Waymarking on Salvador - In both directions?

[Shades of Narnia]

Is San Salvador trail well marked in both directions; North-South and South-North?

 

[Flog]

It's generally walked South to North and waymarking is mostly good. As with any camino path, walking the route in reverse is never as simple, arrows are easily missed and overlooked.

An offline app such as maps.me with the caminos overlaid would be a big help.. you can download all the camino paths into it.

 

[henrythedog]

Is San Salvador trail well marked in both directions; North-South and South-North?

My only experience was four years ago when I had three days spare and walked out to Poladura de la Tercia and back to Leon. And I’d say ‘no’

 

[rojasa]

I wondered about walking north to south too. Last fall, south-to-north, I found it sufficiently marked except for a section of the route just past Arbas and Pajares. I got turned around in one of the cow-patty-storage fields--oops, I mean, the beautiful meadow--past the Bar Casamiro. Couldn't find markings to save my life, until a small stone with a faint splash of yellow paint materialized. Might've been facing the north-to-south direction...

The only guides I know direct pilgrims south-to-north. Wise Pilgrim was my go-to app. This guide, written by "Ender," the man primarily responsible for trail marking San Salvador, and translated by @peregrina2000, was my best friend on the walk. (I took photos of pages to study in the evenings). https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mm...AJ-06IL-5pLqDKtQ9BOOOsQwVe5sjSuk05r8FqPylDS28
I suppose you could study these in reverse, carefully.

From Ender about that section (south-to-north): "This is a steep descent. It goes through a meadow where the livestock have marked out various trails in different directions. We will go straight down as much as possible, and if there is good visibility we will have a view of the national highway, which we will have to cross at the bottom of this descent." Yes, indeed, the livestock marked this area well!

Camino San Salvador is an amazing, unforgettable journey. I hope you can walk it, in any direction!

 

[dick bird]

From memory (I walked south to north in 2018) it is only marked for Léon to Oviedo and the waymarks are pretty good, but not the other way round, although there is no particular reason why this should be the case. If you are planning to start in Oviedo and head south, my advice is to use GPS. It is a very beautiful camino, by the way. Buen camino.

 

[jungleboy]

From memory (I walked south to north in 2018) it is only marked for Léon to Oviedo and the waymarks are pretty good, but not the other way round, although there is no particular reason why this should be the case.

The reason is that the whole point of the Salvador as a historical camino is as a diversion from the Francés to visit Oviedo.

 

[peregrina2000]

Ender has just made a list on his wikiloc profile of all Salvador GPS tracks. You can now be sure you have the most up to date tracks by searching for username “enderjace” in wikiloc, and then clicking on “lists” on his profile page. You will see tracks grouped for Salvador, Olvidado, and Allerano (still in development).

enderjace's trails and waypoints | Wikiloc

Check enderjace's trails, Waypoints, and Photos, download enderjace's GPS tracks and follow the itinerary of the routes on a map.

www.wikiloc.com

With good GPS tracks, walking “backwards” becomes pretty much a non-issue.

 

[El Cascayal]

Is San Salvador trail well marked in both directions; North-South and South-North?

Just this past week on January 28th a group from Pola de Lena is planning to walk from La Catedral de Oviedo to La Catedral de Leon in 5 stages on consecutive single weekend days. The article appeared in the newspaper La Nueva España that I was unable to open.

“​

Lena organiza un recorrido en cinco etapas hasta León para promocionar el Camino del Salvador​

La iniciativa busca publicitar la ruta jacobea "como un recurso turístico importante del concejo"​

Last fall, south-to-north, I found it sufficiently marked except for a section of the route just past Arbas and Pajares.

I also somehow missed an arrow and wound up missing La Colegiata de Arbas right before Puerto Pajares. The arrow is apparently on a rock which was covered with grass to the immediate right downhill right after this very noticeable structure see picture. We proceeded through the cow patty path that took us to the nacional with no appreciable opening and had to climb over a barrier and barbed wire to get to Puerto Pajares. Just figured out what went wrong on this unintentional detour a couple of days ago. Otherwise the Salvador is incredibly well marked and spectacularly beautiful. Now I definitely need to go again. South to North.

​

 

[peregrina2000]

I also somehow missed an arrow and wound up missing La Colegiata de Arbas right before Puerto Pajares.

You would have loved it — I have always found that church open, and on my last Salvador, in 2021, there were real live candles to light, not those electric thing-ys. I was alone and it was a perfect place for reflection.

It’s good to have a reason to go back to the Salvador, as if one were needed!

 

[El Cascayal]

You would have loved it — I have always found that church open, and on my last Salvador, in 2021, there were real live candles to light, not those electric thing-ys. I was alone and it was a perfect place for reflection.

It’s good to have a reason to go back to the Salvador, as if one were needed!

View attachment 140536View attachment 140537View attachment 140538

Beautiful pictures. Striking that so many of these Virgen Maria carrying El Niño Jesus are front and central located behind the main altar. IE in Oseira.

 

[Stripey Socks]

Thanks for this thread. I head out on this path in May/June (connecting the Madrid to the Primitivo) and now I will be extra observant. Mel

 

[jungleboy]

I also somehow missed an arrow and wound up missing La Colegiata de Arbas right before Puerto Pajares. The arrow is apparently on a rock which was covered with grass to the immediate right downhill right after this very noticeable structure see picture. We proceeded through the cow patty path that took us to the nacional with no appreciable opening and had to climb over a barrier and barbed wire to get to Puerto Pajares. Just figured out what went wrong on this unintentional detour a couple of days ago.

I did exactly the same thing.