No more road walking after Castilblanco de los Arroyos?

[Carel5]

Good news for future pilgrims on the Via de la Plata. It seems that provincial authorities are working on a new route after Castilblanco de los Arroyos, avoiding the long road walking. From the Spanish link I understand that there are 157.000 euros from agricultural funds available for this. They give no date on the opening of the new route.

http://www.dipusevilla.es/actualidad/noticias/noticia_3956.html

 

[SYates]

Wow, that really is good news! Thanks for posting and Buen Camino, SY

 

[Ants]

thank you for posting...looking forward to walk on it in February next year

 

[alansykes]

Losing those 15 long km on the road before El Berrocal and the lovely park will be great. Perhaps I'll get there in 2017?

 

[Carel5]

The good news is not so good as it seemed. The works in Castilblanco concern a clean up and improvement of the last six kilometers from Guillena into Castilblanco. So the long road walk will remain.

http://www.castilblancodelosarroyos...stilblanco/actualidad/obras/noticia_0134.html

 

[amancio]

unfortunately, it seems they are simply trimming weeds by the side of the road into Castilblanco, not such a great advance, I am afraid... Still, I find these 13 km of tarmac are not so terrible if you start very early in the morning, long before the sun rises.

 

[Canuck]

The good news is not so good as it seemed. The works in Castilblanco concern a clean up and improvement of the last six kilometers from Guillena into Castilblanco. So the long road walk will remain.

http://www.castilblancodelosarroyos...stilblanco/actualidad/obras/noticia_0134.html

Your reference dates back to April 2014.
Is it possible that the OP refers to something different?

 

[Carel5]

Indeed. It is from May 2014. I did not see 2014 and assumed that it was related with the new works. So possibly there will be yet an alternative for the road walking.

 

[LTfit]

Referring to the 16 km stretch out of Castilblanco: they were trimming the VP along the road on the left 2 weeks ago and it was at times possible to walk on a dirt/brush path instead of on tarmac.

This stretch has never bothered me (now have done it in June, July and February) as it is only 16 km.

 

[Göran Larsson]

Here, here. No problemo walking this stretch

 

[Carel5]

More news on this. The new path is parellel to the road. The opposition in Castilblanco protests against it because it harms their fight against the "usurpation" of the original drovers road by local landowners.

http://www.sevillaactualidad.com/pr...ion-del-cambio-de-trazado-de-una-via-pecuaria

 

[clivespicer]

There's worse hardships on the Via/Sanabres than this stretch of tarmac. Soon forgotten amongst the overall beauty of the route.