Walking the Via de la Plata in reverse?

[Stringbean]

Hello to all.........

How feasible is it to walk the Via de la Plata in the reverse direction...? In other words, to start in Santiago and go to Seville....? Would the way marking work going in that direction...? I am asking this because I have to walk in late autumn.....I am wondering if walking south away from Galicia might be a better idea than walking north from Seville into deepening winter.... Is this doable, or not a good idea....?

Many thanks for your input and advice.
SB

 

[MileHighPair]

We met one man (and his dog "Pan") who was walking it 'backwards' in the spring of 2016. This route is not marked as well as the Camino Frances, and I feel the way marking would NOT work very well going backwards. Because of this, I would think a GPS track or a similar technology would be required for this to work. There are several GPS tracks available on Wikiloc website. The Sanabres section would be the most tricky, as once you reach Zamora, it would be mostly straight south.

I actually think this is a great idea because the weather generally stays very warm into the early winter in Seville. I will only add that anyone planning to walk either direction on the Via de la Plata needs to be a strong walker, who is comfortable walking alone and ready to survive with very few support resources.

 

[bsewall]

Doable? Yes. Good idea? That's debatable. I walked the VdlP for the second time last year and still on occasion found myself hopelessly lost. There are many places on the route where the markers are few and far between. Unlike the Camino Frances, I saw no flechas to help pilgrims walking in the reverse direction. Your proposal would be a significant challenge.

 

[LesBrass]

I met a chap who was biking the VdlP in reverse and he didn't feel it was a big problem. I would say it is doable but not always easy... perhaps if you had good GPS that you could use it would help? We got lost a couple of times and used a phone app and GPS to get us back in track... so this would work? Certainly when I reached Santiago I was tempted to turn around and retrace my steps

 

[Davey Boyd]

Last December whilst walking backwards on the Camino Frances I bumped into a strange French couple. One was a youth about 17 years old walking with his carer/guard. The lad was a young offender who had been locked up for violence (football related). He was a nice lad, enjoying the camino experience. They had to sign in with the local Spanish police every day, in fact in one albergue (Viana) the Police were acting as hospitaleras. A few days later I met an identical pair, another French carer and a young offender in an albergue in Puenta la Reina, he also had to sign in daily with the police (this young lad wasn't as stable as the previous one and caused havoc in the albergue)! Both groups were walking from SJPdP to Santiago then to Seville backwards down the Sanabres/VDLP, in winter including over xmas and new year. Apparently, if they completed this marathon camino they could be eligible for release back into the community. Interestingly both groups had no guide books, only a printed list of albergues (which I looked at and were very out of date), I gave the first group a guide book to the VDLP as a present.

I know this is no help to the OP, but I thought it would be interesting, the tradition of prisoners walking the camino being a very old one.
So it is certainly do-able!

Davey

 

[jsalt]

I also walked parallel with a French social worker and her ward on the Norte in Nov. After a couple of days in Santiago the pair then headed off down the Via de la Plata in reverse. They had to stay on the caminos for 4 months and were on a very strict daily budget. The French woman said this was the fourth time she was “rehabilitating” a problem teenager. So maybe the French have a guide book for walking the Via de la Plata backwards!
Jill

 

[mspath]

For more information re such rehabilitative programs for juveniles during the past on the camino see this earlier Forum thread.
https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/juvenile-penitent-pilgrims.1043/

For the current French approach see http://assoseuil.org/

 

[murraydv]

Hello to all.........

How feasible is it to walk the Via de la Plata in the reverse direction...? In other words, to start in Santiago and go to Seville....? Would the way marking work going in that direction...? I am asking this because I have to walk in late autumn.....I am wondering if walking south away from Galicia might be a better idea than walking north from Seville into deepening winter.... Is this doable, or not a good idea....?

Many thanks for your input and advice.
SB

I think that my comments would echo what others have said. Some of the markings are not always on the ground, but on poles etc. Unless you are looking behind you frequently, you will miss some for sure. Also, there are many V junctions on the Via de la Plata. If you come to a V junction in reverse, you will never know whether to take the left V or the right V. You would have to choose one and hope that you see a marker soon. And, if not, you would have to go back to the V junction and take the other route. Great idea to walk in reverse, especially with the weather, but it would be a difficult challenge and you might be too focused on not getting lost instead of enjoying the Camino.
In terms of GPS, I would recommend a Garmin Dakota 20. However, you would really need a Via de la Plata Map. Because a general map would not necessarily take you exactly on the Via de la Plata track. It would simply get you from A to B.
Buen Camino
Dave