- Time of past OR future Camino
- Past: a few. Last: Gudbrandsdalsleden. Next: TBC
I have been hanging back from posting about my recent camino on the Variante Espiritual. Some of you might have guessed that I would do something while my wife and I were staying in Coimbra, but other than it would be along the general line of the Camino Portugués route, I wasn't sure myself what I would do. So this camino emerged, if you like, from the basics of knowing what I needed to carry, how I could manage to find a place to stay, where to eat and how to find a shop and a bar or restaurant in the evening for a meal.
I did have an outline plan of where I wanted to stay, largely because I try and limit myself to around 20 km/day now, and I still haven't fully recovered from my most recent knee surgery, at least not to the point of contemplating walking on another five or more kilometres if I cannot find accommodation. This initial plan did not survive contact with reality, but neither did I expect it to, and adjustments were made to several daily stages to the point where one might not have recognized what I did was an evolution of that initial plan.
I have to admit getting lost finding and staying on the Variante Espiritual route. I know part of the reason for this, but other than not paying sufficient attention at the right moments, I don't have a complete explanation, or at least not one that I wish to share right now. It happened on a day I had planned a slightly longer distance than I would have preferred, and by lunch time I knew that I wasn't going to reach my intended destination. So things were changed.
I think that the most disappointing thing about this was that it made me more focussed on the physical aspects of staying on track over the following days, and that detracted from the opportunity to spend time in reflection while I was walking. Even after reaching Pontecesures, when I was back on the path that I had walked last year, I still found it difficult to walk in quiet contemplation in the way that I have been able to do at the end of longer pilgrimage routes. If I contemplate doing another shorter pilgrimage, I will need to think about how to address this.
This year, I was determined to walk some of the complementary paths in addition to the Variente route. This included the river routes into Porrino and Pontevedra, and finding the 'old route' after Milladoiro. The latter was highly recommended by the owner of the cafe where I ate my one and only pilgrim menu meal, just before Milladoiro. I also tried to find a route Brierley describes in his CP guide (p. 164 of the 2020 edition) leaving Porrino. I couldn't, and ended up walking along what might have been an old alignment of the CP route close to or along the N-550 until I could find a road back to the current marked route into Mos. Both river routes were much more pleasant walks than I remember the alternatives being last year, and I would recommend them. The 'old route' past Milladoiro seems to avoid the descents and climbs of the new route, but I must admit that I don't have a clear recollection of the details of that section from last year. And at the end, I walked along the slightly longer Conxo alternative. It seemed quieter, with less traffic, but it isn't well marked.
I did meet one other forum member. We had both stopped at the same cafe in Pontearnelas and it was only when we were about to leave that we realised we shared this link. He walks much faster that I do, but I did manage to take a quick snap that looks remarkably like his forum avatar.
I have already shared details of costs and accommodation in another thread.
If you have any particular questions about other matters, I will be happy to respond to specific questions.
I did have an outline plan of where I wanted to stay, largely because I try and limit myself to around 20 km/day now, and I still haven't fully recovered from my most recent knee surgery, at least not to the point of contemplating walking on another five or more kilometres if I cannot find accommodation. This initial plan did not survive contact with reality, but neither did I expect it to, and adjustments were made to several daily stages to the point where one might not have recognized what I did was an evolution of that initial plan.
I have to admit getting lost finding and staying on the Variante Espiritual route. I know part of the reason for this, but other than not paying sufficient attention at the right moments, I don't have a complete explanation, or at least not one that I wish to share right now. It happened on a day I had planned a slightly longer distance than I would have preferred, and by lunch time I knew that I wasn't going to reach my intended destination. So things were changed.
I think that the most disappointing thing about this was that it made me more focussed on the physical aspects of staying on track over the following days, and that detracted from the opportunity to spend time in reflection while I was walking. Even after reaching Pontecesures, when I was back on the path that I had walked last year, I still found it difficult to walk in quiet contemplation in the way that I have been able to do at the end of longer pilgrimage routes. If I contemplate doing another shorter pilgrimage, I will need to think about how to address this.
This year, I was determined to walk some of the complementary paths in addition to the Variente route. This included the river routes into Porrino and Pontevedra, and finding the 'old route' after Milladoiro. The latter was highly recommended by the owner of the cafe where I ate my one and only pilgrim menu meal, just before Milladoiro. I also tried to find a route Brierley describes in his CP guide (p. 164 of the 2020 edition) leaving Porrino. I couldn't, and ended up walking along what might have been an old alignment of the CP route close to or along the N-550 until I could find a road back to the current marked route into Mos. Both river routes were much more pleasant walks than I remember the alternatives being last year, and I would recommend them. The 'old route' past Milladoiro seems to avoid the descents and climbs of the new route, but I must admit that I don't have a clear recollection of the details of that section from last year. And at the end, I walked along the slightly longer Conxo alternative. It seemed quieter, with less traffic, but it isn't well marked.
I did meet one other forum member. We had both stopped at the same cafe in Pontearnelas and it was only when we were about to leave that we realised we shared this link. He walks much faster that I do, but I did manage to take a quick snap that looks remarkably like his forum avatar.
I have already shared details of costs and accommodation in another thread.
If you have any particular questions about other matters, I will be happy to respond to specific questions.
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; allows me to use my present-tense-only Spanish amid abundant “buen Caminos” even though I often wonder how on earth I could have missed an arrow. 
