New route leaving Pola de Lena

[peregrina2000]

I've just read a post from Ender describing how the Camino del Salvador folks have just finished waymarking a new exit from Pola de Lena. He says it no longer goes on the National highway, but rather goes to Villallana on a service road and along the river. Additional advantages are that it goes by Villallana's church of Santiago and also an old and renovated pilgrims' hospital. Ender will change the guidebook soon and I'm sure we'll get updates. Good to have someone always trying to get us peregrinos off the main roads!

 

[Rebekah Scott]

Oh, Laurie. You are always giving me MORE reasons to get out of the house and bust my --- and get sunstroke! God bless you.

 

[jpflavin1]

Sounds like a good reason to walk the Salvador again.

 

[peregrina2000]

You guys are just looking for reasons to go back. This newly marked stretch only covers three kms of the 6 or so between Pola de Lena and Ujo, those 6 kms that you walk plastered to the side of the road hoping some big truck doesn't get you. I actually don't think it's a national highway, just a very busy and very dangerous local highway towards Mieres.

I am also hoping to get back, though, I confess.

 

[Kiwi-family]

EXCELLENT news - I almost backtracked for the day to see if what you are describing was possible. I was very unimpressed with how busy that road to Mieres was - and it *looked* like you could go on the other side of the river.
I wonder if they have done some marking in Pola de Lena too. I couldn't find any arrows and ended up going to the police! But that might have just been my mistake.

 

[Tincatinker]

I set out along the right (wrong) side of the river along a well lit asphalted walkway that became a metalled minor road, then un-metalled track then narrowing footpath and finally petered out in an overgrown meadow by the river and at the back of the industrial estate. Two barbed-wire fences later I scrambled through a construction site onto the service road of the industrial estate and finally managed to re-cross the river at Villallana. I must say that the first part of my morning was entirely traffic free

 

[peregrina2000]

EXCELLENT news - I almost backtracked for the day to see if what you are describing was possible. I was very unimpressed with how busy that road to Mieres was - and it *looked* like you could go on the other side of the river.
I wonder if they have done some marking in Pola de Lena too. I couldn't find any arrows and ended up going to the police! But that might have just been my mistake.

I set out along the right (wrong) side of the river along a well lit asphalted walkway that became a metalled minor road, then un-metalled track then narrowing footpath and finally petered out in an overgrown meadow by the river and at the back of the industrial estate. Two barbed-wire fences later I scrambled through a construction site onto the service road of the industrial estate and finally managed to re-cross the river at Villallana. I must say that the first part of my morning was entirely traffic free

It looked to me from the pictures I saw that there has been more in-city marking, and that the route has been changed going out of town to get you to the off-highway option to Villallana. From what Ender says, there is no river option till Ujo, but from there to Mieres it's smooth sailing (though not my favorite kind of path).

 

[Silvester]

Hi there
I downloaded a google earth camino del Salvador GPS track which deviates somewhat from the CSJ route. It looks as if after Buizo the GPS heads over the hills from Pendillo to Carabanzo and bypasses Pajares, Campomanes and Pola de lena completely. I wonder why the routes are so different? There wasn't a note about "I actually got lost and this is where I went till I rejoined the usual route"/.
Thanks
Mary

 

[Tia Valeria]

For those of us who can only walk short distances I would hope that any routes that bypass stopping places, whether for drinks or accomodation, are alternatives and do not become the sole marked route. Hoping to walk this in 2016, but would need to take about 9 days to walk this Camino, so need to go though the towns and villages mentioned.

 

[peregrina2000]

Hi there
I downloaded a google earth camino del Salvador GPS track which deviates somewhat from the CSJ route. It looks as if after Buizo the GPS heads over the hills from Pendillo to Carabanzo and bypasses Pajares, Campomanes and Pola de lena completely. I wonder why the routes are so different? There wasn't a note about "I actually got lost and this is where I went till I rejoined the usual route"/.
Thanks
Mary

Mary, can you post a link to the GPS track so those of us who know it can take a look. There is no way that the trail has been remarked to bypass those towns. This can't be the Camino. Laurie

 

[angulero]

Ya lo puse en alguna otra ocasión, cuidado de dónde os bajáis los tacks. Por mi pueblo pasa gente no levanta la vista del móvil y entran en el pueblo por la carretera General y salen del pueblo por esa misma carretera. En realidad, ni se entra ni se sale por ahí. Lo peor, es que pese a estar bastante bien marcado, no siguen las flechas, y se pierden, entre otras cosas, la llegada y el paso por el pueblo de El Castillo.

Now put it on another occasion, watch where you go down the tacks you. For my people wrong people does not look up the phone and enter the village by the General road and out of the village by the same road. Actually, no one enters or exits there. The worst thing is that despite being fairly well marked, do not follow the arrows, and lost, among other things, the arrival and passage through the village of El Castillo.

 

[Silvester]

Mary, can you post a link to the GPS track so those of us who know it can take a look. There is no way that the trail has been remarked to bypass those towns. This can't be the Camino. Laurie

Laurie
I was making a "Where is the world is Mary" map of my route so I downloaded the file to print a composite topographical picture. Then of course I noticed it deviated somewhat.
http://www.elcaminosantiago.com/Camino-Santiago-Map-Camino-del-Salvador-Google.htm
It seems to be quite a ways East of where you would expect.
Thanks
Mary

 

[Tia Valeria]

I have not had much confidence in Google directions since it showed a hotel in the middle of Grand Harbour, Valetta and also gave car directions down a Devon 'lane' which has 3 granite steps and is not a car wide (not even a mini).
Is this the route they actually give or the route you walked and not, as has been said, the given route??

 

[Silvester]

I have not had much confidence in Google directions since it showed a hotel in the middle of Grand Harbour, Valetta and also gave car directions down a Devon 'lane' which has 3 granite steps and is not a car wide (not even a mini).
Is this the route they actually give or the route you walked and not, as has been said, the given route??

Hi Tia
It was just a "Camino del Salvador GPS download" from the earlier weblink. I don't know how the original GPS track was made. At first I thought it might be someone doing a road walk and then I saw it go cross country before Villamarin so I do wonder where the person went - indeed who they might be. It'd be a worry if someone was using this for navigation.
Thanks
Mary

 

[peregrina2000]

Hi Tia
It was just a "Camino del Salvador GPS download" from the earlier weblink. I don't know how the original GPS track was made. At first I thought it might be someone doing a road walk and then I saw it go cross country before Villamarin so I do wonder where the person went - indeed who they might be. It'd be a worry if someone was using this for navigation.
Thanks
Mary

Hi, Mary,
I just got a long answer from Ender, and if anyone is interested in that route I can post the translation. But the bottom line is that it is a bicycle route, a very pretty one, but it has nothing to do with the Camino del Salvador! I don't think there's any chance you'll lose your way and wind up on this route, but I would delete it from my gps if I were you. Buen camino, Laurie