I did not do a live thread, though I do have a FindPenguins account that I posted to every day. I find that when I’m walking, one post a day on one website a day is sufficient. Since my family and non-camino friends don’t read the forum, I opted for FindPenguins.
findpenguins.com
I know there has been a lot of discussion about whether the route is well marked or not. I have to say that it was a total non-issue for me, and I can’t even clearly remember much about whether the marking was good or bad. That’s because I had the wikiloc tracks offline on my phone. My phone was tucked away in my waist pack. I never looked at it until it beeped at me and told me I was going off-route. When I got to an unmarked intersection, I would use my intuition (frequently wrong), but if I made the wrong decision, I would hear about it in less than 100 m. I also got in the habit of having multiple tracks downloaded offline in case there was any real confusion. Flipping back and forth from one to the other is painless on wikiloc, and it was helpful to see the differences, because sometimes routes had changed (as was the case going into Lamego).
I really loved this camino. Up till about Sernacelhe, I would say it is the most off-road camino I have ever walked. Or at least tied with the Madrid. From Sernacelhe, there is a lot more road walking, and one particularly unpleasant section into Amarante. Plastered against the railing hoping the traffic on the national highway would pay attention to me.
But the albergue situation is grim, you have to be prepared to stay in private places. I was alone in the albergues in Spain, all of which are nice and run by lovely people. Then once you get to Portugal, none. I’m actually fine with that, luckily I can afford it.
I was a bit apprehensive about whether a hamstring injury was completely healed, but it turns out I was lucky and had not one problem (my only issue came when I was sitting on the 9 hour flight home and I could feel the pain coming back!).
I know there are a few out there with this on their camino list, so I am happy to answer any questions or give opinions. In Braga, instead of continuing on to Ponte de Lima and the Central Portugués, I went on the Geira and will post another thread to keep the discussions separate. But I never saw another pilgrim till I arrived in Santiago. So you have to love these solitary walks. For me, it was just what the doctor ordered for clearing the brain of all the dusty cobwebs.
Edited to add — here is a link to my 2022 thread on the Geira. Many people combine them, but since they are separate routes, better to keep the threads in their own sub-forum.
Camino 2022 , Torres and Geira | FindPenguins
About 640 km, starting in Salamanca, heading over to Portugal, and north from Braga to Santiago. I am combining two different caminos, the Camino de Torres and the Caminho da Geira e dos Arrieiros.
findpenguins.com
I know there has been a lot of discussion about whether the route is well marked or not. I have to say that it was a total non-issue for me, and I can’t even clearly remember much about whether the marking was good or bad. That’s because I had the wikiloc tracks offline on my phone. My phone was tucked away in my waist pack. I never looked at it until it beeped at me and told me I was going off-route. When I got to an unmarked intersection, I would use my intuition (frequently wrong), but if I made the wrong decision, I would hear about it in less than 100 m. I also got in the habit of having multiple tracks downloaded offline in case there was any real confusion. Flipping back and forth from one to the other is painless on wikiloc, and it was helpful to see the differences, because sometimes routes had changed (as was the case going into Lamego).
I really loved this camino. Up till about Sernacelhe, I would say it is the most off-road camino I have ever walked. Or at least tied with the Madrid. From Sernacelhe, there is a lot more road walking, and one particularly unpleasant section into Amarante. Plastered against the railing hoping the traffic on the national highway would pay attention to me.
But the albergue situation is grim, you have to be prepared to stay in private places. I was alone in the albergues in Spain, all of which are nice and run by lovely people. Then once you get to Portugal, none. I’m actually fine with that, luckily I can afford it.
I was a bit apprehensive about whether a hamstring injury was completely healed, but it turns out I was lucky and had not one problem (my only issue came when I was sitting on the 9 hour flight home and I could feel the pain coming back!).
I know there are a few out there with this on their camino list, so I am happy to answer any questions or give opinions. In Braga, instead of continuing on to Ponte de Lima and the Central Portugués, I went on the Geira and will post another thread to keep the discussions separate. But I never saw another pilgrim till I arrived in Santiago. So you have to love these solitary walks. For me, it was just what the doctor ordered for clearing the brain of all the dusty cobwebs.
Edited to add — here is a link to my 2022 thread on the Geira. Many people combine them, but since they are separate routes, better to keep the threads in their own sub-forum.
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