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It is official ... it is an official way

Ribeirasacra

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Time of past OR future Camino
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News in Spanish


Yes that is correct the Camino de Invierno is now an official route to Santiago.
However no one cared to tell the association (Aida Menendez the president) of this announcement and they learnt this news from the press.
It said to have been announced because it is hoped to help relive pressure on El Camino Frances.
Now all that is needed is some infrastructure like albergues.
 
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I have posted the news here.
The powers to be have deemed the Camino de Invierno is now official and will help relive the pressure on the Camino Frances. However one should know that signing is reasonable/ok but you may find things like albergues lacking.
 
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The Road Winter is now official. There has been a statement from the regional government certifying their new status, but this path is on an equal footing with the French Way and all other Jacobean routes in the master plan recently approved by the regional government. The news was expected, but no longer pose a great joy for the members of the association to Santiago pola Camiños Ribeira Sacra, which has more than ten years fighting for the recognition and promotion of the route on an equal footing with other. Its president, Aida Menendez not find any but to put the project to improve infrastructure and promotion that includes this master plan, which promises to be conditioned in the period between 2017 and 2019; and promotion by 2020, the year before the next Xacobeo.

-¿Satisfecha By the appearance of the Winter Road the director of roads plan?
Absolutely. I have to say that we know, we know from the media, because we have not received any official information, but in any case it seems clear that the Winter Trail appears in this official plan with the same status as all the others. Finally consider this route as one more. And this master plan created with the aim of desmasificar the French Way. Finally they realize how necessary it is that. And the Winter Trail is especially useful precisely to relieve the inbound leg in Galicia. Our satisfaction is total, because this is what we had sixteen years as an association and claiming some years before our collective exist when I was a councilor for Culture in Monforte.

-The Plan includes a timetable with deadlines for making investments.

-The Main reason for satisfaction of this plan is that finally appears the Winter Trail with everyone else. But there are other reasons to be satisfied, because it raises a number of very concrete proposals. They first proceed to preparation of each route and then promoted. It is logical. And that also makes clear dates, not just this way, but for all others.

Will it be enough economic strength?

That kind of data we do not. In fact, since the association we are going to ask that information to the Department. I guess that will be necessary. If you are going to promote, it will not settle fix certain route segments that require it.

'What think the association should have an impact on investment?

'In regard to the area south of Lugo, there is urgent action. Specifically, three. At the exit of A Pobra do Brollón to Cereixa, where there is a section that is a real river. It is also very urgent to do something out of Monforte, from A to Moreda Vide As Lagoas. And finally in the town of Panton's another section that also it looks like a river between Piñeira and Galician. Anyway, I would ask the mayors do not expect to 2017. A minimal action on their part would leave the pavilion much higher.
 
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FINALLY!!!!! I'll bet they're dancing in the streets of Barco de Valdeorras! Thanks so much for letting us know, ribeirasacra. The really odd thing is that there was no formal announcement; rather it seems to have come to light when people looked at the recently released "Comprehensive Plan for all the Caminos in Galicia" and saw that the Invierno was there right next to the Francés, Sanabrés, Inglés, and Portugués.

When I walked the Invierno this past summer, some official involvement was already noticeable, because every now and then you would come to a little corner in a little town with a newly constructed table and benches and a sign indicating that the Xunta was building these for pilgrims on the Camino de Invierno.

But what is really missing are the albergues. The marking is excellent (and keep in mind that much of that marking is done by local volunteers who love the Invierno, so the official status should make it even better), the towns are well spaced to avoid long distances if you desire, and the route is beautiful. As it is, you can usually get private accommodations in the low 20 € range (and that's for a single), and there is one pilgrim albergue in A Rúa along with an albergue juvenil in Quiroga, but adding albergues will do much more to attract pilgrim traffic than adding benches and tables.

This summer I had several conversations with local neighbors in the little towns. There was a sea change from my first Invierno several years earlier, when people in town had generally never even heard of this Camino. Now the awareness is much greater, and there may be some local pushing to get municipal albergues established. All of these towns have large numbers of uninhabited homes and apartments, so there are good starting points. I'm hopeful that this official designation, as backhanded as it is, will stimulate a lot more interest, not just from pilgrims but also from the towns that stand to benefit from steady pilgrim traffic.

Buen camino, Laurie
 
Excellent news
I think there are enough albergues and other accommodation options on the route for the number of walkers for now. But with this official new status of Invierno the numbers might rise in very short time and new accommodation options (especially municipal) should be planned. I hope the trend for both will go up.
 
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Does someone have a map of this? I am starting to wonder if there are a number of these that are tied together to make a long walk?
 
MTtoCamino said:
Does someone have a map of this? I am starting to wonder if there are a number of these that are tied together to make a long walk?
Click to expand...

Hi, MTtoCamino.
There is a schematic map here: http://caminodeinvierno.com/

The Camino de Invierno leaves the Camino Francés in Ponferrada. It then joins up with the Camino Sanabrés (which is one variant from Zamora and the Via de la Plata) in Laxe and continues on for a couple more days into Santiago. The first time I walked the Invierno, I started in Madrid and walked the Camino de Madrid to Sahagún. From Sahagún to Ponferrada, I then walked about 160 km on the Camino Francés, and then got on the Invierno in Ponferrada. This past year I had to hop a train to Ponferrada to get to my Invierno start point because I had already been walking for about 4 weeks in Catalunya and Aragón on Caminos in that part of the country.

To get a sense of how you can patch together different caminos to make a longer walk, look at mundicamino's map, which includes the vast majority of waymarked Caminos in Spain, http://mundicamino.com/loscaminos.cfm But it is not exhaustive, as it doesn't have, for example, either the Vadiniense from Potes to Mansilla de las Mulas nor the Olvidado from Bilbao to Ponferrada.

I'm warning you, though, once you start looking at these maps and dreaming about putting together creative combinations and permutations, you will have sunk hopelessly into the addiction that some of us find ourselves in with no remedy but to start planning another camino as soon as we are back from the last one.

Buen camino, Laurie
 

I recently came across this map http://www.rayyrosa.com/loscaminos which has more routes than the mundicamino one - if you hover over each route a little pop-up tells you its name, and if you click on it there is a bit more information. Very easy to get distracted from work....!
 
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Thank you Laurie
I like maps so yes it is in my blood, I have to plan it carefully as I will have my wife with me. When alone I can sleep in the rain & mud, but she like most wife's is a by more picky
 
Thank you to everyone for posting all these various links to maps, etc. For so long I've been reading here on the forum of all the different routes to Santiago, and could only hazard a guess as to where they were. I've now bookmarked this thread. I agree with @Donna Sch. This is dangerous....but so exciting!
 
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Nice !
I walked Camino Inverno from Ponferrada to SDC in September 2015. The markings are perfect in the provinse of León but incomplete in Galicia.
This camino is not for beginners from Camino Francés. They will easily get lost on the Camino Inverno.
There are not many albergues now. I only slept in albergues 2 times on this camino.
The camino has a serious dog-problem. There are many big loose aggressive dogs on this camino.
The Camino follows the riverbanks of 2 rivers though the winedistrict Ribeira Sacra on small tracks and quiet roads.
 
So glad that you liked Invierno! I walked it last year and found it beautiful. But as much as I try I can't recollect any loose dogs on the whole trail, be it small or big. I do remember posts of @Luka from this year and both your comments makes me think that either dog-related situation has changed or you ladies simply attract them dogs
Also I can only remember one spot where I could get wrong way, otherwise the route was very nicely marked. hen again I have pretty good sense of orientation and I kind of scan map into my mind previous evening and in the morning of the days stage. No problems whatsoever.
Well, yes, there aren't many albergues. That's a bummer. But maybe now after recognition of Invierno as an Official CdS Route things will change? Hopefully
I'm sure I'll do that route in next 5 years again, it's tough but also beautiful!

Ultreia!
 
Like Kinky, I thought the marking was excellent. On my first Invierno I got lost a couple of times, but the marking was much better this time. And unlike Kinky, I am cartographically challenged, so a map won't help me.

There is a big barker in that little beautiful hamlet of Villavieja, right before the ascent to Cornatel and the castle. The owner is a young guy who essentially takes a F*** you attitude to pilgrims. His dog scared the living daylights out of me, but I was walking with a guy from Ávila (the only other pilgrim I met aside from LT) and he just told the dog to callarse and shook his stick. So I followed behind. There were a couple of other loose barking dogs while I was walking alone, but I used my tried and true technique of just standing there, close enough to the dog to make him bark but not come towards me, and shouted over and over "Oiga" till someone appeared to take care of the dog. Sometimes they were irritated, and inevitably I was told "no hace nada" but my response was always that I had a very nasty bite at the age of 5 and am not willing to take the chance that I will be the first person who will make you change your story from "no hace nada" to "sólo ha mordido a una peregrina."

So yes, dogs can be an issue, but like Kinky I know I will be back on that route. Just thinking of that descent to the Sil River makes me long to return. And I think albergues are inevitable, fingers crossed! Laurie
 
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In Galicia some of the tracks was overgrown with blackberries, some arrows at critical points was almost faded away in the sun.
I am used to walk hiking-tracks with no or only a few markings in Scandinavia, so I could easily follow Camino Inverno, but I don't think the markings will be enough for a pilgrim coming from Camino Francés.
4 other pilgrims walked the Inverno on the same days as me. We all had problems with the loose aggressive dogs. The nicest of the loose dogs was the german shepherds, because they only barked a lot, but was easy to chase away. The bigger shepherd-dogs was a problem, because the owners had no control over the dogs and often did not care, if the dog tried to bite me. The walk between Quiroga to Monforte was the worst "dog-day" of all my caminos. 4 times I had to fight the big loose aggressive dogs. As I remember it, it was on this etape Luka decided to skip the Inverno because of the dogs, and I understand her completely!
On the Inverno, I also had my best dog-day ever !!
When I was leaving Chantada a happy and friendly golden retriever/Sherherd-mix decided to follow me for the next 8 km. I think the dog had been on the camino before, because he stayed on the camino all the time, when he was running in front of me, friendly regarding the dogs on the way, and the dogs totally ignored me (just perfect). At the last village before Alto the Faro, the dog stopped following me, and hopefully returned to his home in Chantada.
 
So I guess the bottom line is that nearly everyone who walked the Invierno this year had a meeting with at least one unchained barking dog. Kinky seems to have lucked out last year, or maybe dogs don't like him. Luka hopped on a train soon after a Rua, Henne had them from Quiroga to Monforte, I had one on the day out of Ponferrada before Cornatel.

When I first started walking caminos, there were lots of threads about wild loose dogs in Galicia (which I think was always partly apocryphal), but as the Camino got more popular, the problem disappeared. This coming year should be a pivotal one for the Camino de Invierno, and I am thinking that I will write to the amigos groups with reports of where the dogs are, so if anyone can give me specific location information, I will pass it along. I know EXACTLY where my barker lives, and I am hopeful the authorities will deal with it.

I know that the rules about dogs are different in urban and rural areas, but no camino will survive with a gauntlet of loose dogs, so I think that raising consciousness can only help. Buen camino, Laurie
 
In Santiago, I tried to talk with a English speaking voluntary (Amigo) at the pilgrims office. I just wanted to give them a fresh summery of Camino Inverno, but he said, that the office didn't care !!!
In A Rua, 3 of us (pilgrims, 1 couple from the Basque and me) was interviewed by the local pilgrims association. The interviews will be used to promote the Inverno and to make the camino better for future pilgrims. And a good option to ease the pressure on Camino Francés.
In 2009, when jeg finished Camino Inglés, I had a similar interview at the pilgrims office in Santiago. The office wanted at that time to promote and make Camino Inglés a better experience for the pilgrims.
...but now the caminos are strickly business, especially Camino Francés !
 
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Hanne said:
In Santiago, I tried to talk with a English speaking voluntary (Amigo) at the pilgrims office. I just wanted to give them a fresh summery of Camino Inverno, but he said, that the Office didn't care !!!
Click to expand...
 
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peregrina2000 said:
lots of threads about wild loose dogs in Galicia (which I think was always partly apocryphal)
Click to expand...

Can't remember any in Galicia, but feral dogs, either solitary or in packs, were once a common sight along the Camino. I witnessed them myself several times.
 

We all met the great barker in the small hamlet of Villavieja (so it's still there ;( !) and the stupid owner! The dog was easy to scare away.
I met loose dogs every single day on the Inverno. So a lot of barking all the way !
A every morning I met hunters and their dogs.
If I should return soon on the Inverno, I would be armed with a gun, a pair of lopping shears and a spray with yellow paint...just to make the Inverno a better place for future pilgrims!...(just Danish very Black humour!!) - A gun to kill the most aggressive dogs (nobody will notice the shooting anyway because of all the hunting in the Area, but maybe the bloody trail of dead dogs after some days), a pair of loppping shears to cut down the overgrown parts of the trail and yellow paint to refresh the arrows on the Galician side.
 
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CALLING ALL INVIERNO PILGRIMS

I think that it's great to alert other pilgrims here on the forum about the dogs. As any potential pilgrim on the Camino can see, your odds are that you will run into some loose dogs, but whether you'll be on the lucky side like me (just one or two this year, more in 2010) or the unlucky side like Luka and Hanne will depend on your luck. But talking about it with others on the forum is sort of like a pity party, we need to figure out how to take some action!

What I would ask is that any of you who have walked the camino and have experienced this dog issue - please write to the two associations.

You can find their contact information at www.caminodeinvierno.com and www.caminodeinvierno.es Both of these groups were fighting the good fight for years to get the official status and it would be a real shame if all of that went down the tubes because so many people are afraid of the dogs.

I've written in Spanish, and would be happy to translate any messages from English if your Spanish is limited.

And if anyone has other ideas about who to write to, please let us know (Ribeirasacra, for instance, any suggestions?).

This is a matter of dog owner culture. When you live in a tiny out of the way town where no one ever walks in, you leave your dogs out. If the dog owners want people to walk the Invierno (with the $$$ it can bring), they will have to adapt to that. Seems like most will be very willing to do that, except perhaps for the jerk (sorry) in beautiful Villavieja.

Buen camino, Laurie
 
Ribeirasacra said:
And that is all it is barking. Just keep walking, with confidence, and they will quickly loose interest. Dogs are to warn of intruders not attack them.
Click to expand...

Ribeirasacra, I know that is usually true, but having a big scar on my right knee from a nasty bite 60 years ago, I'm just not willing to chance it. This was a problem on the Frances way back when, decades ago, when its resurgence started, and dog owners finally changed their behavior. Looks like people on the Primitivo are also having to adapt,
https://www.caminodesantiago.me/com...o-the-guide-an-amazing-dog.35389/#post-330156

I think that loose dogs are just fundamentally inconsistent with a thriving camino. Just my opinion. Buen camino, Laurie
 
Ribeirasacra said:
And that is all it is barking. Just keep walking, with confidence, and they will quickly loose interest. Dogs are to warn of intruders not attack them.
Click to expand...
But some of them are willing to attack you, and the owners have no control over the dogs, and some of them just don't care.
In Denmark dogs like that will be removed from the unqualified owner and put to sleep (killed) by the autoritories, if reported!
I think, it will be a good idea with more reports about the Inverno, including the dogs, to find out if Luka, my fellowpilgrims in september 2015 and me was just very unlucky with dogs, or there is a general dog-problem on Camino del Inverno.
If there is a dog-problem, it must be up to the local Amigos de Santiago on Camino Inverno in Galicia to solve the problem. I don't think future pilgrims will choose Camino Inverno, if they have to fight big aggressive dogs, then it's easier just to stay on Camino Francés.
 
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