Back from the san Salvador

[Annette london]

As promised on our thread..the patch is on.....some updates and info re our recent San Salvador Camino ..
And what a Camino it was!!
The information given by Ender, Laurie Reynolds, Rebekah Scott and invaluable....as were Gunters videos and some pages by Roger Brankin in August 2017

We decided to stay in private accommodation in order to save the extra weight of bags and towels.

Using Enders guide, we walked for 7 days ....now we think that 6 days would have been feasable as well.

Was the walk hard/difficult??
We did not find it difficult at all......probably because we are used to mountain/fell walking
Indeed, we found it harder to walk on Tarmacadam for the last 2 days!

One does not need to be superfit at all........a reasonable level of fitness would suffice I think

For the first day, we took the no8 bus to Cabinallis ...to avoid the Tarmac....not the no12 as given in our guides.
At 8am there were no cafes open
2 great coffee stops at La Seca and Cascantes though
A well marked path...with 2 fountains took us to La Robla
Generally the path is very undulating ...made more difficult by trying to side step all the mud and puddles ...this slowed us down a lot
The scenery is beautiful though..

In La Robla we stayed at Pension Mundo..25euro for the 2 of us
Breakfast 5euro for 2
A lovely lively town with a lovely square

Light showers the next day brought us to the Ermita del Buen Suceso where we had a long stop at the cafe opposite
A short day of 10 km took us to Pola de Gordon ..only to find the hotel permanently closed and the Pension El Aranal, we were informed by the manager is permanently booked out (apart from the weekends) with workers from the railway lines!
Some very helpful locals then took us down the road to the Pension 15 de Mayo....where the lovely owner allocated us a brand new 3 bedroom flat ..great kitchen and 2 bathrooms .....30 euro for the 2 of us!!!
Brought us freshly laundered sheets and I made up the beds
The El Aranal had a lovely menu for 10 euro each

A beautiful sunny day brought us to Poladura de la Tercia
The scenery was magnificent

The Enders guide gives 2 options for the crossing of The Barrancon....also known as the "Great Divide"
Option 1 says to take the ascending path past the water hut

Although The Laurie Reynolds guide says To take this option 1 and NOT to continue on the wide track past the water hut.......or you will end up in RODIEZMO.....this is not the case if Enders option 2 is followed
Enders "option2" ........for those I presume with severe vertigo... Although "himself" suffers with vertigo.....he had no problem with the mountain path!
Enders option 2 says to continue on the wide track beside the water hut and go through the gorge ......and at the cross of the Holy Queen turn sharp left where the mountain path is met a bit further on

In Poladura we stayed at the Posada del Embrugo ...78euro half board for 2
The food was magnificent
The albergue is next door to the Posada and the lady of the house will cook for those in the albergue with a day's notice given

The pilgrims that night were the only ones we met during the 7 days
2 Spanish guys and 1 Spanish woman
1 Italian man
2 men from Holland
3 from Columbia
1 Irish ...that's me!
And 1 English man...."himself"

The 3 from Columbia had walked 50 km that day...yes 50 km ..and one was 70 years old ....they had been hoping to stay in Buiza that night, but when they got there, found that it had been closed for fumigation ...for 1 day..so it might be an idea to always call an albergue ...just a thought!!

Bright and sunny again the next day with perhaps the most beautiful scenery of all
Path was marked with the wonderful steel scallops made by Ender and friends
Arriving at the Cross at El Canto was magical

Another valley is crossed with a steep ascent and then a steep descent to arrive at Arbas ......Enders guide showed a cafe sign ...but no luck.....so we just gasped our way up to the Puerto de Pajaras where we had a long stop

Here we had 3 options ...
1) the official path behind the cafe where we'd read that there's a steep grassy path at the end leading to the continuation of the official path....so we decided against this one
2) we took one look at the path beside the Parador....definitely a no no ......looked very dangerous and vertiginous.......in fact a sign beside the gate said peligroso ...dangerous
3) After observing the traffic and trucks on the road ....very little in fact....we decided on the road.
A 10 minute walk took us to the Camino path and only 2 cars and 1 very slow truck ...due to the gradient of the road passed us
So......a decision to be made by each person themselves at this stage

The path wound its way then down the hillside ...marked again by Enders scallop shells

THEN...
We hit the mud!!!
Never seen so much mud after all the rain the previous week
Slowly but surely we did get through it by using the walking poles and taking out time .....this section I believe however is notorious for mud .

In Pajares, we stayed at the Posada Real de Pajares ..68euro half board for 2
We had a lovely meal with all the pilgrims from the albergue ...those we'd met the evening before
The breakfast however was almost non existent......I'm sorry, but I had very strong words with the generally not too happy owner.

Next day a beautiful path ...although very overgrown and with lots of fallen trees took us to Campomanes.........a very steep descent with a lot of mud before the town
Stayed in Casa Del Abad ..40 euro for room in a beautifully restored house

Next day to Mieres was all on Tarmac and hard on the feet
A stop in Pola de Lena and lots of cafes today
I'm Mieres the hotel and pension full due to a fiesta so we walked 2 km to La Pena where the municipal albergue is
Hostal La Pena is a lovely place to stay 40euro for the room and a lovely meal for 12 euro each

Mostly Tarmac again today but a lot of small roads passing farms but scenery again lovely
We'd been told that there was a lot of mud on the Casares path so we took the road into Olloniegr where we had a long stop

Got to Oviedo...what a shock...so many people ...could hardly move through the streets
We'd been told by a forum member about the Hotel Gran Regente near the cathedral was nice so off we went
Nice!!!!! ...an understatement.......4star room for 43euro ...breakfast 8 each.....did us for the day!
Couldn't believe our luck....and with a view of the cathedral
On the Monday before our flight home, we got our Salvadorana!!! ...we had been there a few times already with other caminos so just relaxed and drank plenty of cider!!

All in all, it was a wonderful Camino and certainly one we would walk again
In fact, the area around Poladura is a wonderful walking destination in itself.

For anyone thinking of walking the Salvador ..just go and have a great Camino ...and there is so much information available on this forum
Best wishes and hope that this info will help in some way
Annette

 

[naturmenneske]

Thank you for all the good adwices. I’ll walk the camino del Salvador in October.
Inger Marie

 

[Canche]

As promised on our thread..the patch is on.....some updates and info re our recent San Salvador Camino ..
And what a Camino it was!!
The information given by Ender, Laurie Reynolds, Rebekah Scott and invaluable....as were Gunters videos and some pages by Roger Brankin in August 2017

We decided to stay in private accommodation in order to save the extra weight of bags and towels.

Using Enders guide, we walked for 7 days ....now we think that 6 days would have been feasable as well.

Was the walk hard/difficult??
We did not find it difficult at all......probably because we are used to mountain/fell walking
Indeed, we found it harder to walk on Tarmacadam for the last 2 days!

One does not need to be superfit at all........a reasonable level of fitness would suffice I think

For the first day, we took the no8 bus to Cabinallis ...to avoid the Tarmac....not the no12 as given in our guides.
At 8am there were no cafes open
2 great coffee stops at La Seca and Cascantes though
A well marked path...with 2 fountains took us to La Robla
Generally the path is very undulating ...made more difficult by trying to side step all the mud and puddles ...this slowed us down a lot
The scenery is beautiful though..

In La Robla we stayed at Pension Mundo..25euro for the 2 of us
Breakfast 5euro for 2
A lovely lively town with a lovely square

Light showers the next day brought us to the Ermita del Buen Suceso where we had a long stop at the cafe opposite
A short day of 10 km took us to Pola de Gordon ..only to find the hotel permanently closed and the Pension El Aranal, we were informed by the manager is permanently booked out (apart from the weekends) with workers from the railway lines!
Some very helpful locals then took us down the road to the Pension 15 de Mayo....where the lovely owner allocated us a brand new 3 bedroom flat ..great kitchen and 2 bathrooms .....30 euro for the 2 of us!!!
Brought us freshly laundered sheets and I made up the beds
The El Aranal had a lovely menu for 10 euro each

A beautiful sunny day brought us to Poladura de la Tercia
The scenery was magnificent

The Enders guide gives 2 options for the crossing of The Barrancon....also known as the "Great Divide"
Option 1 says to take the ascending path past the water hut

Although The Laurie Reynolds guide says To take this option 1 and NOT to continue on the wide track past the water hut.......or you will end up in RODIEZMO.....this is not the case if Enders option 2 is followed
Enders "option2" ........for those I presume with severe vertigo... Although "himself" suffers with vertigo.....he had no problem with the mountain path!
Enders option 2 says to continue on the wide track beside the water hut and go through the gorge ......and at the cross of the Holy Queen turn sharp left where the mountain path is met a bit further on

In Poladura we stayed at the Posada del Embrugo ...78euro half board for 2
The food was magnificent
The albergue is next door to the Posada and the lady of the house will cook for those in the albergue with a day's notice given

The pilgrims that night were the only ones we met during the 7 days
2 Spanish guys and 1 Spanish woman
1 Italian man
2 men from Holland
3 from Columbia
1 Irish ...that's me!
And 1 English man...."himself"

The 3 from Columbia had walked 50 km that day...yes 50 km ..and one was 70 years old ....they had been hoping to stay in Buiza that night, but when they got there, found that it had been closed for fumigation ...for 1 day..so it might be an idea to always call an albergue ...just a thought!!

Bright and sunny again the next day with perhaps the most beautiful scenery of all
Path was marked with the wonderful steel scallops made by Ender and friends
Arriving at the Cross at El Canto was magical

Another valley is crossed with a steep ascent and then a steep descent to arrive at Arbas ......Enders guide showed a cafe sign ...but no luck.....so we just gasped our way up to the Puerto de Pajaras where we had a long stop

Here we had 3 options ...
1) the official path behind the cafe where we'd read that there's a steep grassy path at the end leading to the continuation of the official path....so we decided against this one
2) we took one look at the path beside the Parador....definitely a no no ......looked very dangerous and vertiginous.......in fact a sign beside the gate said peligroso ...dangerous
3) After observing the traffic and trucks on the road ....very little in fact....we decided on the road.
A 10 minute walk took us to the Camino path and only 2 cars and 1 very slow truck ...due to the gradient of the road passed us
So......a decision to be made by each person themselves at this stage

The path wound its way then down the hillside ...marked again by Enders scallop shells

THEN...
We hit the mud!!!
Never seen so much mud after all the rain the previous week
Slowly but surely we did get through it by using the walking poles and taking out time .....this section I believe however is notorious for mud .

In Pajares, we stayed at the Posada Real de Pajares ..68euro half board for 2
We had a lovely meal with all the pilgrims from the albergue ...those we'd met the evening before
The breakfast however was almost non existent......I'm sorry, but I had very strong words with the generally not too happy owner.

Next day a beautiful path ...although very overgrown and with lots of fallen trees took us to Campomanes.........a very steep descent with a lot of mud before the town
Stayed in Casa Del Abad ..40 euro for room in a beautifully restored house

Next day to Mieres was all on Tarmac and hard on the feet
A stop in Pola de Lena and lots of cafes today
I'm Mieres the hotel and pension full due to a fiesta so we walked 2 km to La Pena where the municipal albergue is
Hostal La Pena is a lovely place to stay 40euro for the room and a lovely meal for 12 euro each

Mostly Tarmac again today but a lot of small roads passing farms but scenery again lovely
We'd been told that there was a lot of mud on the Casares path so we took the road into Olloniegr where we had a long stop

Got to Oviedo...what a shock...so many people ...could hardly move through the streets
We'd been told by a forum member about the Hotel Gran Regente near the cathedral was nice so off we went
Nice!!!!! ...an understatement.......4star room for 43euro ...breakfast 8 each.....did us for the day!
Couldn't believe our luck....and with a view of the cathedral
On the Monday before our flight home, we got our Salvadorana!!! ...we had been there a few times already with other caminos so just relaxed and drank plenty of cider!!

All in all, it was a wonderful Camino and certainly one we would walk again
In fact, the area around Poladura is a wonderful walking destination in itself.

For anyone thinking of walking the Salvador ..just go and have a great Camino ...and there is so much information available on this forum
Best wishes and hope that this info will help in some way
Annette

Great. Thanks so much. Hope to be there Sept 1st

 

[peregrina2000]

Hi, Annette,
Thanks for the great report! So glad that you enjoyed the Camino. I will note the error in bus number if this was in Ender’s guide, because he may be updating it.

A couple of things — you can avoid nearly all of the asphalt out of León by walking on the path alongside the river. It goes virtually all the way to Carbajal, which is where the asphalt ends if memory serves.

The café at Buen Suceso outside La Robla is well known in the area for its tortillas. There are lots of different kinds, but I always fall back on the old faithful tortilla española. Tidbit of trivia — Ender’s wife used to be a cook there!

In Pola de Gordón, the hotel on the highwy has been closed for a long time. There was another one, called Hotel Valle de Gordón, near the train station before you crossed the river into the old part of town. Did you find both of them closed?

Good point about Rodiezmo. I think the alternative Ender proposes is mainly for snow, not vertigo, but to tell the truth I don’t know anyone who has walked it, other than him of course.

Your point about the three options at the Puerto de Pajares brought back memories of some VERY long forum discussions, which you might find entertaining. I have walked all of them and do prefer the one that goes down from in front of the old parador building (did you find the café there open for business?), but I realize that some find it a bit hairy. I remember Susanna found it blocked by huge numbers of cattle.
https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/help-from-the-puerto-de-pajares-to-the-pueblo-de-pajares-on-the-salvador.19884/

I know that Ender has been trying to find an alternative route after the pass of Pajares to the town of Pajares. It was moved a few years ago to track the old path that the townsfolk used to bring up their dead in coffins to the churh in Arbás. But that has a lot of mud as well. Not sure what the solution will be. Speaking of mud, did you find a ton of it after Puente Fierro going up the side of the hill? That has been a trouble spot this year as well.

Good tip on the hotel, I usually just use booking at the last minute and get a pretty good deal. Once I splurged and stayed at the Reconquista. It was nice, and it was fun to see the places from vicky Cristina Barcelona or whatever that movie was, but it seemed a bit run down.

Thanks again for the update, looks like there are several others following in your footsteps soon. Buen camino, Laurie

 

[Canche]

Hi, Annette,
Thanks for the great report! So glad that you enjoyed the Camino. I will note the error in bus number if this was in Ender’s guide, because he may be updating it.

A couple of things — you can avoid nearly all of the asphalt out of León by walking on the path alongside the river. It goes virtually all the way to Carbajal, which is where the asphalt ends if memory serves.

The café at Buen Suceso outside La Robla is well known in the area for its tortillas. There are lots of different kinds, but I always fall back on the old faithful tortilla española. Tidbit of trivia — Ender’s wife used to be a cook there!

In Pola de Gordón, the hotel on the highwy has been closed for a long time. There was another one, called Hotel Valle de Gordón, near the train station before you crossed the river into the old part of town. Did you find both of them closed?

Good point about Rodiezmo. I think the alternative Ender proposes is mainly for snow, not vertigo, but to tell the truth I don’t know anyone who has walked it, other than him of course.

Your point about the three options at the Puerto de Pajares brought back memories of some VERY long forum discussions, which you might find entertaining. I have walked all of them and do prefer the one that goes down from in front of the old parador building (did you find the café there open for business?), but I realize that some find it a bit hairy. I remember Susanna found it blocked by huge numbers of cattle.
https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/help-from-the-puerto-de-pajares-to-the-pueblo-de-pajares-on-the-salvador.19884/

I know that Ender has been trying to find an alternative route after the pass of Pajares to the town of Pajares. It was moved a few years ago to track the old path that the townsfolk used to bring up their dead in coffins to the churh in Arbás. But that has a lot of mud as well. Not sure what the solution will be. Speaking of mud, did you find a ton of it after Puente Fierro going up the side of the hill? That has been a trouble spot this year as well.

Good tip on the hotel, I usually just use booking at the last minute and get a pretty good deal. Once I splurged and stayed at the Reconquista. It was nice, and it was fun to see the places from vicky Cristina Barcelona or whatever that movie was, but it seemed a bit run down.

Thanks again for the update, looks like there are several others following in your footsteps soon. Buen camino, Laurie

Do you know if the path along the river out of Leon will take one to Capanillas? That's as far as I'm going on my first day.

 

[Annette london]

Hi, Annette,
Thanks for the great report! So glad that you enjoyed the Camino. I will note the error in bus number if this was in Ender’s guide, because he may be updating it.

A couple of things — you can avoid nearly all of the asphalt out of León by walking on the path alongside the river. It goes virtually all the way to Carbajal, which is where the asphalt ends if memory serves.

The café at Buen Succeso outside La Robla is well known in the area for its tortillas. There are lots of different kinds, but I always fall back on the old faithful tortilla española. Tidbit of trivia — Ender’s wife used to be a cook there!

In Pola de Gordón, the hotel on the highwy has been closed for a long time. There was another one, called Hotel Valle de Gordón, near the train station before you crossed the river into the old part of town. Did you find both of them closed?

Good point about Rodiezmo. I think the alternative Ender proposes is mainly for snow, not vertigo, but to tell the truth I don’t know anyone who has walked it, other than him of course.

Your point about the three options at the Puerto de Pajares brought back memories of some VERY long forum discussions, which you might find entertaining. I have walked all of them and do prefer the one that goes down from in front of the old parador building (did you find the café there open for business?), but I realize that some find it a bit hairy. I remember Susanna found it blocked by huge numbers of cattle.
https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/help-from-the-puerto-de-pajares-to-the-pueblo-de-pajares-on-the-salvador.19884/

I know that Ender has been trying to find an alternative route after the pass of Pajares to the town of Pajares. It was moved a few years ago to track the old path that the townsfolk used to bring up their dead in coffins to the churh in Arbás. But that has a lot of mud as well. Not sure what the solution will be. Speaking of mud, did you find a ton of it after Puente Fierro going up the side of the hill? That has been a trouble spot this year as well.

Good tip on the hotel, I usually just use booking at the last minute and get a pretty good deal. Once I splurged and stayed at the Reconquista. It was nice, and it was fun to see the places from vicky Cristina Barcelona or whatever that movie was, but it seemed a bit run down.

Thanks again for the update, looks like there are several others following in your footsteps soon. Buen camino, Laurie

Thanks Laurie,
Now there MIGHT be a bus 12 to the village but the locals at the bus stop said that it was no8 so that's what we jumped on!
It went through some estates before arriving at the village

Shame about that river path...we're a bit dippy at times and we did see a few pilgrims on the road bit so perhaps they weren't aware of the path either!

Oh yes...that buen Secosa....first we had tostado and then I spotted the tortillas so we had those as well!!!
Just as well it was a short day!
In 2015 on the CF Charlie ate tortillas at every cafe....literally ate his way across the Camino to Santiago ....gained weight of course !!

Yes that hotel in Pola de Gordon near the train station is the one that's closed. ..I had a look through the door and completely empty of furniture ..we didn't even ask about the one on the highway

Laurie, that path at the parador might have eroded more since you walked it ...it looked unbelievably vertiginous and narrow ..not Sure when the peligroso sign was erected there
The funny thing though is that when we rejoined the path after the N630 walk there was a lot of work going on there and there SEEMED to be a small Tarmac path heading back to the parador and I wondered at the time if a new path was being constructed .or if it was just work being done on the road ??
Perhaps someone doing the Salvidor could comment on this at some stage

Yes the Parador cafe was open but not the hotel as yet ....and the coffee is more expensive......I did ask!!!!
We sat at the cafe opposite for about an hour observing the traffic and as it was so light in both directions, we decided to take the road down

This section of the Camino of course must be each persons decision to take

Re the mud after the Puento Fierro...we didn't notice much there at all..but then any mud would have been OK after our experience before Pajares!!!
The mud going down the very steep path into Campomanes made it slow going however

Thanks for the point re Rodiezmo....that option 2 makes sense re the snow and the uphill path on the hill was fine

In fact I was very dishonest in not showing ....or even mentioning this path to Charlie before we left( he has a degree of vertigo) in case he balked and decided that he couldn't possibly walk it !!!!
Therefore plan B or optin 2 was welcome .....just in case!!

Sometimes things are better not said!!!!
Still haven't mentioned it!!

Also thanks for the links......I had read all of these and indeed the videos of the N630
I'd even printed out the maps with the yellow dots re the official paths ...just in case!!
Had also studied your last walk on the Salvador when you were updating the CSJ information
Also anyone wanting to walk the Salvador could look at Gunters videos ...they are magnificent with the most wonderful music
Apart from the river path from Leon I was super organised for the Salvador ....which is a big change from our other caminos!!

Usually we just take off and whatever happens ...happens!!!
Must be getting old!!!

Am looking forward to seeing future posts re the San Salvador

The only thing I forgot to add were the phone numbers of all the pensions and albergues on the Camino
However all these can be found on Enders guide and your CSJ guide
With best wishes
Annette

 

[Purky]

Do you know if the path along the river out of Leon will take one to Capanillas? That's as far as I'm going on my first day.

Yes. It will take you to Carbajal first, where you can get a stamp (and a drink) at the Bar Central. Just a little further, on a street to the right, there is a shop where you can stock up on food and drinks. Advisable, because there are no shops/bars in Cabanillas. Buen camino!

 

[Purky]

And congrats Annette, on completing the Salvador!

 

[Annette london]

Do you know if the path along the river out of Leon will take one to Capanillas? That's as far as I'm going on my first day.

Hi Dinah,
Yes, I believe it does
Laurie replied to my original post and said that the path virtually goes all the way .......see her reply above
As we did not walk it however I not able to give directions re this .sorry
Best wishes and let us know how you get on
Annette

 

[Canche]

Hi Dinah,
Yes, I believe it does
Laurie replied to my original post and said that the path virtually goes all the way .......see her reply above
As we did not walk it however I not able to give directions re this .sorry
Best wishes and let us know how you get on
Annette

Thanks Annette

 

[Canche]

Yes. It will take you to Carbajal first, where you can get a stamp (and a drink) at the Bar Central. Just a little further, on a street to the right, there is a shop where you can stock up on food and drinks. Advisable, because there are no shops/bars in Cabanillas. Buen camino!

Thanks for the good info

 

[Annette london]

Do you know if the path along the river out of Leon will take one to Capanillas? That's as far as I'm going on my first day.

Hi Dinah,
I might have given you the wrong information
Sorry
The river path I believe goes to Carbajal which is where we got the bus to.....not cabanillas as I said in original post

Got the villages mixed up!!!

Purky has given the correct information although when we got to Carbajal the cafes were still closed ....got there too early I guess!
Best wishes and buen Camino
Annette

 

[Canche]

OK Got it. Thanks. Can't wait

 

[Annette london]

Yes. It will take you to Carbajal first, where you can get a stamp (and a drink) at the Bar Central. Just a little further, on a street to the right, there is a shop where you can stock up on food and drinks. Advisable, because there are no shops/bars in Cabanillas. Buen camino!

Thanks Purky for that correct information for Dinah
Getting a bit muddled up there!!
Best wishes
Annette

 

[KinkyOne]

Yes. It will take you to Carbajal first, where you can get a stamp (and a drink) at the Bar Central. Just a little further, on a street to the right, there is a shop where you can stock up on food and drinks. Advisable, because there are no shops/bars in Cabanillas. Buen camino!

Better option to stock on food if you stay in Cabanillas would be to go 2km down the road and cross the river to La Seca instead of carrying it for 10kms from Carbajal (or even Leon)

 

[Purky]

Better option to stock on food if you stay in Cabanillas would be to go 2km down the road and cross the river to La Seca instead of carrying it for 10kms from Carbajal (or even Leon)

Depends on your diet...