The three rules of the Geira

[David Tallan]

I thought I would share for discussion the three rules that José Manuel sent me:

To carry out the CGA in complete safety and comfort, you must comply with 3 rules: 1. Having the track downloaded and knowing how to use it on an app like Wikiloc; 2. Have all your overnight stays booked; 3. Know that you must always take a light meal with you (2 sandwiches, 1 piece of fruit, etc.) for your mid-stage lunch. Does it meet these 3 fundamental requirements?

Regarding rule 2, I asked of all accommodation needed to be booked before setting out or if a day or two in advance was sufficient. He responded:
"As I wrote above, have all, ALL, accommodations book prior to the start. Fundamental! Mandatory! "

 

[Sirage]

I asked of all accommodation needed to be booked before setting out or if a day or two in advance was sufficient. He responded:
"As I wrote above, have all, ALL, accommodations book prior to the start. Fundamental! Mandatory!

I guess we remain confused .
It is necessary to let the accomodation know you are coming but how long is sufficient notice? This applies to all Caminos with few pilgrims.

Re 1. I always have the GPS track for all my Caminos.
Re 3. I don't carry food.

So perhaps no special rules apply to the Geira.

Although it appears there is a sense of caution in the Braga community about pilgrims venturing alone or in small numbers into the "relative wilderness" of the Geira and they can send out an alarm if you don't appear..

 

[peregrina2000]

I think this is a continuation of some of what I would describe as unnecessary hype about this camino. It is no more remote, no more dangerous than many of the caminos walked by many forum members. It reminds me of the notice that the debragaasantiago website posted in 2022, in which they told people not to walk the Geira because of some arrow trickery.

I am sure that this advice is very well-intentioned, but the only rule I agree with is the first one. But I think that is good advice for any of the untraveled caminos. I always carry fruit and nuts but never a meal, and in 2022 I did not make all of my reservations ahead of time. I had been in touch with many of the places just to get a sense of their availability, but I did wind up switching plans a time or two.

Anyone walking this route should approach it like any other untraveled camino with a few sections that I would call remote. Use common sense and you will be fine.

 

[jungleboy]

We usually do No. 1 and No. 3 anyway and also did so on the Geira. As for No. 2, booking all accommodation before starting out, we didn’t do that, just called a day ahead and that worked well at the time. That was in 2021, maybe things have changed and I see that Frank’s place in Codeseda can be booked out, but other than that I’m not sure it would be necessary to reserve all accommodation in advance.

 

[peregrina2000]

I think that maybe the association has a target audience in mind that is different than the actual potential Geira pilgrim. If you are talking with someone who has never walked a camino route, all of these cautions may be reasonable. But my impression is that the only people who walk the Geira are people who already have their Camino mojo well established.

 

[bullingtonce]

I guess we remain confused .
It is necessary to let the accomodation know you are coming but how long is sufficient notice? This applies to all Caminos with few pilgrims.

Re 1. I always have the GPS track for all my Caminos.
Re 3. I don't carry food.

So perhaps no special rules apply to the Geira.

Although it appears there is a sense of caution in the Braga community about pilgrims venturing alone or in small numbers into the "relative wilderness" of the Geira and they can send out an alarm if you don't appear..

Rules are only rules and can be broken all the time, most of them. I recommend not being 'ruled' by rules. Common sense always is a good driving force. In addition, your actual experience, your own experience, on the Camino will inform you as to what rules are valid and to what degree of the rule you will follow. As soon as I see the word 'mandatory,' my inclination is to not subscribe to the rule (understand that some rules, like safety on the highway or moral rules are a different matter). Rather than letting rules rule you, let yourself rule rules. Chuck

 

[Tincatinker]

I'm a Tinker: Rules are an interesting abstraction. I'd have been a very poor Auditor if I thought that they applied in all circumstances

 

[AlanSykes]

Regarding rule 2, I asked of all accommodation needed to be booked before setting out or if a day or two in advance was sufficient. He responded:
"As I wrote above, have all, ALL, accommodations book prior to the start. Fundamental! Mandatory!

Sorry to add to the chorus of people saying "ignore rule 2". I went from Braga to Santiago in November 2022 without ever booking more than 3 hours ahead.

The only two times I booked ahead were when in an unexpected bed race with 18 Brazilians. Aurora in Feás rang the Bar Central in Beariz (~10km ahead) for me to check it wasn't overflowing with Brazilians (it wasn't).

And, a couple of days later, Mari Carmen, of the Café Camiño da Geira in Codeseda, kindly called to see if there were still spare rooms in La Bombilla in A Estrada that afternoon (there were).

Otherwise I just showed up. And as to rule 3: although I always carry an emergency stash of cheese and raisins, I never failed to get a hot meal, often a delicious one (roast kid at the Hotel Miracastro in Castro Laboreiro, yum; smoked paprika pork at the Río Caldo in Lobios, yum yum).

But yes, rule one is Fundamental. Mandatory. (sorry, I share Swift's allergy to exclamation marks - my first editor at the FT said that if my prose couldn't convey exclamation without reinforcement, then it wasn't good enough).

 

[mick53]

I thought I would share for discussion the three rules that José Manuel sent me:

Regarding rule 2, I asked of all accommodation needed to be booked before setting out or if a day or two in advance was sufficient. He responded:
"As I wrote above, have all, ALL, accommodations book prior to the start. Fundamental! Mandatory! "

My wife and I walked the Geira, I did a few posts on our experience, in June 23.

Rule 1. YES, ALWAYS FOR ALMOST ANY Camino.
Rule 2 . We booked a day or two in advance, worked fine
Rule 3. personal choice bur often no places around during the day
New Rule 4 Don't go if you like company! It's a very solitary route, we only saw 2 other walkers and they were on the overlapping CMP Camino.

More dangerous?
Not really if you are an experienced Camino walkers, some of the remoter exposed stretches e.g near the Spain/ Portugese border, could be problematic in seriously bad weather!

Along with the Mozarabe this is my favourite Camino... more like a bushwalk!

 

[VNwalking]

(sorry, I share Swift's allergy to exclamation marks - my first editor at the FT said that if my prose couldn't convey exclamation without reinforcement, then it wasn't good enough).

I'm going to try to take this advice seriously. Thanks.

But as for that list of 'Rules?' I only take on the first on this list. I learned the importance of that on day one of my first day of my first quiet camino. A decent map is essential, and a potential lifesaver.

That said, I always travel with calorie-dense snacks. And enough water.

And if needed for the hospis, I give warning of my intentional arrival. But it's very nice not to be locked down by booking ahead.

 

[Charrito]

To be perfectly honest, this thread is probably unnecessary. I reckon that everyone here has experience of other caminos; this is definitely not a route for first-timers!

I had the pleasure of José Manuel’s company in Caldelas a month or so ago, and – over a few beers, wines and some delicious local cheese! – we talked about this. As I had already walked the Geira three times from Braga and another five or six times from Ribadavia, he was astounded at the amount of information I had about the stages and places to sleep, drink and eat.

Common sense is what you all need to think about. This particular camino is still short of places to spend the night, so it certainly does need a bit of pre-planning. I’ve had to change my plans several times when I tried to book accommodation in places like Cortegada, Pazos de Arenteiro, Codeseda or Rarís. Jessica and Kike (Casa do Conde in Cortegada), Ramiro (in Pazos), Fran (not Frank! in Codeseda) and Jorge (in Casa Mella in Rarís) are very pilgrim-friendly, but they run businesses! This means that they often rent out their places to groups rather than to a random pilgrim, who might just turn up unannounced.

As you will have read from my contributions to the ‘GO FOR IT!’ thread, I provided a lot of practical information for each stage. My recommendation is to follow José Manuel’s advice, and reserve!