kms to our walk to Oseira. I posted a warning here: camino-mozarabe-and-via-de-la-plata/topic8872.html?hilit=trickery#p53515

But those were the only two instances I remember. Laurie

 

[andy.d]

I had no problem getting from Puebla de Sanabria to Requejo in October 2009.

There was a battle of the signs going on between Tabara and Santa Croya, but this was negotiated OK in extremely heavy rain.

I also got lost getting from Cea to Oseira. I ended up on the road somehow which added a few miles.

I can't remember any other sections on the VDlP where I had particular problems with signing (and it was much easier to follow than the sparse signing of the Levante)

Andy

 

[bjorgts]

I walked from Puebla de Sanabria in spring 2009. We had no problems finding our way.

But we experienced the problem between Tabara and Santa Croya. I think the two pueblos are Villanueva de las Peras and Bersianos de Valverde. Inhabitants in Villanueva has painted yellow arrows leeding to their village. Perhaps it is not a longer distance to walk, but I found it very irritating, and we did not visit the bar for that reason. What a perspective; people all along the Caminos painting yellow arrows into their own village to make the walkers visit their bars! :!: It would have been much better if they had put up an information, telling us that if we wanted to visit a bar for the next two or three hours, we should take a detour to their village. Bjørg

 

[Debinq]

Hola - no misleading signage that I can remember 'tween Sanabria and Requejo - however I recall that the track from there up to Padornelo is a bit grim (i.e. partially through a quarry of some sort and then a train tunnel of approx 300m length, which was sort of spooky) I remember being quite tired after the 10 km stretch to Padornelo and glad of a bed in the hotel there - that was mid-Oct 2006; can't remember the hotel's name but they didn'tdo breakfast ... bummmer!

 

[andy.d]

Lubian, which has an excellent Albergue, is 12 miles from Requejo. There is climbing through a quarry (I think it is that day and not the next when you enter Galicia), but the Camino is well marked and takes you over the top of the mountain. Strenous but much more enjoyable than walking through a busy road tunnel.

Andy

 

[peregrina2000]

Hi, Debinq,
I remember this stretch that you're talking about with the tunnel, but I think that the arrows now eliminate the confusion. From Requejo up to the pass at Padornelo there is a substantial ascent (even though the Mundicamino map is totally wrong and doesn't show this, the Eroski website shows it clearly and correctly). Get off the road whenever you can, otherwise you may be forced to go through the tunnel (see Mundicamino's description) When you get to the top of the pass, there is a very modern new car bridge over a huge chasm. At the end of that bridge there's a tunnel. It is probably quicker to go along the modern autovia and through that tunnel, but the arrows now clearly take you around so that you avoid the tunnel completely and stay off the edge of the super-highway. It is longer but not by a lot, and a whole lot safer.

And I remember the quarry, which appeared to be in total disarray and disuse.

Although all the guide books told us that the caminio should lead us through the town of Padornelo, we never got there. We were on a path below the highway, which was a very pleasant path as a matter of fact, and at some point we could see the hotel/hostal up above. We assumed it was the town of Padornelo, but the path we were on didn't go up there. There were lots of locals walking on this path while we were there, and we got assurances from them that we could continue straight and we would be fine (I think we had to go under the superhighway at some point, but my memory is vague).

And BTW, the walk from there into Aciberos and on to Lubian is one of those incredibly gorgeous off-road walks through fields, the tiny village of Aciberos, and hardwood glens. Ah, but I digress... just remembering some of those incredible segments of the Vdlp!

Laurie

 

[peregrina2000]

Hah, Andy, your post made me smile. The beautiful entry into Lubian takes you past some old houses on the outskirts with ancient inscriptions over the doorway, and pretty soon you turn a corner and you're in Lubian, on the edge of the village. The albergue is right there. It is a beautiful old stone building. We arrived and bagged a bed, and about five minutes later were told -- oh BTW, the toilets aren't working. That, in the words of my walking partner, was a dealbreaker.

So we continued on to find a place to stay, and I just want to add for those who look for private accommodations in Lubian (I may have already written about this, if so, sorry), it's well worth it to go past the house around the corner from the albergue that offers rooms. That house, according to people who live in town, is owned by some out of town corporation and run by the woman whose name graces the sign, Ana, Anita, something like that. I have no problem with the ownership issue, but the lack of pride of ownership sang through loud and clear when we were there. We had tentatively decided to stay there, but then I saw that my makeshift Eroski guidebook with lots of handwritten notes included a reference to Casa Pachaca. We kept walking, went through the village, and at the end of the village (right where the Camino leaves town), there is this wonderful Casa Rural. Highly recommended. Home grown food for dinner, local wine, and even though the owner was a little cranky in the morning and gave us a pretty sub-par breakfast, I'd stay there again in a heartbeat.

Buen camino, Laurie

 

[andy.d]

Thanks Laurie,

when I was there it was Dia de Hispanidad weekend and everything was closed except the supermercado. My memory of the Albergue was that it was good - nice and clean. I guess it was different when you were there. (I do remember trying the door, finding it was locked, searching for the person with the key, and being told to give it a proper push - of course, it opened!).

Andy

 

[Debinq]

Indeed Laurie - the Aciberos-Lubian stretch is an enchanted landscape; with the track up to the pass 'A Cando' a little further along the Via dlP, it must be among the most delightful bits of the Via dlP.

A Cando leads up into the Cantabrian foothills proper and marks the boundary between Zamora and Galicia - I remember being a bit confused there and annoyed at myself, having strayed onto the N525 after Lubian, until I met a local man on horseback who set me straight by putting me back at a X'ing of the River Toda from where the ancient path (followed by no lesser a luminary than Alaric the Visigoth in 6th C, so my horseman guide told me!!) leads up to A Cando.... 'que tenga suerte' he impressed on me after I thanked him for his directions and his story .... it turns out to be among my most memorable camino moments!

happy trails

Peter

 

[CaroleH]

The walk to Lubian was the prettiest day's walking , for us in 2006. Magic!

The Lubian albergue was OK then, almost full the night we stayed, so Ian and I slept downstairs on mattresses on the floor. Will check it out in May when we are doing the Vdlp again. Casa Irene is the "one to be avoided", Laurie, for both sleeping and eating. We ate there, it was a fun group meal, but Ian was ill after it (only time) . Thanks for the recommendation about Casa Pachaca.

Remember slight confusion leaving Peublo de Sanabria, but nothing serious. Cea to Dozon was very confusing, especially as it was raining and there was a lack of signs. May have been because of the rain and lack of visibility. Also after Dozon, there was confusion. This year we want to go to Oseira... so I'll do some more research there, plus reread your "Live from the Vdlp" Laurie.

Bjorg.... I'll check out those 2 towns between Tabara and Santa Croya. We'll be staying at Casa Anita again and I remember lots of home made signs advertising it along the camino.

Love those "camino moments" Peter.

Wondering if I should do a "Live from the Vdlp" on the Forum..... Huelva to SdC ..... this year. Probably not a lot of changes since Laurie's wonderful postings last year . . . . . . ? :?

 

[peregrina2000]

Ah, Carole, wonder no more.

Of course you should do "live from the Camino" postings -- how else can we camino junkies feed our habit?

Just one more bit on the confusion after Cea. Actually, this changing of the arrows has a much more serious impact on walkers, because at least between Tabara and Santa Croya, there is no impact in terms of total kilometers. But after Cea, the arrows that bring you back to the highway actually take you way out of your way, and you will wind up adding at least an hour, maybe more, to your trek to Oseira.

Here's the description I wrote about it several days after it happened, when I could remember the names of the town and the highway name. camino-mozarabe-and-via-de-la-plata/topic8872.html

Good luck in avoiding that trap! Buen Camino, Laurie

 

[lynnejohn]

Yes, we got caught in the trap after Cea... thanks to this additional information, we will have a much better time.

Again, many thanks to Laurie and others who have added this valuable information.

lynne

 

[CaroleH]

My thought for today.....

How boring might it be without the occasional challenge??

It's the challenging parts when we get lost, exhausted, challenged or mishaps occur that we remember longer and talk about most?? No?? funny isn't it?

 

[peregrina2000]

You're absolutely right, Carole -- it's those unexpected turns that wind up being so essential to the whole experience. I'm one of those people who loves to plan plan plan and then not worry about following the plan, once I get started. For some reason, it gives me a greater sense of security and familiarity starting out, especially since I'm typically walking alone, kind of like a security blanket. And then I find I'm much less worried when the unexpected turns up. Another motivator for me is that I live in a part of the US where winters are pretty brutal, and dreaming about the Camino gets me through them. Funny how the Camino works its magic so differently on each of us.

Buen camino, Laurie