peterott
New Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- 2025
Hello, and presumably a strange sounding question at first:
I want to do a 400km roundtrip around Santander. After a small piece of the Camino del Norte, it continues with the Camino Lebaniego and half of the Ruta Vadiniense, when I will reach the Camino Olvdidado at Cistierena.
Now, I want to hike "back" on the Olvidado from Cistierna until Aguilar de Campoo (and then going back to Santander over the Calzada de los Blendios/Camino Besaya). Means: not in the direction of Santiago de Compostela on the Olvidado but in the other direction back towards Bilbao.
=> The question is: how good are the Camino signs on the Olvidado when travelling in the "wrong" direction?
Background of the question: Hiking in Germany on marked trails means mostly that signs are visible in both directions, especially when narrow paths are crossing, it's easy to spot which side-path to take in both directions. Not very common that one hiking sign is clearly visible from the path that shows both hiking directions (probably even with a dual-ended arrow below the sign). Is it the same for the Camino Olvidado or caminos in general? Or is the "going back from Santiago dC" less marked? Or are nearly all markings clearly seen from the path showing both directions?
And I also learned from @David Tallan that "there was a bit of discussion here a while ago when some hikers on the Camino Mozarabe who were walking north to south on that route (away from Santiago) had it made clear to them that the association albergues were not welcoming them, even with their credencials, as they weren't walking either to Santiago nor on their return from Santiago".
Missing a sign is always a pain as it requires more km to walk in worst case and that can happen even on nicely marked paths.
I want to get prepared with my question how good I need to have my eagle-eyes and concentration working and how often I need to "turn around" and check for signs showing the path in the "correct direction".
I want to do a 400km roundtrip around Santander. After a small piece of the Camino del Norte, it continues with the Camino Lebaniego and half of the Ruta Vadiniense, when I will reach the Camino Olvdidado at Cistierena.
Now, I want to hike "back" on the Olvidado from Cistierna until Aguilar de Campoo (and then going back to Santander over the Calzada de los Blendios/Camino Besaya). Means: not in the direction of Santiago de Compostela on the Olvidado but in the other direction back towards Bilbao.
=> The question is: how good are the Camino signs on the Olvidado when travelling in the "wrong" direction?
Background of the question: Hiking in Germany on marked trails means mostly that signs are visible in both directions, especially when narrow paths are crossing, it's easy to spot which side-path to take in both directions. Not very common that one hiking sign is clearly visible from the path that shows both hiking directions (probably even with a dual-ended arrow below the sign). Is it the same for the Camino Olvidado or caminos in general? Or is the "going back from Santiago dC" less marked? Or are nearly all markings clearly seen from the path showing both directions?
And I also learned from @David Tallan that "there was a bit of discussion here a while ago when some hikers on the Camino Mozarabe who were walking north to south on that route (away from Santiago) had it made clear to them that the association albergues were not welcoming them, even with their credencials, as they weren't walking either to Santiago nor on their return from Santiago".
Missing a sign is always a pain as it requires more km to walk in worst case and that can happen even on nicely marked paths.
I want to get prepared with my question how good I need to have my eagle-eyes and concentration working and how often I need to "turn around" and check for signs showing the path in the "correct direction".