Temporary closure after Pola de Lena - Aug. 2023

peregrina2000 · Aug 13, 2023

From Ender — When you get to the gasoline station in Villallana after leaving Pola de Lena, do not follow the yellow arrows under the highway. That route is “intransitable“ (impassable). According to peregrinos who have been there recently, the “maleza” (weeds and other growht) are totally overgrown on the camino. Instead, go left and continue towards town. Arrows will reappear (because this is the old official route). When you get to Los Tableros, you will get on the path to Ujo.

But be careful because those kms alongside the highway are very dangerous, especially if you walk on a week day. LOTS of truck traffic, virtually no shoulder.

****A good volunteer opportunity for someone with tools to cut back the growth!

whiteblaze · Aug 13, 2023

peregrina2000 said:
From Ender — When you get to the gasoline station in Villallana after leaving Pola de Lena, do not follow the yellow arrows under the highway. That route is “intransitable“ (impassable). According to peregrinos who have been there recently, the “maleza” (weeds and other growht) are totally overgrown on the camino. Instead, go left and continue towards town. Arrows will reappear (because this is the old official route). When you get to Los Tableros, you will get on the path to Ujo.

But be careful because those kms alongside the highway are very dangerous, especially if you walk on a week day. LOTS of truck traffic, virtually no shoulder.

****A good volunteer opportunity for someone with tools to cut back the growth!

What stage is this blockage located in?

peregrina2000 · Aug 13, 2023

whiteblaze said:
What stage is this blockage located in?

It is right after Pola de Lena. The stage will be up to you and whether you have slept in Pola de Lena or are walking on to Mieres.

whiteblaze · Aug 13, 2023

I will invoke my Blue Blaze rule. I get the sense this is not on the Camino Frances route. So I will stay on the White Blaze (Frances) and hope I get to Santiago successfully.

Elle Bieling · Aug 13, 2023

peregrina2000 said:
From Ender — When you get to the gasoline station in Villallana after leaving Pola de Lena, do not follow the yellow arrows under the highway. That route is “intransitable“ (impassable). According to peregrinos who have been there recently, the “maleza” (weeds and other growht) are totally overgrown on the camino. Instead, go left and continue towards town. Arrows will reappear (because this is the old official route). When you get to Los Tableros, you will get on the path to Ujo.

But be careful because those kms alongside the highway are very dangerous, especially if you walk on a week day. LOTS of truck traffic, virtually no shoulder.

****A good volunteer opportunity for someone with tools to cut back the growth!

Clearly, this makes me wonder if the "new route" is a sustainable one, if there is no well-established path, or municipality that keeps it maintained. I agree that the stretch along the AS-375 is not nice, but it is less than two kilometers, at least. Not all pilgrims will get this forum message, unfortunately.

peregrina2000 · Aug 14, 2023

Elle Bieling said:
Clearly, this makes me wonder if the "new route" is a sustainable one,

Totally agree. I bet it’s the second half of the path where there is a sharp turn at the start of the descent. I had bushwhacked that out a couple of years ago, but it must be that the Salvador traffic is not enough to keep the growth back. But I did come within a hairsbreadth of being squashed by a truck on that road into Ujo so I really don’t think that’s a good alternative. At least for those who have to walk it on a weekday. Absolutely no shoulder and a very narrow road with lots of trucks.

peregrina2000 · Aug 14, 2023

whiteblaze said:
I will invoke my Blue Blaze rule. I get the sense this is not on the Camino Frances route. So I will stay on the White Blaze (Frances) and hope I get to Santiago successfully.

Hi, @whiteblaze, You can tell which camino we are talking about in any post by looking at the sub-forum in which it was posted. That information runs along the top of the thread when you open it. Right above the thread title. This one says: Forums>Camino Routes > Routes in Spain> Camino del Salvador.

Once you get the hang of it, it’s easy to follow.

The Salvador, just fyi, goes from León to Oviedo and is a marvelous route. 120 km. Very well marked in general, so this is an outlier issue.

BTW, I know several forum members walked the Salvador earlier in the summer. Did you go under the tunnel at the gas station, and if so, what was the trail condition?

David Tallan · Aug 14, 2023

I remember that part. There was one part where I almost got lost and had to backtrack when what I thought was the path dead ended in the bush but I found a couple of familiar pilgrims and eventually we found our way through it.

peregrina2000 · Aug 14, 2023

David Tallan said:
I remember that part. There was one part where I almost got lost and had to backtrack when what I thought was the path dead ended in the bush but I found a couple of familiar pilgrims and eventually we found our way through it.

Were you using GPS?

Annette london · Aug 14, 2023

peregrina2000 said:
From Ender — When you get to the gasoline station in Villallana after leaving Pola de Lena, do not follow the yellow arrows under the highway. That route is “intransitable“ (impassable). According to peregrinos who have been there recently, the “maleza” (weeds and other growht) are totally overgrown on the camino. Instead, go left and continue towards town. Arrows will reappear (because this is the old official route). When you get to Los Tableros, you will get on the path to Ujo.

But be careful because those kms alongside the highway are very dangerous, especially if you walk on a week day. LOTS of truck traffic, virtually no shoulder.

****A good volunteer opportunity for someone with tools to cut back the growth!

Seeing this post brought back a few memories, or should I say nightmares!
We thought afterwards that we must have taken the wrong way which was not unusual for us.
I had to look up the diary and wrote how dreadful it was, with traffic flying by.
Not only that but the foliage from the bushes and trees jutted halfway out on the road making things worse
we were so glad to get to the end of it
Now, just thinking of that song “Keep right on to the end of the road”1926, a bit before our time!

peregrina2000 · Aug 14, 2023

Annette london said:
Seeing this post brought back a few memories, or should I say nightmares!
We thought afterwards that we must have taken the wrong way which was not unusual for us.
I had to look up the diary and wrote how dreadful it was, with traffic flying by.
Not only that but the foliage from the bushes and trees jutted halfway out on the road making things worse

This is exactly why Ender and Co. have worked so hard to find another alternative. But it wasn’t easy, and it looks like it is not a path that gets enough traffic for the pilgrims to keep the growth at bay themselves just by walking through.

Annette london · Aug 14, 2023

peregrina2000 said:
This is exactly why Ender and Co. have worked so hard to find another alternative. But it wasn’t easy, and it looks like it is not a path that gets enough traffic for the pilgrims to keep the growth at bay themselves just by walking through.

Which is A shame as Ender has put so much work into this Camino
An amazing man really
We could not have walked this route without his guide( which can be downloaded from the forum) and the San Salvador has surely got to be one of the most beautiful Caminos of all

Pathfinder075 · Aug 14, 2023

Needs spraying with roundup. Unfortunately being that i live in the UK, I can't rock up with my arb gear and cut a swathe through it. If I lived closer I would glady invoke Mr Stihl and make a path.

Maybe the armory in Santander will sell me a machete for when I get on the Salvador. The video Nadine did the other year suggested great parts of it were very over grown.

David Tallan · Aug 14, 2023

peregrina2000 said:
Were you using GPS?

Yep. But the tracks I had weren't terribly reliable in this section. I think the software that had created them wasn't sampling that often.

Edited to add: I wasn't using the Wikiloc tracks. Next time!

Jan Jones · Aug 15, 2023

Firstly, thanks peregrina2000 to both you and Ender for all the work on the guide it made my walk so much easier than it might have been.
Second, I walked in early May and took this alternative path, it was pretty overgrown at the time but not impassable and as the slow Pilgrim I was able to follow the squished down grass from those ahead. I truly appreciate attempts to keep us off that main road - it’s a horror. The Wikiloc trails were invaluable.

dick bird · Aug 15, 2023

peregrina2000 said:
****A good volunteer opportunity for someone with tools to cut back the growth!

Coincidentally, a fellow pilgrim has just asked me if I knew of any volunteer organisations that worked to maintain the camino. He was concerned about the path down from Foncebadon which gets a lot more traffic than the Salvador. The only one I know of is Ditch Pigs, and I think they only work in certain areas. Local associations also do a lot of work but that depends on having an active local group. I might put up a thread about this. The Amigos might also be able to help. In the meantime, can anyone who has any ideas either post on this thread or PM me?

Thanks.

Annette london · Aug 24, 2023

Annette london said:
Which is A shame as Ender has put so much work into this Camino
An amazing man really
We could not have walked this route without his guide( which can be downloaded from the forum) and the San Salvador has surely got to be one of the most beautiful Caminos of all

And to quote myself, how could I forget all the work that Peragrina2000 put in to the translation of Enders guide
It wouldn’t have been much use to us without the translation I’m afraid

I can almost feel another download coming on!
Many thanks to all involved

TrailRunner · Sep 29, 2023

Hi, just to say I completed the San Salvador today (it was wonderful!) and took this variant after Pola de Lena. Ie, I turned right at the petrol station. It was passable, although those steep, slippery slopes remain

fb1 · Wednesday at 6:35 PM

After reading multiple reports of large numbers along camino Frances in recent days, wondering what to expect on Salvador as I’m planning to start on Friday. What is typical daily pilgrim volume...

Temporary closure after Pola de Lena - Aug. 2023

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