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alas! at 84 its really for me a scenario where the tootsies are heard going " OK eyeballs, its fine for you to do the gawping, but down here its us who do the walking! fer the love of whatever can we just agree to get there? Amen" Its different down there on the Plata where I can get cheerfully lost and then convince myself it was a lovely detour@Luka great question but for me none of the above apply. I’ll take any diversion that’ll take me to something worth seeing, drinking or eating. Pace the Pilgrims Office but for me “all roads lead to Santiago” so an un-official, off-piste, route is just part of making my “Way” to the old boy’s bones.
Ignorance (original meaning) is, I think the core of it: if you’ve no knowledge of a thing how can you seek to know it. The aspirants buy their guidebooks, download the Apps, find this forum if they’re lucky, and then what. The every driver, the absolute focus, is get to Santiago (or Fisterra / Muxia for the lucky few). St JB, blessings upon him, does highlight the minor diversions to Eunate and Vilar de Donas but is silent on the “Valley of Silence” and many other possibilities. This forum is one of the best sources of “alternativos” I have ever encountered but most will never excavate its wonderful layers and discover just how much stuff is out there just outside that 1km wide linear city that is the CF.
Meanwhile, what boots should I wear when pre-booking breakfast for less than €# in my bug-proof sleeping arrangement….
But that could be solved with a little preparation, couldn't it? On the detour I walked this week, I didn't walk 34k in one day, but took my shoes off in a village at 21k and walked on the next day.@Luka, I didn't vote. My reason is usually that my feet hurt and I just want to get somewhere so I can take off my shoes and/or have a cold drink sooner.
I am talking scenic detours / avoiding asphalt, so if it doesn't appeal to you then it might be just not scenic enough to you...I didn't vote, but I have done some and ignored others. Sometimes they detour doesn't appeal to me, at other times it a cost/benefit thing. . . how much energy will it cost vs what will I gain.
Actually I walked every day for 56 days on my first Camino and it took 56 more days for my feet to really feel OK again after I got home...I sprained my ankle shortly before Los Arcos and also developed plantar fasciitis and still walked. My feet just hurt and the idea of walking further was just not appealing.But that could be solved with a little preparation, couldn't it? On the detour I walked this week, I didn't walk 34k in one day, but took my shoes off in a village at 21k and walked on the next day.
I am talking scenic detours / avoiding asphalt, so if it doesn't appeal to you then it might be just not scenic enough to you...
So in your opinion it also has to do with the difference between hiking and doing a pilgrimage? Because that is what I think, that hikers and pilgrims want different things. And I find myself somewhere in between hikers and pilgrims, I think...That is actually a relevant point. From the very first Camino I walked, it has never been for scenery. If the purpose for long distance walking/hiking is for nature and scenery, then I head to the mountains and wilderness for backpacking, rather than spend the time and money to travel to Spain or France to walk a camino.
Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy the sights and sounds along the camino routes I have done, and there is wonderful beauty to be found along those routes. I love the architecture, the villages and towns and cities, the cultural things that I am exposed to. And the food
But these are all incidental to my pilgrimages, they are not the focus.
That may explain why I responded as I did. While I will always choose the River Walk option to enter Burgos from Villafranca Montes de Oca, I would not do so if I had to walk an extra 10k. So, in a sense, your observation has some truth to it.
I have always made the distinction between wilderness backpacking vs walking a camino. I have posted many rebuttals against those who attempt to use wilderness backpacking as the 'bar' against which they will review or critique a camino.So in your opinion it also has to do with the difference between hiking and doing a pilgrimage? Because that is what I think, that hikers and pilgrims want different things. And I find myself somewhere in between hikers and pilgrims, I think...
I found most of those are the reasons I did take the "scenic route". On several occasions locals suggested an alternative route ... and I still managed to rejoin the "official route" at the end of each day.Earlier this week I walked a fabulous detour on the Camino del Norte that I totally missed when I was actually walking the Norte. It was 20k more, about 34 instead of 14. But instead of walking on asphalt in rather ugly outskirts, I walked on dirt tracks with panoramic coastal views. The official Camino del Norte has quite a lot of not so scenic asphalt, while many times there are stunning coastal alternatives.
So now I am wondering, why is it that us pilgrims mostly tend to take the shortest way from A to B? Instead of - for example - hikers? When Caminos and GR's (long distance hikes) coincide, you can be pretty sure that the GR takes the scenic route through nature and the Camino takes the shortcut. Even if that means walking along the road. As the journey is the destination, it can't be that we pilgrims are always in a hurry, can it?
So why would this be? Does it have to do with the cultural highlights? The cafe con leche options? Preferring the 'historical' route? Avoiding though up and downs? Being afraid of getting lost? Missing out on the social pilgrim experience? Or is it just a difference between pilgrims and hikers?
In Burgos you can also arrange a tour to the neaderthal site. You alsomight be able to arrange this in Atapuerca orat the visitor'scenter/museum about a kilometer off the camino before the village.This isn't really a "detour" but did you know that the oldest DNA has been found from the remains of an individual living 400,000 years ago . . . and that the cave they were found in lies just about on the Frances route in the Atapurca mountains near Burgos? Also there appears to be an excellent museum in Burgos devoted to various 'finds' in the area and the general subject of pre-history man (and woman!) It's called the Museum of Human Evolution.
I've taken an interest in the subject and plan to spend a couple of day in Burgos when we walk through in late April. There is an excellent book by Rebecca Sykes titled 'Kindred' that I can recommend. It's about Neanderthals and portions of it involve the Iberian Peninsula and also a book titled 'The Prehistory of Iberia' by Maria Berrocal (haven't read but looks interesting).
When we went there in 2011, the caretaker of the key came running down from his house, unlocked the church, and gave us an enthusiastic tour - unfortunately in Gallego. We did understand him to say he was so happy to see us because most pilgrims never come to visit.Simply put.. I get lost easily. Really easily. I went to Vilar de Donas, leaving my lame husband in the café just before the turn, because there was really only one way there and back. (And it was, wait for it, closed). :/
I won't take a detour/side path if I think I'll get lost. I mix up lefts and rights, take forever to read a map, and don't know how to use a compass.
Can you guess that I don't hike recreationally?
You say what I feel!I didn't vote, but I have done some and ignored others. Sometimes they detour doesn't appeal to me, at other times it a cost/benefit thing. . . how much energy will it cost vs what will I gain.
I am really happy that I discovered this Forum! - After thousands of miles I've walked on different ways the last 12 years, without specific fortified background or Google maps and friends!find this forum if they’re lucky,
Well I only read yesterday in a book about camino the scientists took many years of research to conclude there wasn't any battle around Clavijo in the history and all of the rumors were nice and long lived...but only a fairy tale.When the modern Camino Frances trail was established in the late 1970s and early 1980s, many places with historical evidence of pilgrims having visited in the middle ages were bypassed in order to create an A to B path.
From the time the first pilgrims walked to Santiago, the routes were in flux, influenced by the seasons, the weather, political situation at the time, rivers and bridges that were built, and where postal carts and horses could travel safely.
If you read the classic Linda Davidson and David Gitlitz book on the Pilgrimage Road to Santiago you'll find numerous text boxes with information of historical, often Jacobean, sites off the trail by close by.
How many pilgrims visit Clavijo Castle, 20km (12 miles) from Logroño, the place where legend says that on 23 May 884 Santiago Matamoros first appeared in the clouds on his white horse to fight a battle with the Christians against the Moors? This date is part of the liturgy when the Botafumeiro is swung in the cathedral, celebrating the Apparition of the Apostle-Clavijo.
There wasn't one constant path between villages and towns to Santiago and Aimery Picaud made many suggestions for pilgrims to visit churches, monasteries and other monuments in the 12th c Liber Sancti Jacobe, a chapter in the Codex Calxtinus. (Photo of the castle at Clavijo)
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I meant to talk just about my own decisions, not about the decisions of others.It is very difficult to give reasons for NOT doing something - the reasons can be almost infinite. Better to ask to generalize what reasons make us decide to go on a detour. Even so, the answer will be different for every time you face that decision. The reasons could be summed up by how you feel, how much time you have, and how interested you are in whatever the site is. Those apply equally to pilgrims and hikers.
You are making judgements on the worthiness of reasons, when those will be different for every person and every day, and in fact every corner you come around. If it is "all about the journey" why would the urge to move on (i.e. progressing on that journey) not be a "good" reason? Who is to say that a particular view is "worth" more than relief from soreness of old feet? Only the individual can judge that, for that moment.
I would walk the River route if it added 20km. The road via Vilafria is the least enjoyable experience of my life. 19 years later, my feet hurt just thinking about it.While I will always choose the River Walk option to enter Burgos from Villafranca Montes de Oca, I would not do so if I had to walk an extra 10k.
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