Super highway and AVG construction is destroying the VdlP

[jirit]

This is only my personal observation, but given what I have seen so far, the duel construction of the super highway A 66 mirroring the old road 630 and the previous construction of the A 55 super highway, mirroring the old 525 highway, is slowly killing the towns and villages that line the Via de la Plata. Most lie empty, run down, barely able to support a bar or cafe.

As our friend that join us in Salamanca stated this is more like working through a gritty industrial zone that walking through the spanish countryside.

Worse the construction of the AVG line from Madrid to Galicia is tearing up the countryside from Tábara to Ourense. There a pockets of scarred highsides, future tunnels of the new rail line. Cement and gravel trucks ferry back and forth moving dirt and gravel from one location to another.

Again this is only my personal opinion but walking this route has hardly felt like a camino experience but more like walking through the rural backwaters of Spain, as it slowly gives into the demands of urban Spain, the need to move more quickly from major city centre to city centre.

 

[LTfit]

Although I had heard about the construction, I didn't realize that it was that bad especially as a Spanish friend of mine just returned from walking from Zamora and she said the Sanabrés was lovely. This is also exactly the section that I will be walking this summer. It would appear that lots has happened since I was last on the VdlP in 2011. Up until Zamora there were no detours and certainly no construction going on. Maybe I'll be lucky and the construction workers will be on vacation in July!

Would appreciate any notes you may have and look forward to your updates. Hope the the Camino improves for you.

Cheers,
LT

 

[Anniesantiago]

Well. I just started but the only construction I've seen was on my way to Merida. It was Sunday so I walked despite the detour signs as there was nobody to stop me.

In going to hang in here until I feel it's too much stress. So far the walking has been awesome.

I do feel I will most likely skip the Sanabres based on jirit's reprts of no lodging.
We'll see though.
One foot in front of the other
Time will tell. 8)

Bring a hat.
It's hot as hell! Lol

 

[piogaw]

hello annie,

i did not know there are so many construction projects going on since my winter camino. i guess there weren't that much construction going on because of the winter month with bad weather. i hope you will continue on. if you decide to change your stages, there is the possibility of walking all the way to granja de moreuela and continue up north to benavente to connect wirh astorga on the camino frances. or possibility of walking to zamora and go west through braganza, chavez, and reconnect the via sanabrea at verin, to ourense, santiago.

please continue to keep us posted.

buen camino.

 

[robventures]

The demise of rural Spain is a lot more complex (and has been going on for a lot longer) than a few roadworks.

 

[sulu]

It's strange, I've only been back a month, but I saw very little construction work. Admittedly I started in Caceres and I walked via Portugal and it was very wet. there were only 2 sites , just before Alcantara and just after Zamora, but they didn't cause a major problem.

The demise of rural Spain is a lot more complex (and has been going on for a lot longer) than a few roadworks

That is true, and not only in Spain.

 

[alansykes]

The demise of rural Spain is a lot more complex (and has been going on for a lot longer) than a few roadworks

True, but it's not helping in some places. I found the saddest place was Requejo, a couple of hours after Puebla de Sanabria. The town had two or three significant hotel/restaurant complexes on the 525. These were entirely deserted as all the traffic is now on the motorway thundering nearby. A depressed-looking elderly lady stopped plucking a chicken to make me a cup of coffee in one of them, otherwise we were alone. I expect they'll have closed down by the next time I go through in a couple of years.

 

[Saint Mike II]

This is really depressing for a new pilgrim starting his first Camino. I will be walking from Zamora to SdC the last two weeks in June. ( I start from merida tomorrow) Still what does not kill will hopefully make you stronger. Cheers to all.

 

[skilsaw]

I do feel I will most likely skip the Sanabres based on jirit's reprts of no lodging.

I walked the VdlP in April/May 2010.
There was adequate lodging on the Sanabres then.
Once you are in Galicia, there is a municipal alberge in every town.

 

[Anniesantiago]

Yes. The issue as I understand it is that in many of those, the beds are being taken by workers?

 

[jirit]

I think the most serious accommodation problem was centred around the stages between Monbuey and Laza.

Once in Galicia and pass Ourense we did not experience any issues due to the AVE construction.

 

[newfydog]

The demise of rural Spain is a lot more complex (and has been going on for a lot longer) than a few roadworks

That is true, and not only in Spain.

We found town after little town in northern France with things closed up. In one town we asked an old lady if there was a cafe. "no, we use to have three, but they all closed"

 

[mmm042]

I've walked the VDLP several times since 2009, most recently Sevilla-Salamanca last fall. There was certainly construction in parts, but I still found it beautiful and very enjoyable. I think those of you about to walk it will have a great time, so don't fret!

Melanie

 

[jirit]

My wife and I are big fans of traveling by train (when we are not walking the camino) but after walking the via de la plata, and witnessing first hand the amount of construction centred around the high speed AVE train lines, I really questioned why Spain was doing this.

Not only does it not make economic sense as article below describes ( see the link below) but along with ripping up beautiful Galician countryside, it will systematically destroy many of the smaller towns and villages that line the old rail way line and by default the via de la plata.

As we travelled back to Madrid from Santiago by train through the remote region of Galicia, we passed by empty villages, laid to waste and saw pockets of hillsides being ripped open, valleys scored with crisscrossing gravel truck roads. It was a sad sight.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-o ... e12605580/

 

[alansykes]

Interesting article.

However, I'm sure it makes some sense to link major cities to the capital by AVE, and I was very impressed by the one from Sevilla to Madrid when i took it a few years ago. The one on the VdlP that really doesn't make sense is the line that you criss-cross between Casar de Cáceres and Grimaldo. This was supposed to get you quickly from Madrid and Lisbon, but the Portuguese decided they couldn't afford to build their bit, so soon the good people of Badajoz (population c150,000) will have a several billion € link to their capital, and the line comes to a shuddering stop at the border.

 

[jirit]

Since my last post I came across more articles that pointed out the fact that train travel on many of existing RERFE rail lines has been falling for years and many lines were losing money, one of the key to why reasons numerous lines in Galicia are being closed down. However the situation on the new AVE speed lines is not any better. Due to the high ticket prices very few Spanish are using these high speed trains too. I suspect most people simply decide to drive since the most Spanish super highways are toll free and a car provides the convenience of being able to stop anywhere you want.

Older non profitable rail lines that were the life line to many communities that line the via de la plata, are being replaced with expensive high speed lines (that stop at only a few major centres), which only a few people use they are expensive and since most choose to drive instead using the toll free super highways.

You can see first hand a slow motion destruction of many of the smaller towns and villages that line the via de la plata. You can see some of this in the south on the way to Merida and Caceres where the super highway A66 has diverted much of the local traffic away from some of towns, and again on the way to Ourense where the super highway and soon to be in operation AVE line are gutting some lf the towns.

There is not a bucket full of EU monies flowing into these regions like you see on the camino Frances route, monies used to restore and beautify the town centres and finance the public albergues.

It is difficult to walk a route like the via de la plata and not be aware of what is going on, and not be sensitive to the feelings of those people that live in these towns. You know full well that a few dozen pilgrims passing by each day, is not going to change the situation. Beautiful as some of the sections were, this is maybe why I found walking this particular route unsettling at times.

 

[Kitsambler]

Patience. At least in France, where the TGV lines have turned the entire country into a suburb of Paris (admittedly an exaggeration), at least in terms of commute times, there is now something of a counter-current flow, as people leave the city for the smaller towns. And look at Germany, where rail connections are excellent, and the population is relatively decentralized.

 

[William Marques]

The move from villages to the cities accelerated by the manic road building program in Spain has be happening for years. What is more worrying is the effect on small towns now bypassed by the super highways, as these decline whole swathes of the country are depopulated.

I have not seen any benefit to the villages of Northern France or Spain from the TGV/AVE construction just bigger tax bills. As newfydog says most of the villages in Northern France cannot support a village store or a cafe and the old rely on a travelling grocers/bread van.

The VdlP will still be there it will just become a harder slog. It will never have the numbers of the CF because walking it in the summer holiday months is unpleasant due the heat in the South so the network of private refugios etc will not grow and as the towns and villages decline it will become like the Northern French section of the Via Francigena. This is my rather pessimistic opinion.

 

[peregrina2000]

I'm just back from the Levante/Sanabres, so I've only seen the Vdlp north of Zamora. Yes, there was construction, and yes, some of it was very jarring. I'm thinking particularly of coming into Campobecerros. There was some construction going on near Lubian, and there were works in progress north of Zamora but they appeared to be halted in mid air. In A Gudina, there was an elaborate sign informing pilgrims that the camino had been re-routed and re-signed in order to skirt the construction. But the hospitalero told us all to just ignore it, that the public roads from A Gudina to Campobecerros, which is where the camino goes, are all still open and that there is no authority to force pilgrims off the roads while they are open. Since the detour added 6 kms to a very long day full of road walking, we all just stuck with the camino. North of Puebla de Sanabria, the off-road camino is closed and pilgrims are put on the side of the national highway for 4 or 5 kms.

I expect that the construction situation is a continually moving target. Construction is scheduled to take another four years, and that may be extended as the crisis continues. The little earth mover we saw right out of Lubian (or was it right before?) didn't interfere with the camino now, but when the big construction gets going I imagine a lot of re-routing will be necessary.

From Ourense north the work is done, so the camino has been permanently re-routed to avoid and cross the roads and tracks, and the absence of truck traffic and obvious construction sites mean that things are much more pleasant. There's no doubt that once the construction is done, things improve immeasurably. So a lot of the ugliest stuff is only temporary. And the constant stream of trucks (such as you now have to deal with on the all-road walk into Ourense) will also disappear.

So, I'd say that till the construction is done, there will be inevitable bits and pieces of ugliness, but for me, even the amount I saw now didn't ruin the overall beauty of the walk.

I agree with the comments about how the superhighways are really killing business on the national highways, but I also think that we should keep in mind that most of us would choose to drive from Santiago to Sevilla on superhighways rather than through village after village. I once drove on national highways from Madrid to Santiago (in 1971) and it took 14 hours.

But back to the topic, I have no regrets about walking from Zamora to Santiago this year and found much more beauty than ugliness. Buen camino, Laurie

 

[Deleted member 3000]

I for one fully expect the Spanish government to change its decisions on highways and trains because hundreds of pilgrims spending 30€ a day disagree with them. The national interest should be secondary to the aesthetic and economic opinions of mostly foreigners

:wink:

 

[William Marques]

I for one fully expect the Spanish government to stop building vanity superhighways and high speed train networks because they have no money and most of the projects are uneconomic.
:wink:

 

[LTfit]

Totally agree with you Falcon :wink: .

Thanks for sharing your experience Laurie. Do you have any particular tips for us leaving from Zamora in July?

 

[peregrina2000]

I have kept lots of notes and as soon as I have some time, I will post comments on both the Levante and the Sanabres (certainly before you start from Zamora, LTfit). I think the info on the Sanabres will be outdated quickly because as some things finish up and other things get started the points of conflict with the Vdlp change as well, but you'll get an idea where the construction is likely to interfere with the Camino. Buen camino, Laurie

 

[Saint Mike II]

On the southern end of the VLDP there is more AVE construction. We had a two-three km detour on the last 5 km into Alconetar and there were more diversion on the following sections. But as has been reported these diversions are very much a moveable feast. You just have to keep your eyes open for the yellow arrows and if your Spanish is better ask for assistance.

 

[peregrina2000]

Do you know what train line this is? Is Alconetar near Alcuescar and Aljucen?

 

[alansykes]

I came upon some serious works near the embalse of Alcántara, which I imagine is even worse now, and will presumably affect large chunks of the stretch between Carcaboso and Cácares. It's the new AVE line that was supposed to link Madrid with Lisbon, but the Portuguese decided they were too broke to do their bit, while the Spanish carried on, so several billion €s are being spent on a brand new shiny railway line that will get the good people of Badajoz to Madrid a bit quicker, and the line stops dead at the border.

 

[robventures]

The rail works in the southern VdlP around Alcantara (mentioned in the last few posts) are a complete non-issue -- just a couple of detours, both less than a kilometre long and only a hundred meters or so longer than the route you would have followed a few years ago.

Honestly, you'll spend more time wondering what that "Rio Tajo" station is doing there than being inconvenienced by detours.

 

[LTfit]

I got back last Sunday from the VdlP/Sanabrés (started in Zamora) and am pleased to say that I disagree with Jirit. Actually I am quite glad that I read this thread before leaving as I was expecting much worse. Yes there is some construction - expecially into Campobecerros - but the rest of the Camino is beautiful and oh so different from the stretch Sevilla-Zamora (which by the way I also loved).

In the A Gudiña albergue you are given a map of an alternative route to follow to Campobecerros (first part via the Verin route which adds on about 3 km to an already 34.7 km stage) but the hospitalera and café owners in town all said that it was possible to follow the original Camino which we did. Apparently there is quite some truck traffic during the initial km along the road. As we left at 6 a.m. we did not run into any traffic and by the time it was light we were already off road.

There were absolutely no accomodation problems but we did not stop in Campobecerros ( 20 km from A Gudiña). We did chat with the café owner of the first bar in town and she said that although the municipal was already closed for 1 year, there was another albergue available. She was also thinking of starting up an albergue herself. I personally would NOT want to sleep there due to all the dust and dirt in the air. You actually see the dust cloud km before you reach the town.

There are 2 detours: one during the stage Mombuey-Puebla de Sanabria which can't be avoided (we tried and had to backtrack) and the other going from Puebla de Sanabria to Lubián (a mojón is covered up). We chose to ignore the detour and cross a contruction area which kept us on dirt tracks. It was Saturday and no one was around and the Camino was easy to follow. Fellow peregrinos didn't and had to walk for km on asphalt.

As Laurie mentioned above, the situation is fluid and may change by the time others walk but I just wanted to stress that it is still lovely and worth walking. I fell in love with the dry, arid landscape of Andalucia and Extremadura but the green, rolling hills and mountains of the Sanabrés are also special. And it's quiet! There were only 6 of us and the occasional cyclists from Zamora to Santiago.

 

[peregrina2000]

Hi, LTfit,
Thanks for the updates. I think that the "detour" from A Gudina is never really going to be anything more than an attempt to re-route pilgrims off the road because of all the truck traffic, but the road itself isn't going to be torn up for the railroad.

That detour you mention between Puebla de Sanabria and Lubian -- was it right before Lubian, after Aciberos? We did cross some cleared ground right around there and I wasn't sure what was going to happen. I surely hope the tracks themselves are not going to go through there because the stretch from Aciberos to Lubian has to be one of the most beautiful on the entire route!

I guess I'm not surprised your numbers were so low. We had a few more in mid June but never the crushes that we were fearing. I remember when we got to Zamora and "merged" with the Vdlp, we were so afraid there would be masses of people, but we were wrong.

Buen camino, Laurie

 

[LTfit]

Sorry Laurie but I can not pinpoint the exact location. I thought that I took a picture (as I did of the first desvío) but couldn't find it. I just mentioned it in my journal for that day.

As 2 of us were the first to get up and go in the morning at about 6 a.m. we NEVER had anyone in front or in back of us (at least within vision) - pretty amazing! It wasn't until our walk from Santiago-Muxía-Finisterre that our paths crossed with other pilgrims and even then there weren't many although the albergues were full by the afternoon.

The stretch from Sevilla to Zamora was even more solitary. I hooked up with an Italian in Guillena and we ended up walking together for 3 weeks. Often we were the only ones in the albergue but then again who is crazy enough to walk this stretch in July!

Starting to think about the next Camino? I am contemplating a combo of the Salvador and the Primitivo or a part of the Voie d'Arles with the Aragonés. It all depends on how much time I can take off and whether or not I volunteer again next year.