Upcoming Camino - starting on Vadiniense

[fenix]

Hello all,

In 6-7 weeks I will embark on my 6th Camino since 2000, my 1st since 2018. Every Camino for me is a different route.

I am just starting to piece together the following route:

Bilbao (flying into Bilbao, might start walking from there?) > Vadiniense/Lebaniego > San Salvador > Primitivo > Finisterre/Muxia

I would love some info/advice from anyone experienced with the Vadiniense/Lebaniego routes especially. I'm researching lots of sources of course, and reading up in this forum, but any personal guidance is always the best place to start!

A few random Vadiniense/Lebaniego questions:

1. These are technically different routes, right? But they run end-to-end, so you don't need a "joining" route or jump? Am I understanding that correctly?
2. Best, most up-to-date, English-language guide(s)
3. Links to any good, post-2020, blogs on this route?
4. Post-2020 realities on this route
5. I prefer 18-25max km stages. Is this reasonable on this route with regard to services/accommodations? I'm fine with a mix of albergues & other options.
6. How is mid to late May for safely taking this route - going over the Picos, snow, ice?
7. Any other recommendations, detours, don't misses?

Thanks in advance! It's always exciting to start planning a new camino and re-engage with other peregrinos!

 

[BombayBill]

I too am researching these routes.
Here is an interesting site https://www.caminolebaniego.com/caminos/camino-lebaniego

My interest was sparked by YouTube video of a priest leading a group of men from California on the Norte. They detoured to the Lebaniego which looked spectacular.

The video was called Footprints. The vid is somewhat misleading about where they walked but I believe part of it shows the gorge on the Lebaniego.

I just received the brand new Cicerone guide for the Norte and it has an up to date sort description of the route. Wikiloc also has some recent tracks. https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/camino-lebaniego-27372969 (Camino Lebaniego.)

 

[dick bird]

We plan to do this walk later this year. The Lebaniego goes to the monastery of Santo Toribio, just outside Pótes. It is a pilgrim route but not to Santiago so the arrows are red, not yellow. The Vadiniense starts at Santo Toribio and links up with the Francés at Mansilla de las Mulas, near Léon. The arrows are yellow. Gronze seems to be the best source of info but is in Spanish, however, there lots of threads and links on this forum. May should be a good time for weather - check average temperatures for Pótes. This is the town where the two caminos are linked. The stages seem to be around the 20-25 km mark. The donativo in San Vicente de Barquera at the start of the Lebaniego will probably have good up to date info. They are said to be very beautiful and worth doing, not many pilgrims and most of those Spanish. Buen camino.

 

[peregrino_tom]

A few random Vadiniense/Lebaniego questions:

1. These are technically different routes, right? But they run end-to-end, so you don't need a "joining" route or jump? Am I understanding that correctly? Correct
2. Best, most up-to-date, English-language guide(s). Just use Gronze. If you need to see it in English then view it via the Chrome browser
3. Links to any good, post-2020, blogs on this route? There are a couple in the Vadiniense pages. I think Anamya did one. And look at Laurie @peregrina2000 's links at the bottom of her posts - that's going back about 10 years and she probably moans a lot about how much tarmac there is, but otherwise superb of course.. (she might provide a direct link as I can't see an index on her site)
4. Post-2020 realities on this route - good question! That first night on the Leb is worth researching carefully. Gronze is showing no albergues open for the first 40km and few other options. Interesting to see that the preferred route is no longer along the river, but further west to incorporate Cabanzon. The river path is also a tourist trail so should still be a viable option (unless there is flooding).
5. I prefer 18-25max km stages. Is this reasonable on this route with regard to services/accommodations? I'm fine with a mix of albergues & other options. You won't get that all the time. Worth going through your stages on Gronze.
6. How is mid to late May for safely taking this route - going over the Picos, snow, ice? You can never quite tell what the weather is going to do at any time of year in the mountains. But there's negligible possibility of there being sufficiently heavy snow to prevent you walking here at that time. The route from Potes to Fuente De has decent road alternatives along the whole way. The path up to 1794m Horcada marking point in the mountains is a track for 4x4 vehicles. And once you get over the top (pic attached from 11 June) you have only about a km to walk along a wide decent path before you reach the mountain road going down the other side.
7. Any other recommendations, detours, don't misses? On the Lebaniego, most people seem to take a shortcut from Lebena running near the road on to Potes. I've not come across anyone else in the forum who took the official route up to Cabanes and stayed there. It caused some excitement in the village having someone come up and stay in their new albergue and it took quite a long time to source the key. And the guy running the young people's albergue personally went off to find an evening meal for me (as there's no shop in the village). For my stamp I had to wait until the Mayor came by at 8pm on his tractor on his way back from the fields.. otherwise I wrote most of my recommendations in posts back in 2017.

PS walking from Bilbao would be epic. GO for it!

 

[peregrina2000]

On the Lebaniego, most people seem to take a shortcut from Lebena running near the road on to Potes.

Unless the routing ”near the road” has changed, I would strongly advise against walking. It was hair-raising, right up there with the two or three most ridiculously dangerous stretches I have walked on caminos. The road is narrow, through a gorge, there is/was a ton of truck traffic.

and she probably moans a lot about how much tarmac there is, but otherwise superb of course..

Yes, you know me, Tom! There is a lot of tarmac/asphalt, really a lot, at least there was when I walked. But the beautiful exceptions were the stretches after the monastery and up to the pass at the Senda da Remoña.

I know that there was a lot of chatter about re-routing the Vadiniense to get it off the side of the road, but I don’t know if that happened. Particularly on the later stages into Gradefes and onward to Mansilla. I would be really interested to hear updates, because I think that 80% of the Vadiniense was asphalt when I walked it. Usually not on busy roads, but roads nonetheless.

I remember one very pleasant riverside path somewhere after Riaño and before Crémenes, and I think I remember coming upon an old abandoned fishing hut that had been used by Francisco Franco when he was dictator.

When I walked the Vadiniense, the coal industry in Spain was heaving its last gasp. The abandoned coal mine outside Cistierna was stark evidence. Hulking abandoned machinery and buildings everywhere. Cistierna itself is a mining town that has never recovered, like so many others in this part of Spain. If you walk the Salvador, Olvidado, or Vadiniense you will see it clearly. But I have to say that in spite of its declining economic vitality, Cistierna always has struck me as a town with a positive ambiente and friendliness to pilgrims.

I have stayed in the albergue in Cistierna, but my go-to place here is the Hotel Moderno. Its restaurant has a delicious menú del día and the staff is so friendly. When I checked in in 2019, and told the woman at the desk I had been here before and wouldn’t miss the meal, she looked at me and said — oh yes I remember you, I took a tick out of your back the last time you were here!

Sorry for the walk down memory lane. These are the little snippets that pile up inside and make for an overwhelming nostalgia to get back on the camino!

 

[peregrino_tom]

Sorry for the walk down memory lane. These are the little snippets that pile up inside and make for an overwhelming nostalgia to get back on the camino!

And you're not the only one