Much road walking?

[jaws101]

Are there many stretches of the Camino Primitivo that you have to walk on hard surfaces, either tarmac´roads or flat gravel tracks.

I am a fit walker but, due to arthritis in my feet, I cannot do long stretches on hard, flat surfaces, hence the reason I biked the Camino Frances and VDlP, but I would like to walk some of the caminos. I have no problem with hills and the rockier the tracks the better as my feet can cope with this for some reason. Short stretches of road would be OK, i.e. into villages etc.

Thanks for any info.

 

[TerryB]

Hi 'Jaws'
There are a number of places where you cannot avoid road walking. Off the top of my head I can think of several 5 kilometer+ stretches. Can I suggest that you buy either the CSJ guide to "The Primitivo"
http://www.csj.org.uk/route-camino-primitivo.htm
or the Cicerone guide to "The Northern Caminos" - look on Amazon. (this covers the Norte and the Ingles as well as the Primitivo). If you are thinking of biking the Primitivo then the CSJ guide would be best as it gives the alternative routes for bikes where the paths / tracks are not suitable.

Blessings on your planning
Tio Tel

 

[MichaelV929]

From what I remember there is not overly much road to walk on…

Most of the time you're rather out on the mountain

 

[TerryB]

From what I remember there is not overly much road to walk on…

Most of the time you're rather out on the mountain

Our memories are wonderful things! I can remember Puerto de Palo in the rain and mist (2009) and in sun with cloud in the valleys - awesome (in 2012). I think we mentally blot out the 'uninteresting / boring' stretches - a bit like life, really :?

I have checked in the Ciceroni guide and there are some quite long stretches of on road walking which I think may be too much for the OP with his foot problems.
e.g Oviedo to Venta de Esclampero is 7.2 k with only 1.5 on a footpath.
Campiello is on a 3.5k stretch of road walking.
Further on - Berducedo to Buspol has 4.5k on the road through La Mesa
After Cadavo there is a longish time on the road including 10+k after Castro Verde
After Lugo there is another stretch of 10+k to Burgo.

The road walking after Lugo may be the clincher as it is within the 100k. Around Cadavo there is a bus service from Fonsagrada to Lugo so the road there could be avoided.

blessings
Tio Tel

 

[TerryB]

Hi Jaws,
Just wondering how you are doing and what decision, if any, you have taken? Some of us older members do spend time researching and answering questions. We do not necessarily expect effusive thanks, but it would be good to know that our efforts are appreciated! :roll:

Blessings
Tio Tel

 

[jaws101]

Hi there,

Thanks for your responses. I am still doing research. I am not looking to walk any of the routes this year. If anyone knows of any route with little road walking I would appreciate a response.

I am also looking into biking the Camino del Cid from Burgos back to our house in Murcia. Maybe biking will have to be the way for me.

Regards

jaws101

 

[giorgio]

No tarmac and a moderate amount of ups and downs ?
Go for the camino de Madrid . On the CDM tread you'll get all the answers
Giorgio

 

[naranco]

I found that there was quite a bit of asphalt to trod on the primitivo. But, I think that 30-40% of the time you will be walking on hardened paths of some kind. When you are not, the landscape is VERY nice.

I think that if you track the primitive route on http://www.openstreetmap.org, you will be able to determine what is hardened, and what is not quite accurately.

 

[peregrina2000]

Terry, you're so right about our selective memories. I too would have said, oh there's not much pavement at all on the Primitivo. But once I read your post, I then started thinking, and there are even more -- the walk up from the reservoir before Grandas has a rather long-ish road stretch, and from Ponte Ferreira to Melide is nearly all road. But there are mercifully some off-road breaks in between to keep our feet from complaining too much.

If off-road walking is the primary goal, I agree with Giorgio that the Camino de Madrid is probably the most "off-road" of any Camino I've walked. It is quite amazing how the amigos association was able to get people off the pavement so quickly -- even leaving Madrid, it's not more than a couple of kms before you are on paths.

In terms of hills, you'll not find too many, but the ascent to Fonfria from Cercedilla is a very nice one. The Camino de Madrid has excellent pilgrim infrastructure with two great albergues with resident hospitaler@s (In Puente duero and Villalon de Campos). Segovia is a great place to visit, and you can easily do a detour to visit Valladolid for a day, which is another really nice little city.

Buen camino, Laurie