The 100 km mojón on the Camino Francés

[Bert45]

I have read, thanks to this forum and Google Translate, in El País, that the 100 km mojón was moved in 2016 from A Pinza to Pena de Mirallos, near to the albergue of Ferreiros. The photo in El País shows the old mojón with 'K.100' in red below a scallop shell. Can anybody tell me where A Pinza is? Google Maps doesn't seem to know. The Pilgrimage programme on BBC2 showed Ed Byrne (in June 2017) at a brand new (because it was not covered in graffiti) mojón next to a concrete pylon by the cemetery at Mirallos, which the voiceover said was at Ferreiros. The brass plate with the distance was missing, but '100' had been drawn/painted on it very neatly. I did not notice this as I walked by last month, but that might have been because I had already seen an older mojón, covered in graffiti, with the distance 'Km100,000' cast into the concrete near the base. Can you tell me the exact location of this 100,000 km mojón? (My camera does not have GPS facility.) Has the mojón at Mirallos been given a 100,000 brass plate since Byrne's visit? If it has, I suppose it was stolen pretty quickly.

 

[Felipe]

 

[Vacajoe]

The GPS from the 100km marker photo I took says “Paradela, Lugo, Spain”. In April, 2017 it was heavily graffitied.

 

[Kathor1]

Can you tell me the exact location of this 100,000 km mojón? (My camera does not have GPS facility.) Has the mojón at Mirallos been given a 100,000 brass plate since Byrne's visit? If it has, I suppose it was stolen pretty quickly.

You make some wrong assumptions ☺. When the Xunta put the new mojones in place, the ones with the brass plates, they did not install a way marker with a 100,000 km brass plate. They installed one with a 99,930 km plate and one with a 100,757 km plate. They had also recalculated the distances with the result that everything had to be shifted by a few km.

[Edited:] As pilgrims cannot live without a 100 km marker because they need it as background for their camino photo collections, they found a solution but I'm now more confused about this than ever.

As to the brass plates, I can't make up my mind about what I find more irksome: noticing that a brass plate has been stolen or seeing km distances for walkers expressed as a number with 3 digits after the decimal comma.

 

[Kathor1]

And there is this ☺ :

Como llegar - Casa Do Rego - Albergue A Pena, Km. 100

Casa do Rego Aldea A Pena, 4, 27611 Paradela, Lugo Tel. 982 16 78 12 Horario check in: De 13:00 a 22:00 (Cierre de puertas a las 22:00h)

casadorego.com

And also https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/the-puzzling-100-km-mark.51576/

 

[Jeff Crawley]

September 2016 - the new September 2001 - the old

I always assumed the replacement mojon was carved expressly to prevent the brass plate from being stolen. I wonder what happened to the old one?

 

[Bert45]

The "accuracy" of the distance plates is something that annoys/amuses me too. I can appreciate that they put the mojones just after a fork in the road to show walkers which is the right fork to take, and the distance is whatever it is, but I saw one that was XX,002 (or XXX,002) (I didn't make a note of the numbers before the comma). So if they had put the mojón 2 metres to the right (in this case), they could have had a nice round number on the mojón.

 

[gersevink]

[QUOTE = "Vacajoe, post: 794028, lid: 66683"]
De GPS van de 100 km tellende foto die ik nam, zegt: "Paradela, Lugo, Spanje". In april 2017 was het zwaar graffitied.
[/CITAAT]ook in mei 2019!

 

[t2andreo]

PLEASE, do not try to split the distance any finer that starting at Sarria. I hesitate to even state this obvious point. But, regularly, some intending pilgrims seek to walk the absolute minimum number of meters to qualify for the Compostela.

The language in the standard, Pilgrim Office issued credencial states that you must walk AT LEAST 100 km to be eligible for the Compostela, NOT that you must walk ONLY a minimum of exactly 100 km. In my view, walking less distance, to shave the distance to the absolute minimum effort, cheapens the entire pilgrimage.

IMHO, this cheapens the effort of most others who just suck it up and start and the customary place marking the minimum distance, Sarria. The difference between starting in Sarria and arguable at the exact 100 km distance point is only about 16 km (more or less) or about 4 hours walking.

Thus, there is a recurring scavenger hunt for the path of least steps to Santiago. Occasionally someone will have a medical-based reason for seeking to do this, but I continue to maintain that seeking to cut corners like this is only going to subject you to additional scrutiny at the Pilgrim Office. Cutting this distance corner out of convenience detracts from the overall experience, again IMHO.

The office staff are aware that 99.99 percent of pilgrims coming from Sarria, start at Sarria. They are also aware that others will seek to cut as many corners as they can. So, when someone indicates they started from Baxán or Pinza, for example, the questions are likely to come.

Plus, there is the issue of validity of the location of these mojones. Can you certify that the Xunta actually validated the precise distance and placed that marker there, or did someone move the mojone in a benign act of vandalism? You can never be absolutely certain.

Plus, these mojones DO grow legs and feet from time to time. From time to time, some folks think it is a hoot to move the stone, as a joke. This is similar, albeit heavier than moving or defacing yellow arrows, but you get the point.

So, why bother yourself with this corner-cutting exercise?

I am not trying to start an argument here. What I am trying to do is to simply get people to get with the regular program and just start from Sarria like virtually everyone else.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Kathor1]

I am not trying to start an argument here. What I am trying to do is to simply get people to get with the regular program and just start from Sarria like virtually everyone else.

But nobody was even mentioning Compostelas or starting points in this thread so why bring it up? We were simply talking about the many wonders of the Xunta's mojones system past and present.

I mean, the moment the remaining distance drops into the 2-digit range for the first time ... that's HUGE.

 

[NorthernLight]

I quite enjoy the mileage markers (in km) scattered along the way, particularly when the number goes up rather than the usual down.

 

[Bradypus]

I am not trying to start an argument here. What I am trying to do is to simply get people to get with the regular program and just start from Sarria like virtually everyone else.

If that is "the regular program" then perhaps that is what the cathedral should formally adopt and publicise? The decision to introduce an apparently arbitrary 100km minimum distance was taken by the cathedral authorities. One which seems to take little account of the physical geography of the region. Should it come as any great surprise that some people have chosen to interpret that rule quite literally and acted upon it? And why should the pilgrim office resent those who have chosen to comply so precisely with a rule introduced by their own governing body. It may not be what most of us might consider to be in the truest spirit of pilgrimage but then I would argue that neither was introducing a seemingly random minimum distance in the first place.

 

[t2andreo]

But nobody was even mentioning Compostelas or starting points in this thread so why bring it up? We were simply talking about the many wonders of the Xunta's mojones system past and present.

I mean, the moment the remaining distance drops into the 2-digit range for the first time ... that's HUGE.

Because that issue (shaving the distance), in my experience, is always behind the question. Otherwise, why even bring it up?

So rather than waste time dancing around the issue, I chose to address the issue head on.

 

[Kathor1]

Because that issue (shaving the distance), in my experience, is always behind the question. Otherwise, why even bring it up? So rather than waste time dancing around the issue, I chose to address the issue head on.

Some people are just trying to locate weird bits on the Caminos. For example, we still haven't managed to locate that cemetery ... . @Bert45, I had another go again today but still no luck ...

 

[NorthernLight]

Because that issue (shaving the distance), in my experience, is always behind the question. Otherwise, why even bring it up?

So rather than waste time dancing around the issue, I chose to address the issue head on.

If the cathedral says 100 km is all that is needed, then nobody is shaving anything off by wanting to start at the 100 km mark.

There may be many reasons -none of which are any of our business- why people may feel the need to start closer to the 100km mark than Sarria. Those 16 km may add an entire day to someone's journey. Just because many people can do 16 km in 4 hours does not mean everyone can.

@Kathar1na -which cemetery?

 

[Kathor1]

which cemetery?

The one shown in the screenshot below. @Bert45 who started this thread about the 100 km waymarker has a long running thread about the more obscure locations in the movie "The Way" which lead to some delightful discoveries of places that are not on the Camino Frances, not only but also thanks to local knowledge. Someone recently suggested that this cemetery is most likely next to a small chapel. You can pull some mechanism outside next to the door and it rings a bell. It seems to be in a hilly area. And just in case someone jumps again to wrong conclusions : I don't have a great interest in movie locations as such but I often enjoy figuring things out. Can be any kind of things.

 

[Kathor1]

And why should the pilgrim office resent those who have chosen to comply so precisely with a rule introduced by their own governing body. It may not be what most of us might consider to be in the truest spirit of pilgrimage but then I would argue that neither was introducing a seemingly random minimum distance in the first place.

I get the impression, actually, that the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. First, consider this: Distancias mínimas para dar la credencial y recibir la Compostela. This was published in July 2019, by the Federación Española de Asociaciones de Amigos del Camino de Santiago no less and the source for this information is the Oficina del Peregrino no less. So: Barbadelo which is a few kilometres to the west of Sarria. Then consider this: Estadísticas by the very same source and look at the Lugar de salida for monthly statistics or the Lugar de comienzo for annual statistics and you will find, among many others, Sarria, Barbadelo and Ferreiros which is even further to the west .

BTW, about 1000 people last year for the latter two and perhaps none of them has read this forum.

 

[Bradypus]

I get the impression, actually, that the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. First, consider this: Distancias mínimas para dar la credencial y recibir la Compostela. This was published in July 2019, by the Federación Española de Asociaciones de Amigos del Camino de Santiago no less and the source for this information is the Oficina del Peregrino no less.

Thank you for that link. Interesting reading. I note that it lists Ferrol as the necessary starting point on the Camino Ingles. But I was offered a Compostela on the basis that I had unintentionally walked 102km on a recognized route by joining the Ingles at Neda as part of a longer journey. Very odd and it does indeed suggest a lack of clear and consistent communication somewhere along the line.

 

[Bert45]

I'd like to assure t2andreo that 'shaving the distance' could not have been further from my thoughts when I made the post. And thanks Kathar1na for trying again with the church/chapel where Joost rings the bell. [Btw, if you look at the next shot, where Jack is sitting behind a cruceiro (1:48:12 in the Youtube version) there is a tower in the distance over his right shoulder – surely somebody must recognise that, even if it is a bit blurred?] No, I just want to know more, as much as possible, about the camino(s). I walked past the church at Mirallos (which used to be at Ferreiros) last month with my wife. We had begun at Triacastela (not that day!). My thanks to Felipe for finding 'Pinza' (or A Pinza). I have to admit to a bit of OCD. Anything can set me off. In this case it was watching 'Pilgrimage' again and seeing Ed Byrne by a new mojón, then googling and finding the post (here, on the forum) with the link to El País about the mojón being moved (or rather being replaced -- the old one was not moved) from A Pinza, which I could not find on Google Maps. The images of the three contenders are all different. I had always thought that the mojones were solid concrete which would be too heavy for any idle vandal to move, but I learned fairly recently that they are hollow. But surely they are fixed securely to the ground? Btw, one of the conversations in Pilgrimage took place in Lugo. What were they doing in Lugo on the Camino Francés? [Rhetorical question. Just showing off that having walked the Primitivo I recognised the street in Lugo.]

 

[jmcarp]

...
Plus, there is the issue of validity of the location of these mojones. Can you certify that the Xunta actually validated the precise distance and placed that marker there, or did someone move the mojone in a benign act of vandalism? You can never be absolutely certain.
...

I, too, question the accuracy of placing the markers precisely to the third decimal place (one meter). When I first saw the new mojones, I had to laugh at the absurdity. Plus, when we walked the Camino Portugués in 2017, some of the markers were out of sequence -- markers farther from Santiago showed less distance than ones closer. I just don't understand why anyone is so obsessed with the deviation of a few meters, or even a km or two, in a journey of several hundred km. Most of us add a considerable distance just by veering a hundred meters of the marked path for a cup of café con leche now and then -- to say nothing of making up for the wrong turns that we all invariably make.

 

[David Tallan]

Because that issue (shaving the distance), in my experience, is always behind the question. Otherwise, why even bring it up?

So rather than waste time dancing around the issue, I chose to address the issue head on.

Because some people like to celebrate milestones (as it were ) on their pilgrimages. Crossing the "halfway point", either by Sahagun or elsewhere, depending on where you start is one such. Sahagun has even started to support that with a "half way" certificate. Getting to within the last 100 km and seeing two digits of distance instead of three is another.

I was watching the vlog of a pilgrim from SJPP the other day who spent 20 minutes or so resting by the 100 km marker. She noticed that the new, fresh pilgrims with fresh clothes and equipment, who seemed to have just started in Sarria walked right past the 100 km marker without giving it much of a second glance. The ones who had clearly been walking a long distance (and thus were not people "shaving the distance") were the ones stopping there, spending time, celebrating, taking photos, etc. That seems a pretty clear indication that the 100 km is of interest (perhaps more interest) to those who are not "shaving the distance".

If you are stopping to celebrate the 100 km marker, it might cause you to think about it and ask questions like "how accurate can they be with these things" and "why do they move them around". It doesn't always have to be about squeezing 3 metres from your walk.

 

[Deleted member 3000]

The eucalyptus trees by the airport were harvested in about 2016, and the path changed again.

The "original" 100 km mark was about 100 meters down the path from a car access road as the path wound around to Casa de Rega at Pena. The new one is just down the road from Ferreiros. All the ones with magic marker distance are not accurate.

The old one in 2008.


Just cleaned in 2007

 

[Bert45]

View attachment 65823

I assume that the blue dots show the Camino Francés between Sarria and Pinza (?), but what do the white dots represent? And what is the grey line going through Vilei and Baxán? If the old 100 km marker was in Pinza, the route has been changed as it no longer goes through Pinza, unless there is a complementario going that way. I've had a look on Streetview (image capture August 2014) at the road going through Pinza and I saw no sign of any mojones (but, of course the mojones could be on a footpath that Streetview did not explore). I asked Google Maps to show a pedestrian route from Sarria to Morgade going through Baxán, and it veered off northwards before going through Pinza. It would help (me) if some of those villages had signs naming them. I don't remember seeing signs for Vilei, Baxán, or A Brea.

 

[Bob Chambers]

We walked part of the Camino de Levante from Avila in 2013, finishing with the Saureste. No "sign" of the 100 km requirement at that time as far as I could see. When did the 100 km minimum come in?

 

[Bradypus]

When did the 100 km minimum come in?

1993

 

[t2andreo]

I, too, question the accuracy of placing the markers precisely to the third decimal place (one meter). When I first saw the new mojones, I had to laugh at the absurdity. Plus, when we walked the Camino Portugués in 2017, some of the markers were out of sequence -- markers farther from Santiago showed less distance than ones closer. I just don't understand why anyone is so obsessed with the deviation of a few meters, or even a km or two, in a journey of several hundred km. Most of us add a considerable distance just by veering a hundred meters of the marked path for a cup of café con leche now and then -- to say nothing of making up for the wrong turns that we all invariably make.

When I first saw the three decimal distance mahones, I chuckled, shook my head, shrugged, and presumed that the engraver was being paid by the letter / digit. Anything over one decimal place is wasted.

 

[Telboyo]

I too found the metre markers ridiculous, I stopped reading distances after the 2nd day after leaving SJPD, most of the the adverts for the "best" albergue in the town are 3 Km away until I had walked 4km and then they were still only 1 Km away. I decided then to just get there when I got there, I used this every day until I ended up in SdC. In SdC I stopped at an ice cream shop about 100m from the bagpipers tunnel for a good hour I felt no need to rush to the square.

 

[Rich1]

I stopped at an ice cream shop about 100m from the bagpipers tunnel for a good hour I felt no need to rush to the square.

Every ice cream shop is cause for celebration and worthy of a prolonged stop

 

[Jeff Crawley]

When I first saw the three decimal distance mahones, I chuckled, shook my head, shrugged, and presumed that the engraver was being paid by the letter / digit. Anything over one decimal place is wasted.

The problem is that modern technology can't cope with "about" - I've worked with young engineers who would punch 2 + 2 (literally) into a calculator before writing down the answer . . . And the number of times I've checked calculations where the result has been 150.345 mm (in road construction?) or somesuch beggars belief.
In the good (?) old days of slide rules (now that ages me) you needed to have a feel for numbers and getting things "about" right. After all it worked on the Apollo program!

 

[Kathor1]

Getting to within the last 100 km and seeing two digits of distance instead of three is another.

I walked in stages. I like to mention this because this may make my experience and feelings different from others who don’t do it this way. When I started, Santiago was so far away that I didn’t work with a fixed number in km as the distance, it was just “far far away”. I wasn’t even certain that I would ever reach it on foot, nor was this a great concern in the beginning. I didn’t even know at that point that one gets a Compostela in the end . But I clearly remember having a coffee in the bar in Ferreiros which is next to a 100,xxx km marker and thinking, wow, I’ve done it, I’m practically there, another 5 days max, it’s nothing. It was a great feeling.

There were other crucial markers like this but they were of a different nature. The Pyrenees were one of these markers (the first sight of them in the distance was very memorable and so was seeing Spain lying ahead of me for the first time) and entering Galicia / O Cebreiro was another one.

 

[Bradypus]

When I started, Santiago was so far away that I didn’t work with a fixed number in km as the distance, it was just “far far away”.

In summer 2015 I walked from Canterbury to Rome. Mostly on the Via Francigena. I very deliberately did not work out or record my daily distances or calculate how far I still had to go until I was very close to Rome itself. It is a very long way and ticking off tiny sections on a map each day would not have made it seem much closer A friend sent me a message one day asking how much further I had to walk and was very surprised when I replied that I hadn't a clue! It only really became an issue when I had to work out my likely arrival date in Rome so that my wife could arrange to be there too.

 

[hel&scott]

So, why bother yourself...?

I am really saddened by this, I like Ed but does it matter where a British comedian stops for a photo op, or where the minimum distance for a certificate starts?

I had another would be pilgrim visit today and when I tried to explain what it was like to disconnect from the world and walk for days in the foot step of others all they wanted to know was what was the minimum in terms of time / cost/ effort and where the best selfie spots were. I could not believe that they had flown half way across the globe to visit "clean green NZ" for a couple of weeks and were looking for the next quick fix cheap place to go to... so I sent them to the back of the farm to cut ink weed and thistles.

 

[Kathor1]

I am really saddened by this, I like Ed but does it matter where a British comedian stops for a photo op, or where the minimum distance for a certificate starts?

This isn't addressed to you personally, @hel&scott, I just use the quote for a general comment, and my question is: Is everyone psychic around here, apart from @Bert45 and me and perhaps one or two others? Must everyone feel about anything to do with the Caminos like oneself does, must everyone be interested in the same things as oneself in exactly the same way? And is there a thing called Saviour syndrome perhaps?

The thread started as a harmless conversation about a quirky thing that just happened to pique someone's interest and that interest was neither a British comedian nor a piece of paper handed out to millions (by now) in Santiago de Compostela ... the thread is being pushed into that direction, though, and I start to regret that I even participated. And I really start to wonder whether it has to do with the fact that some of us live so much closer to Spain and others don't. Perhaps this difference in distance enables or causes us to be interested in or obsessed about fundamentally different things?

I'd also like to point out, in case it hasn't been noticed, that practically every poster in this thread has walked quite a few camino kilometres already, and over multiple years to boot. Not exactly newbies here.

 

[t2andreo]

I am really saddened by this, I like Ed but does it matter where a British comedian stops for a photo op, or where the minimum distance for a certificate starts?

I had another would be pilgrim visit today and when I tried to explain what it was like to disconnect from the world and walk for days in the foot step of others all they wanted to know was what was the minimum in terms of time / cost/ effort and where the best selfie spots were. I could not believe that they had flown half way across the globe to visit "clean green NZ" for a couple of weeks and were looking for the next quick fix cheap place to go to... so I sent them to the back of the farm to cut ink weed and thistles.

THANK YOU for proving my thesis... It applies to the Camino in Spain in exactly the same way.

I accept that there are folks merely interested in the minutiae of the Camino, including interesting places and point of interest. However, and in my experience, interest in the location of the 100 km mojon on any route, invariably involves thinking about "how can I start THERE?"

However, do remember that, as the mojon does not have a sello to document that fact, you must still obtain a suitable sello / tap at the next furthest away point that has one. If you are seeking a Compostela and need to prove that you walked a minimum of 100 km, there is no avoiding this issue. Also consider that the folks at the Pilgrim Office do keep up on all these developments.

As I have said before, and IF you are trying to walk only exactly 100 km to be eligible for he Compostela, expect to be challenged and asked additional questions when you seek it. To avoid this paradigm, just walk from Tui, Ferrol, Sarria, Ourense, etc.

These are the traditional and usual starting places for folks seeking to walk the 'at least 100 km' distance on the Portuguese, Ingles, Frances, and de la Plata/Sanabres.

In Japan there is an old adage that goes: "The nail that sticks up gets hammered down..." Do not be the nail...

Hope this helps.

 

[Kathor1]

And while I'm at it: It sometimes surprises me how little effort is made to understand a poster. Yes, this is online and not face to face and not so easy but still. How difficult is that to understand "I have to admit to a bit of OCD. Anything can set me off. In this case it was watching 'Pilgrimage' again and seeing Ed Byrne by a new mojón, then googling and finding etc etc. ??? Why is it that all you see in the sentence are the two words Ed Byrne and not the two words new mojón?

 

[NorthernLight]

I have no idea who Ed Byrne is, but I get a big kick out of the ever shifting mojons.

I met a maintenance crew in Galicia on one of my last caminos. They were dealing with weed growth and making sure the foundations were secure. My Spanish was good enough to thank them for their service, but not good enough to chat about mojon mobility.

I recall my early days on the Le Puy, looking at my map and comparing the route set out as the GR65, versus just lopping off the extra few km by following the road. The road usually won. These days I'll add km by taking the road rather than follow arrows through rocky, slippery hills.

 

[Kathor1]

Thank you for that link. Interesting reading. I note that it lists Ferrol as the necessary starting point on the Camino Ingles. But I was offered a Compostela on the basis that I had unintentionally walked 102km on a recognized route by joining the Ingles at Neda as part of a longer journey. Very odd and it does indeed suggest a lack of clear and consistent communication somewhere along the line.

Neda as a starting point is a time honoured tradition. In 2010, there were 1315 pilgrims who started in Neda and were granted their Compostela. And 22 pilgrims who started in Mirallos (Ferreiros). With the internet being what it is, that knowledge cannot be wiped out in the collective memory. Did they already have mojones in 2010 or was it yellow arrows only?

 

[Kathor1]

My Spanish was good enough to thank them for their service, but not good enough to chat about mojon mobility.

One has to distinguish between mojon mobility as such and the Big Mojon Shift a few years ago. This is documented for example by a photo taken in Sarria not too long ago. A shop for weaponry, hunting, fishing and pilgrim needs had opted for the name Kilometro112 and had a cute and appropriate logo designed while their Xunta approved distance to Santiago was 112 km. They still use the photo of the 112 km waymarker as their avatar on FB. Then a new calculation was made and new mojones were installed all the way from O Cebreiro to Santiago and now the km112 shop has to live with a mojon outside on their very own pavement that says km114,736. ☺

 

[NorthernLight]

There was a nice big xxx km to Santiago painted on the side of a building in Villadangos del Paramo a few years ago that was substantially higher than the one before it.

If memory serves, the sello at the first bar in Morgade still has the old official km number on it.

The discrepancies add to the flavour.

 

[Rich1]

There was a nice big xxx km to Santiago painted on the side of a building in Villadangos del Paramo a few years ago that was substantially higher than the one before it.

If memory serves, the sello at the first bar in Morgade still has the old official km number on it.

The discrepancies add to the flavour.

I’ve noticed a few that seem out of order - where the next one has a higher distance than the previous one - unless I’d taken a wrong turn

yes, I seem to remember the old one being at Morgade

 

[NorthernLight]

I had to go hunt down my old credential. The sello for the first bar/alburgue in Morgade in 2016 says "Casa Morgade - 99.5 km"

 

[Jeff Crawley]

I walked in stages. I like to mention this because this may make my experience and feelings different from others who don’t do it this way. When I started, Santiago was so far away that I didn’t work with a fixed number in km as the distance, it was just “far far away”. I wasn’t even certain that I would ever reach it on foot, nor was this a great concern in the beginning. I didn’t even know at that point that one gets a Compostela in the end . But I clearly remember having a coffee in the bar in Ferreiros which is next to a 100,xxx km marker and thinking, wow, I’ve done it, I’m practically there, another 5 days max, it’s nothing. It was a great feeling.

There were other crucial markers like this but they were of a different nature. The Pyrenees were one of these markers (the first sight of them in the distance was very memorable and so was seeing Spain lying ahead of me for the first time) and entering Galicia / O Cebreiro was another one.

A dear friend and fellow pilgrim who claims to be a "Buddhist/Catholic" claims there is no such entity as "Santiago de Compostela" until the very last day. She never walks to Santiago, she walks the current stage and is thankful to reach her goal by the end of the day and the next day she walks the current stage and is thankful to reach her goal by the end of the day . . .
Seeing the numbers tumble only saddens her as she knows her current ( ) Camino is coming to an end.
She often reminds me of when we saw the crucifix at Furelos for the first time and the lady with the keys to the church telling us it represented Christ's last days on Earth and our last days on the Camino and she spent much of the next day in sorrowful silence until we reached Arzua where she decided she'd do it all again the next year!

 

[Bert45]

There was a nice big xxx km to Santiago painted on the side of a building in Villadangos del Paramo a few years ago that was substantially higher than the one before it.

If memory serves, the sello at the first bar in Morgade still has the old official km number on it.

The discrepancies add to the flavour.

I don't remember there being two bars in Morgade. I only saw Casa Morgade and their sello has 101.996 on it.

 

[NorthernLight]

I don't remember there being two bars in Morgade. I only saw Casa Morgade and their sello has 101.996 on it.

And what year did you get your sello?

The villages are a blur there, I think the 'second' bar is actually in the next hamlet a few minutes away.

 

[VNwalking]

so I sent them to the back of the farm to cut ink weed and thistles.

Brilliant.
Now to find the way to discourage the mojon-movers. As for the km-shavers, they aren't actually doing anying wrong...just going against someone else's rules that don't actually mean much.

 

[Bert45]

And what year did you get your sello? -- September this year

 

[NorthernLight]

So they have a new sello; I guess I have to go back to get the new one!

 

[t2andreo]

The useful discussions about mojon mobility and movements serve to underscore my advice about cutting corners too finely. It could well be that, in seeking to reduce your walking distance to the barest minimum to be eligible for the Compostela, you might rely on a mojon that was in fact moved, and no longer qualifies. Moreover, this threshold seems, according to the discussion above, to shift about from year to year.

Hence, my point about starting from the town or city that has long been the 'official' starting point for folks seeking to accomplish a shorter Camino that meets the Compostela requirements. The towns / cities or Tui, Ferrol, Sarria, Ourense, etc. are not moving anytime soon, nor can they be moved, hidden or destroyed by jokesters or vandals. They are all well established as being beyond the 100 km threshold.

BTW, I stopped asking for Compostelas several years ago, 2016 IIRC. I now very strongly favor the "solo sello" ending to my pilgrimages. So, this issue of 100 km distance, is merely something I notice as I am walking by. The diminishing mojon numbers are a source of depression to me, as it means my Camino is ending in five days, mas o menas...

I also plan to lobby for an increased use of an official "solo sello" sub-process at the Pilgrim Office and across Santiago as one approach to reducing demand at the Pilgrim Office. This would be in lieu of and replacing a personalized Compostela. The best way to eliminate a workload, is to simply not do it... Even if this skims off only, say 5 percent, of arriving pilgrims who want evidence of completion, the effects on the queue system (whatever it is), and waiting times, would be profound.

Hope this helps.

 

[Kathor1]

So they have a new sello; I guess I have to go back to get the new one!

And then don't forget to scan it and send the scan to Los Sellos del Camino, a wondrous database of you guessed it the sellos of the Camino that gets regularly updated.

Uh, I have an idea. We could discuss sellos where the distance to Santiago is indicated and whether or not the sello has been updated according to the new mojones . I copied a few from the sello database. I don't have any of my own. As a nod to the simple ascetic life of the pilgrim, I made it a habit of getting a sello just from the place where I spent the night and only very occasionally from a chapel or church where I didn't dare to say no to the offer of the local warden. But I'd still rather make a donation and nothing else than having to wrestle my credencial from the depth of my mochila for a sello.

I think these are the old kilómetros and not the new ones, Barbadelo with km108 and Morgade with km99,5.

 

[NorthernLight]

I'm of the same school of thought on sellos -only where I sleep, the churches and those it would be churlish to refuse. I have those extra ones stamped onto the map, on the backside of the credential, so as not to fill the sello slots.

I went looking and I have the same Morgade 99.5 sello from 2016 and I have the new Morgade 101.996 sello from 2017.

A shop 2.5 km after Morgade had 97 km marked on sello in 2016.

The cafe/bar/Albergue El Peregrino in La Portela de Valcarce had km 419 on the sello.

 

[Bert45]

The GPS from the 100km marker photo I took says “Paradela, Lugo, Spain”. In April, 2017 it was heavily graffitied.

Does your GPS give latitude and longitude? And which 100 km marker are you talking about? The 100,000 or the one hand-drawn with a marker pen?

 

[t2andreo]

Most smartphone cameras use the inherent GPRS capabilities of the phone to GPS stamp every photo you take. You can pull out the location using the apps on your main computer.

On my MacBook at home, I think I used Preview to "Get Info." I have not yet figured out how to do this on the fly on my iPhone as I am walking.

THAT would be a very good thing to be able to do. Does anyone know how to reveal the GPS data in each photo using the extant apps on an Iphone / Android, or can you recommend an app that will do this easily?

Thanks

 

[Anniesantiago]

What is a mojón? A waymark? I've never heard this name until this week. Should I feel ignorant?

 

[Bradypus]

What is a mojón? A waymark? I've never heard this name until this week. Should I feel ignorant?

The concrete or stone marker posts. More often seen in the plural 'mojones'.

 

[Kathor1]

I'm adding something to this thread that's not related to the 100 km marker on the Camino Frances but to the Galician Xunta's mojones as an iconic item and to their general project of drumming up yet more Camino business where I guess they view the international markets as particular promising.

The Xunta has now placed five Camino mojones abroad: one in front of the "Pope's Window" in Cracow in Poland; one next to the European Parliament building in Brussels in Belgium; one on the Ipanema beach in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil; and one each in places "linked to Celtic culture" such as Glasgow in Scotland and Lorient in Britanny in France.

From what I read between the lines, the next one may appear in New York in 2020 and perhaps also in Italy.

Stop press: Only a few days ago, international mojon #6 has been installed by the Galician government. It's in the town of Pistoia in Italy.

 

[Camino Chrissy]

You make some wrong assumptions ☺. When the Xunta put the new mojones in place, the ones with the brass plates, they did not install a way marker with a 100,000 km brass plate. They installed one with a 99,930 km plate and one with a 100,757 km plate. They had also recalculated the distances with the result that everything had to be shifted by a few km.

[Edited:] As pilgrims cannot live without a 100 km marker because they need it as background for their camino photo collections, they found a solution but I'm now more confused about this than ever.

As to the brass plates, I can't make up my mind about what I find more irksome: noticing that a brass plate has been stolen or seeing km distances for walkers expressed as a number with 3 digits after the decimal comma.

I personally become inwardly upset when the brass plates have been stolen, and in addition it leaves ugly glue behind. The three digits bother me far less...at least then the brass plate is still intact!

 

[David Tallan]

I'm adding something to this thread that's not related to the 100 km marker on the Camino Frances but to the Galician Xunta's mojones as an iconic item and to their general project of drumming up yet more Camino business where I guess they view the international markets as particular promising.

The Xunta has now placed five Camino mojones abroad: one in front of the "Pope's Window" in Cracow in Poland; one next to the European Parliament building in Brussels in Belgium; one on the Ipanema beach in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil; and one each in places "linked to Celtic culture" such as Glasgow in Scotland and Lorient in Britanny in France.

From what I read between the lines, the next one may appear in New York in 2020 and perhaps also in Italy.

Stop press: Only a few days ago, international mojon #6 has been installed by the Galician government. It's in the town of Pistoia in Italy.

How do we get them to install one in our local town? The oldest church in Toronto happens to be the Cathedral of St. James. It might be a good location.

 

[Kathor1]

I personally become inwardly upset when the brass plates have been stolen, and in addition it leaves ugly glue behind.

I recently walked the famous/infamous last 100 km of the Camino Frances. Thinking of the many comments I've read on the forum, I now wonder whether I walked in a parallel universe because, at least as I remember it, nearly all the brass plates were in place, there was barely a discarded plastic bottle, beer can, coke can, wrapper or other rubbish in sight, and very few people were walking in the direction of Santiago and they all behaved impeccably. Oh, I also started at mojon km100,746 and yes, there's no public transport, you need to go there by taxi. And I didn't set foot into the Pilgrim Office in Santiago as I wasn't interested in a Compostela, a distance certificate or even a stamp.

On purpose, I also got only one stamp per day in my credencial.

I sometimes like to be contrary .

 

[gschmidl]

I sometimes like to be contrary .

It takes mojones to do that.