harrycerino
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- Time of past OR future Camino
- May 2013
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my wife and I did the Northern route to Oviedo and from Oviedo to Santiago on the Primitivo Sept/Oct 2014 and found the waymarking ok .Hello Everybody: My wife and I are planning El Norte for June 2015 and are wondering about the waymarking along the route. We did the Frances from SJPP to Santiago in 2014 and, like most, navigated easily without paying much attention. I’m aware El Norte signage is considerably more sparse although I suspect it’s been improved recently over the cautions in the guide books. I have the 3 CoSJ guides, the Cicerone 2012 Whitson & Perazzoli book, and a Basque “Northern Caminos” guide I was given in San Sebastian last year. We are thinking of just taking the Cicerone and letting the “Force” guide us along the way. Do you Norte veterans think that’s sufficient? I guess most Medieval pilgrims traveled without GPS devices, right?
As a follow up, I feel that when someone says that way marking or even degree of difficulty was easy, it is important to ask them more questions, such as "were you traveling in a group so that you had an extra set of eyes, did you have gps or mapping support, was this your second time around, are you naturally directionally gifted, etc, etc. I have had guidance that a route was easy only to find that they bused half of it and had their pack sent ahead. Not criticizing anyone who does that, but it can mislead someone who was trying to get an accurate assessment.
Thornily, I have talked with several who have done the way from Mont St Michel who thought that it was quite easy, so again, it depends on a lot of factors. For me, one day that stands out that I would have classified as really "difficult " was the first day on the "Alpinist" route of the del Norte. After several kilometers, I decided to take an alternative route, which was not bad for much of the route, however, I got lost 3 times, finding the way marking lacking, never passed through a town or found a place for water, which was probably due to my lack of research, so I found myself having no food for the 11 hour trek and ran out of water with four hours to go and became on the verge of dehydration. The last 2 1/2 hours were the toughest as the trail was very narrow on the crest of the mountain and if you were not alert, there were steep drop offs to the valley on the left and to the sea on the right. This did not bode well for someone who is someone afraid of heights. Realizing the difficulty in several places a cable was tacked to rocks to hold on to help with anyone having difficulty. Unfortunately, I only came across a few pilgrims and mostly day packers with tiny packs or no packs at all. That also created some anxiety. Upon arriving at my destination, I collapsed, almost ready to give up on my camino after the first day. To me that was a difficult day and route. I talked with several others who had taken different routes, passed through towns, found water and had no problems. I have walked several caminos in France, Spain and Portugal and have never before had quite that experience. I might mention that I was not in as good a shape as I have been on previous caminos, so that was probably at least a small factor. Sorry for the rambling, but the point that I am trying to make is that there are many factors that go into how difficult or easy a given "route" might be. What's difficult for one may be very easy for someone else for any number of different reasons as is the case with the way out of Mont St Michel.
I walked the Norte in June last year. Waymarkings are just as good as the Francis. You only need to be cautious entering/leaving some towns where the signs can be confusing. I also used the Norther camino guidebook by David, mainly for accommodation and route planning. When i walk, relied solely on the waymarkings and sometimes the locals. YES David Whitson's guidebook should be sufficient.Hello Everybody: My wife and I are planning El Norte for June 2015 and are wondering about the waymarking along the route. We did the Frances from SJPP to Santiago in 2014 and, like most, navigated easily without paying much attention. I’m aware El Norte signage is considerably more sparse although I suspect it’s been improved recently over the cautions in the guide books. I have the 3 CoSJ guides, the Cicerone 2012 Whitson & Perazzoli book, and a Basque “Northern Caminos” guide I was given in San Sebastian last year. We are thinking of just taking the Cicerone and letting the “Forcelk” guide us along the way. Do you Norte veterans think that’s sufficient? I guess most Medieval pilgrims traveled without GPS devices, right?
I used the 2013 edition in my walk last summer. Incorporating the elevation profiles into each stage will make this guide even better. It provided only total elevation gain of each stage. Overall, it is an excellent guide. Hope the 2015 edition contain useful additions.I just pre-ordered the newest "The Northern Caminos: The Caminos Norte, Primitivo and Ingles" Publisher Cicerone Press. I think the book comes available in a couple days. While I have not been able to see it yet; I have been happy with some of their other other hiking books.
Hi Thornly, Yes this guide is excellent for staging/accommodation/maps etc. However, I found myself going to other sources for elevation profiles, specially on Norte with constant ups/downs throughout the trail. This guide would be more complete if they can incorporate the elevation profiles into each stage, as most other Camino guides do. IMHO all they have to do is use a format similar to the popular John Brierly's guides. Keep the width but extend the length. Easier said than done right.Hi Raj,
The elevation profiles have been available on Mundicamino website.
There are 32 stages to join the Frances. Each stage has a Line/Outline section as well as towns, accommodation etc
30% of the stages are flat so we just printed this outline section.
It also has distances between each town or peak. This allowed us to shorten some sections when the rain came .
Hi Thornly, Yes this guide is excellent for staging/accommodation/maps etc. However, I found myself going to other sources for elevation profiles, specially on Norte with constant ups/downs throughout the trail. This guide would be more complete if they can incorporate the elevation profiles into each stage, as most other Camino guides do. IMHO all they have to do is use a format similar to the popular John Brierly's guides. Keep the width but extend the length. Easier said than done right.
Hi Thornley, I AGREE that guides like Mundicamino contains all relevant information. My point is about the Cicerone's Nothern Camino guide (2013 edition) MISSING a basic elevation profiles info in an easily readable form. One has to read the entire stage and decipher that info. For example, take a look at this Municamino stage20, it captures the elevation and Albergue info on a simple stage map.Hi Raj,
Not sure if you are correct mate,
example Mundicamino
The Way of the North, stage 2
Under Sections;
1 San Seb to Igueldo * 5km
2 Igueldo to Orios ** 9km
3 Orios to Zarautz *** 6km total 20km
.
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