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Alternate route advice

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Wanieta

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Time of past OR future Camino
Sept. 2024
If anyone has taken the alternate route from shortly before Villaval to Orbaneja (as depicted in John Brierley's guide) I would appreciate your comments regarding terrain and ease of following route, along with any other comments you may want to offer.
 
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not really worth it, if it's the one i walked and you miss a coffee opportunity at orbaneja. much more interesting is to find the trail that takes you from the first homes in villafría to the river route into burgos via castañares.
 
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There's a PDF with photos of landmarks to help you find the Burgos river route in the Resources section:

Most Camino apps with GPS tracks show it, but it's still easy to miss the initial turn off. When I was there in June there was a yellow arrow on the ground, but it was partially obscured by a large dumpster.
 
jefferyonthecamino said:
it is indeed, but extremely hard to find this spring/summer as there is no signage at villafría and works by the tracks...
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That is true.

I believe this was the only time on the Frances last year when I actually had to use my GPS to find the turn, even though I knew it had to be there.

On my first Frances in 2016 I missed it as I wasn’t using GPS back then.
 
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Thanks for all the tips on finding the river route to Castanares. I'll be staying there for the night so it's important that I find the turn. I'll start looking about 1km out of Orbaneja Riopico. Wish me luck!
 
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Wanieta said:
Thanks for all the tips on finding the river route to Castanares. I'll be staying there for the night so it's important that I find the turn. I'll start looking about 1km out of Orbaneja Riopico. Wish me luck!
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It‘s after you cross the highway. You need to turn left into the first street after crossing. Regular camino goes straight ahead.

Edited to add: it’s actually just about half a km after leaving Orbaneja Riopico.
 

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hi - apologies. I couldn't find anywhere more appropriate to post.

I'm on the Buen Camino App - which appears to be really good but its set on the Baztan Route?
how to I change that to the Frances route?
 
just realised you have to download the 'alternative route'

sorted - thank you.
 
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thewalkingkat said:
It‘s after you cross the highway. You need to turn left into the first street after crossing. Regular camino goes straight ahead.

Edited to add: it’s actually just about half a km after leaving Orbaneja Riopico.
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Thanks!
 
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If I may return to the topic: the alternative track before Villavalto to Orbaneja which is actually 700 metres shorter.
I followed this stretch on 18 September 2023.
There is almost no one who will follow this because at the junction there is one of those typical blue-and-yellow ‘Castilla y León’ signs pointing left.
It is the direction also followed by ‘Jesus + Maria’ among others because that may be the first motivation to go straight ahead.



Despite there being no indication to walk straight on, after a few hundred metres you come across such a sign again but it looks like new (well, it can need some cleaning). So it's the chance to admire that sign in its full glory without any writing.


And then I hope ‘Jesus + Mary’ and other pilgrims who feel the need to scribble a message with a permanent marker don't read this. Spoil alert: After Terradillios de los Templarios, another variation: someone crossed out ‘Castilla y’.
Now to answer the question of whether this variation is worthwhile. I thought it was. Because the path is slightly elevated you have a panorama over the villages the camino normally passes through. You walk past fields and because this stretch is rarely travelled I spotted two roe deer.






 
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VNwalking said:
That was not my experience at all in 2015. You merely need to pay attention. And I did not have @trecile 's wonderful resource or even a GPS. Simply Brierley.
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Last May (2024), the few arrows and informal signage at villafría after crossing the freeway bridge had disappeared, and there were works (train tracks i think) right where you make a sharp right to find the security perimeter of the airport. in other words, even with a van, gps, and later walking it, i found it difficult to find and follow.

hopefully this changes soon as it is a much nicer route into town.
 
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