The many ways to Bruma

[Betterisgood]

Hello all,
I thought I would give my thoughts on the different routes to Bruma on the Camino Ingles. My son just finished the famed 'selectividad' testing last Friday, now the wait until this Friday for his results. Waking up this Monday morning we felt the best way to pass some time would be to follow some arrows with a catch, this time we would try to find our way on the 'old route' from Presedo to Bruma. By the way, we are blessed to live in A Coruña, for us this is doable, so armed with the wise pilgrim app and my son's good sense of direction (I'm hopeless) we set off from the Mesón-Museo restaurant near the Presedo Albergue. The old and new are the same until you pass the cemetery in Leiro, the pillar will direct you right for the new and our app veared us left for the old. Today a farmer in his tractor was honking at us to let us know we went the wrong way, how nice, we let him know we wanted to go this way and he waved goodbye.
We have walked to Bruma the Ferrol 'new' (post 2017) way 2 times last May and June, and the Coruña way at least 4 times the most recent being last September. So now I will try to compare....by the way my son and I plan on passing some more time refreshing our memories on the other two routes weather willing and I will update when we do, but the forcast.......the good thing about living here is you can choose to not walk in the rain!!
Now my thoughts :
Over all the two ferrol routes are really very similar, you enjoy the Galician scenery on both. Both take you up, both have road walking and path walking. I would say that the old is less road walking, I will pay attention to this when we walk the new again. Both my son and I were looking forward to tackling the big climb from Casa Julia.......we are still waiting. My son feels the new way is actually more up hill walking, my memory of the new way tells me that the old way just gets you up a little faster maybe a little bit steeper but I can not imagine the reason for changing this route was to eliminate this climb. What we can both agree on is if it is a big hill challenge you want take the time to walk from Coruña, that walk is relentless!! We love it!!
So what route to choose. The old way through the various forrest tracks is definitely overgrown, you can still see the path but I can see a future that will have the path completely covered in places, I am covered in thorn scratches from legs to neck....however this isn't a big proportion of the walk. If you take the old way you will need a map or an app, you can still see some fading painted arrows but not one single pillar remains. The wise pilgrim app was great, but it is an online map and we have data plans here so we can use it, I think varios members have given links to their tracks in other threads so you could try to download one of those. Like I wrote above I do think there is less road walking on the old but it is not tarmac free by any means. I honestly think you won't miss out on anything by choosing either route from Ferrol We are partial to the Coruña way....if you have an extra day give it a go!!
Thanks for reading!!
Buen camino!!
MaryEllen

 

[Deleted member 67185]

The best of luck to your son as he awaits the results of his testing And thank you for taking the time to post this information.

 

[Betterisgood]

The best of luck to your son as he awaits the results of his testing And thank you for taking the time to post this information.

Thank you!! The scores from the selectividad combined with your GPA from Bachillerato decide what you can study in college, in Spain you don't apply just to college you apply to a degree within a school and everyone is ranked by their scores and the spots are given away from highest to lowest. So fingers crossed!!

 

[Betterisgood]

Hello again,
So last night the forcast was rain...and this morning the rain was here as promised. My son decided it didn't matter so off we went with our ponchos, however as we climbed in the car the rain stopped and other than a few sprinkles did not return during our walk, so lucky!!
Once again we started out from the Mesón-Museo this time we took the right after the cemetery in Leiro and followed the arrows, no map needed. I am glad that we were able to walk the old and new back to back, my year old memory was OK but not perfect.
My observations :
The new route is much shorter, it clocked in at 6.8 miles on my iPhone health app (not reliable for true distance but ok for comparing) the old route was 8.5 miles.Yesterday we took 4 hours and 5 minutes today we took 2 hours 40 minutes.....
The new route is definitely more road walking but a lot of this is loose gravel/dirt roads so not too hard on the feet. I find that we walk faster on the roads.
The old route has, with out a doubt, better views of the country side. I didn't expect this after yesterday's walk. The new route is nice but really no comparison.
As I said yesterday the old route is quite overgrown in some of the forest sections, the new route has much wider roads and paths and no overgrowth so I don't see this being a problem in the future.
As for service's the new route has a bathroom in the middle of the day at the park on the lake in Encoro de Beche, and Bar Avelina a couple of kms before Bruma. The Old route, Casa Julia, but closed Monday's (yesterday was Monday....)
The new route is marked very well, the old you need a map, the arrows that you see don't mark everything and are fading fast, I don't know if they will be redone.......
The weather was about the same both days (low 60s) and today we did not drink any water, we didn't get thirsty or hungry and we didn't get tired. Yesterday we drank about a liter each, and we got hungry and tired.....so even though we didn't feel the hill was very tough yesterday, today's in comparison was easier. My son thinks this is because of the shorter overall distance not that the hills were steeper. It is true that today felt like we were walking up a greater percentage of the time. I am 52 and my son 17 we are used to walking and in ok but by no means great shape. Also, we are not in the middle of a camino, we walked yesterday and today sleeping in our own home taking the husband/Dad cab!!
I think it is great having both options, if you are limited in time and walking long stages it is nice to have a shorter option making the trip from Ferrol doable in 4 days (tough ones), and if you are taking it easy with shorter stages you can enjoy the longer option.
So next on the agenda is Sergude to Bruma on the A Coruña arm. Not sure when we can get that done hopefully soon, I'll keep you posted!!
Again, thanks for reading and Buen Camino!!
MaryEllen

 

[Elle Bieling]

I have done the old way to Bruma and the new way, only once each. I thought the new way was definitely easier, though less scenic. However, some years passed between the journeys, so not so sure.

I have also done the climb out of La Coruña, and yes it is a grunt! Here is my husband, about 1/2 of the way up the climb, praying for the flat! Ha ha!




Is the way out of the city better waymarked these days? We got lost, and the locals didn't even know the way.

 

[Betterisgood]

I have done the old way to Bruma and the new way, only once each. I thought the new way was definitely easier, though less scenic. However, some years passed between the journeys, so not so sure.

I have also done the climb out of La Coruña, and yes it is a grunt! Here is my husband, about 1/2 of the way up the climb, praying for the flat! Ha ha!


View attachment 59520

Is the way out of the city better waymarked these days? We got lost, and the locals didn't even know the way.

Hi Elle,
Thanks for replying, I need to tell you that your website has been a constant companion of ours!! I found it after we walked the Portuguese from Porto in 2017 but before we walked from Lisbon in 2018, your posts on the inglés I saw after as well but before you updated from your trip last year, you were walking around the same time as us in 2018 (April -June) but we are weekend walkers of the inglés with work and the kids, we use it to train for when we have time for a full Camino, I'm free this week from the orchestra so I have time to walk a few days in a row.
I honestly don't know if the way out of Coruña is better, in September we left from our house and caught up with the Camino near the bus station, and from there it is ok but we live here so we know where we are going, the suicide plunge by Al Campo was still there..... I'm sure my son would be up for another walk and I'm glad to start from Maria Pita and check for you. First up though is Sergude to Bruma, if I start from here I won't be able to compare it properly with the Ferrol arm. As you know Coruña to just before Bar Avelina is pretty much all up hill!!
Again thank you so much for your thoughtful and informative web site, you have guided our way!!
Buen Camino,
MaryEllen
By the way my husband and I met in Colorado after college, we love it there!! I'm from Oregon and he is from New York. Small world we live in.

 

[Elle Bieling]

Hi Elle,
Thanks for replying, I need to tell you that your website has been a constant companion of ours!! I found it after we walked the Portuguese from Porto in 2017 but before we walked from Lisbon in 2018, your posts on the inglés I saw after as well but before you updated from your trip last year, you were walking around the same time as us in 2018 (April -June) but we are weekend walkers of the inglés with work and the kids, we use it to train for when we have time for a full Camino, I'm free this week from the orchestra so I have time to walk a few days in a row.
I honestly don't know if the way out of Coruña is better, in September we left from our house and caught up with the Camino near the bus station, and from there it is ok but we live here so we know where we are going, the suicide plunge by Al Campo was still there..... I'm sure my son would be up for another walk and I'm glad to start from Maria Pita and check for you. First up though is Sergude to Bruma, if I start from here I won't be able to compare it properly with the Ferrol arm. As you know Coruña to just before Bar Avelina is pretty much all up hill!!
Again thank you so much for your thoughtful and informative web site, you have guided our way!!
Buen Camino,
MaryEllen
By the way my husband and I met in Colorado after college, we love it there!! I'm from Oregon and he is from New York. Small world we live in.

Wow, thank you so much for your nice feedback! And how amazing that we walked at similar times. I am not sure I know what the "Al Campo" suicide plunge is? Is that a colloquial saying? And yes, the hill climbing on this arm is so much more brutal than the Ferrol arm. But nonetheless, I enjoyed the Galician countryside so much! I'd love to do a repeat one day, but other Camininos are calling my name!

I LOVE, LOVE the Bar Avelina, and other pilgrims have communicated with me how warm a reception they received there as well. One lady printed out my eBook to carry and showed Avelina, one of the sisters who owns the bar, the photos of the bar. She was so happy to see her Bar and the San Roque Church pictures in print that she rolled out the royal carpet for her! She said it was the highlight of her English Camino! And the church is 100% supported by pilgrims. I am sure that Avelina keeps the donations coming!

And yes, I understand that you are on a mission to do the Sergude to Bruma route. I know all about goals. I actually looked at some recent GPS tracks on Wikiloc of the route out of A Coruña, and they are all over the map! Quite literally! Of the three I found for this year, all three walked different ways! And I had read that the officials were placing more signage. Perhaps it still isn't clear. If you follow my GPS tracks, I found the waymarks pretty well, so they may actually be good!

Looking forward to your future posts, and who knows? We may one day meet on the Inglés! ~ Elle

 

[Elle Bieling]

@Betterisgood, Mary Ellen, I would be extremely grateful for any validation and/or corrections to the route I used out of A Coruña!

 

[Betterisgood]

Wow, thank you so much for your nice feedback! And how amazing that we walked at similar times. I am not sure I know what the "Al Campo" suicide plunge is? Is that a colloquial saying? And yes, the hill climbing on this arm is so much more brutal than the Ferrol arm. But nonetheless, I enjoyed the Galician countryside so much! I'd love to do a repeat one day, but other Camininos are calling my name!

I LOVE, LOVE the Bar Avelina, and other pilgrims have communicated with me how warm a reception they received there as well. One lady printed out my eBook to carry and showed Avelina, one of the sisters who owns the bar, the photos of the bar. She was so happy to see her Bar and the San Roque Church pictures in print that she rolled out the royal carpet for her! She said it was the highlight of her English Camino! And the church is 100% supported by pilgrims. I am sure that Avelina keeps the donations coming!

And yes, I understand that you are on a mission to do the Sergude to Bruma route. I know all about goals. I actually looked at some recent GPS tracks on Wikiloc of the route out of A Coruña, and they are all over the map! Quite literally! Of the three I found for this year, all three walked different ways! And I had read that the officials were placing more signage. Perhaps it still isn't clear. If you follow my GPS tracks, I found the waymarks pretty well, so they may actually be good!

Looking forward to your future posts, and who knows? We may one day meet on the Inglés! ~ Elle

Hi Elle,
The 'suicide plunge' is when you are leaving the city before the Al Campo supermarket, you cross a few roadways merging, probably the worst crossing I have made on any camino, thus our pet name for it!!
I don't track my walks all the time, the milage is never correct but I have only used free apps.
I honestly don't remember the walk we did today being so easy last year (new route) my son insists it is the same and I trust his memory but I wouldn't be surprised if there were slight changes, we honestly didn't get at all tired.....unfortunately we didn't follow your tracks this time just pillars and arrows so I don't know if it is different. Looking at your pictures on the website any changes would have to be small. The owner of the bar Avelina brought us all small stools for under the table to put our feet up!! The last time we stopped we had walked from home and had another 6km or so to go we were crazy and decided to try to get to Santiago in 2 stages as the various places recommend, which we did but separated by a week due to my schedule, no way can I rehearse after walking 35+km. I really do not recommend walking from Coruña to Santiago in 2 days....
I too want to walk other caminos, my son and I walked the invierno this past semana santa I can highly recommend it, I wrote a little about it here. This summer we thought to do the Primitivo but my youngest daughter wants to go back to Portugal so we shall.
Thanks again for the time you spend helping us all out!!
Buen Camino
MaryEllen

 

[Elle Bieling]

@Betterisgood Oh I just figured it out! Al Campo is the hypermarket, and yes the intersections and highway walking there was unbelievably bad! I re-read my own blog, and realized what you were talking about.

 

[Elle Bieling]

Hi Elle,
The 'suicide plunge' is when you are leaving the city before the Al Campo supermarket, you cross a few roadways merging, probably the worst crossing I have made on any camino, thus our pet name for it!!
I don't track my walks all the time, the milage is never correct but I have only used free apps.
I honestly don't remember the walk we did today being so easy last year (new route) my son insists it is the same and I trust his memory but I wouldn't be surprised if there were slight changes, we honestly didn't get at all tired.....unfortunately we didn't follow your tracks this time just pillars and arrows so I don't know if it is different. Looking at your pictures on the website any changes would have to be small. The owner of the bar Avelina brought us all small stools for under the table to put our feet up!! The last time we stopped we had walked from home and had another 6km or so to go we were crazy and decided to try to get to Santiago in 2 stages as the various places recommend, which we did but separated by a week due to my schedule, no way can I rehearse after walking 35+km. I really do not recommend walking from Coruña to Santiago in 2 days....
I too want to walk other caminos, my son and I walked the invierno this past semana santa I can highly recommend it, I wrote a little about it here. This summer we thought to do the Primitivo but my youngest daughter wants to go back to Portugal so we shall.
Thanks again for the time you spend helping us all out!!
Buen Camino
MaryEllen

I can't imagine during the entire way from La Coruña to SdC in two days! Wow! 75 km of climbing, essentially, except from Sigueiro! You are a better woman than I! And thank you for checking out my photos. Based on your info, I may have gotten it right! With all those "Desvio Provisional por Obras" signs we saw, I was sure the route had changed since April, '18.

 

[Bruce and Margaret]

Hello all,
I thought I would give my thoughts on the different routes to Bruma on the Camino Ingles. My son just finished the famed 'selectividad' testing last Friday, now the wait until this Friday for his results. Waking up this Monday morning we felt the best way to pass some time would be to follow some arrows with a catch, this time we would try to find our way on the 'old route' from Presedo to Bruma. By the way, we are blessed to live in A Coruña, for us this is doable, so armed with the wise pilgrim app and my son's good sense of direction (I'm hopeless) we set off from the Mesón-Museo restaurant near the Presedo Albergue. The old and new are the same until you pass the cemetery in Leiro, the pillar will direct you right for the new and our app veared us left for the old. Today a farmer in his tractor was honking at us to let us know we went the wrong way, how nice, we let him know we wanted to go this way and he waved goodbye.
We have walked to Bruma the Ferrol 'new' (post 2017) way 2 times last May and June, and the Coruña way at least 4 times the most recent being last September. So now I will try to compare....by the way my son and I plan on passing some more time refreshing our memories on the other two routes weather willing and I will update when we do, but the forcast.......the good thing about living here is you can choose to not walk in the rain!!
Now my thoughts :
Over all the two ferrol routes are really very similar, you enjoy the Galician scenery on both. Both take you up, both have road walking and path walking. I would say that the old is less road walking, I will pay attention to this when we walk the new again. Both my son and I were looking forward to tackling the big climb from Casa Julia.......we are still waiting. My son feels the new way is actually more up hill walking, my memory of the new way tells me that the old way just gets you up a little faster maybe a little bit steeper but I can not imagine the reason for changing this route was to eliminate this climb. What we can both agree on is if it is a big hill challenge you want take the time to walk from Coruña, that walk is relentless!! We love it!!
So what route to choose. The old way through the various forrest tracks is definitely overgrown, you can still see the path but I can see a future that will have the path completely covered in places, I am covered in thorn scratches from legs to neck....however this isn't a big proportion of the walk. If you take the old way you will need a map or an app, you can still see some fading painted arrows but not one single pillar remains. The wise pilgrim app was great, but it is an online map and we have data plans here so we can use it, I think varios members have given links to their tracks in other threads so you could try to download one of those. Like I wrote above I do think there is less road walking on the old but it is not tarmac free by any means. I honestly think you won't miss out on anything by choosing either route from Ferrol We are partial to the Coruña way....if you have an extra day give it a go!!
Thanks for reading!!
Buen camino!!
MaryEllen View attachment 59471View attachment 59472

My wife and I are doing the Ingles in September. We will be following what you have to say. Thank you Bruce and Margaret.

 

[Betterisgood]

I can't imagine during the entire way from La Coruña to SdC in two days! Wow! 75 km of climbing, essentially, except from Sigueiro! You are a better woman than I! And thank you for checking out my photos. Based on your info, I may have gotten it right! With all those "Desvio Provisional por Obras" signs we saw, I was sure the route had changed since April, '18.

Hi,
I didn't see any desvío signs yesterday, but tomorrow weather willing I will track with my map my walk app for you.
I will never try to walk to Santiago in two days again and I walked it in two days but separated by a week, two days in a row.....my son is crazy and wants to attempt it in one day walking through the night, but he doesn't like to walk alone and I said no way!!!
Our trip on the invierno we had only 9 days free and in order to get it done we had 3 almost 35km days, luckily separated but think I'm done with those over 30km days just not worth it. I didn't move for a week after that...
Buen camino!!
MaryEllen

 

[Betterisgood]

My wife and I are doing the Ingles in September. We will be following what you have to say. Thank you Bruce and Margaret.

Hi,
I'm happy to answer any questions I can, it really is a beautiful walk from Ferrol or Coruña.
Buen Camino,
MaryEllen

 

[Elle Bieling]

Hi,
I'm happy to answer any questions I can, it really is a beautiful walk from Ferrol or Coruña.
Buen Camino,
MaryEllen

Thank you again Mary Ellen!

 

[Betterisgood]

Hello yet again,
Today we finished our ways to Bruma goal by walking the Coruña section from the panadería da cunha right before the Sergude albergue to Bar Avelina 2.5km from Bruma, We didn't feel the need to rewalk that strech.
This walk was just as we remembered uphill!! However we like to walk uphill so for us a nice walk, the views are lovely. Of the 3 walks this one is definitely the most challenging, especially if you start in coruña. I have to admit that the majority is on hard surfaces (not the final hill though). My son and I don't mind walking on roads but I know for some this is tough. If you start in coruña it is even more road walking simply because you have to get out of the city. I still recommend the walk from Coruña to Bruma if you have a couple of extra days when you come to walk the inglés. I would recommend taking 2 days with a stop at the albergue in Sergude. I have never stayed there since I live so close, but it is well located just about half way. It is possible to walk in one day but it is a tiring day.
As we walked today my son and I talked about why they changed the way between Leiro and Bruma I have read a lot of speculation but we really have no idea. Our thoughts/speculation, it is not because of the hill on the old way, yes it is tough but after the stages from Ferrol nothing out of the ordinary. It could be to make the stage shorter and more direct, it took us almost 1.5 hours less to walk the new way. The old way with out a doubt has better views but the new way is nice too. So why!!?? My best guess is to make it safer and more accessible as the volume of pilgrims doing the inglés grows.
So this concludes the ways to Bruma experiment. It has helped my son pass the time until he gets his scores and I hope can help some of you as you plan your Camino Inglés.
Buen camino!!
MaryEllen

 

[Elle Bieling]

The albergue in Sergude is very new, very nice and has a convenient coin-operated laundry. It has two large dormitory rooms, but we had only five pilgrims there the night we stayed one year ago. The kitchen is also nice, but nothing to cook with. Instead we ate at the Bar Casa Adolfo, just 400 meters farther along the Camino. We had a pilgrims menu for only 8 Euro. There were no available blankets, but we were allowed to turn up the heat in the room!

 

[Bruce and Margaret]

Hello yet again,
Today we finished our ways to Bruma goal by walking the Coruña section from the panadería da cunha right before the Sergude albergue to Bar Avelina 2.5km from Bruma, We didn't feel the need to rewalk that strech.
This walk was just as we remembered uphill!! However we like to walk uphill so for us a nice walk, the views are lovely. Of the 3 walks this one is definitely the most challenging, especially if you start in coruña. I have to admit that the majority is on hard surfaces (not the final hill though). My son and I don't mind walking on roads but I know for some this is tough. If you start in coruña it is even more road walking simply because you have to get out of the city. I still recommend the walk from Coruña to Bruma if you have a couple of extra days when you come to walk the inglés. I would recommend taking 2 days with a stop at the albergue in Sergude. I have never stayed there since I live so close, but it is well located just about half way. It is possible to walk in one day but it is a tiring day.
As we walked today my son and I talked about why they changed the way between Leiro and Bruma I have read a lot of speculation but we really have no idea. Our thoughts/speculation, it is not because of the hill on the old way, yes it is tough but after the stages from Ferrol nothing out of the ordinary. It could be to make the stage shorter and more direct, it took us almost 1.5 hours less to walk the new way. The old way with out a doubt has better views but the new way is nice too. So why!!?? My best guess is to make it safer and more accessible as the volume of pilgrims doing the inglés grows.
So this concludes the ways to Bruma experiment. It has helped my son pass the time until he gets his scores and I hope can help some of you as you plan your Camino Inglés.
Buen camino!!
MaryEllen

Hello yet again,
Today we finished our ways to Bruma goal by walking the Coruña section from the panadería da cunha right before the Sergude albergue to Bar Avelina 2.5km from Bruma, We didn't feel the need to rewalk that strech.
This walk was just as we remembered uphill!! However we like to walk uphill so for us a nice walk, the views are lovely. Of the 3 walks this one is definitely the most challenging, especially if you start in coruña. I have to admit that the majority is on hard surfaces (not the final hill though). My son and I don't mind walking on roads but I know for some this is tough. If you start in coruña it is even more road walking simply because you have to get out of the city. I still recommend the walk from Coruña to Bruma if you have a couple of extra days when you come to walk the inglés. I would recommend taking 2 days with a stop at the albergue in Sergude. I have never stayed there since I live so close, but it is well located just about half way. It is possible to walk in one day but it is a tiring day.
As we walked today my son and I talked about why they changed the way between Leiro and Bruma I have read a lot of speculation but we really have no idea. Our thoughts/speculation, it is not because of the hill on the old way, yes it is tough but after the stages from Ferrol nothing out of the ordinary. It could be to make the stage shorter and more direct, it took us almost 1.5 hours less to walk the new way. The old way with out a doubt has better views but the new way is nice too. So why!!?? My best guess is to make it safer and more accessible as the volume of pilgrims doing the inglés grows.
So this concludes the ways to Bruma experiment. It has helped my son pass the time until he gets his scores and I hope can help some of you as you plan your Camino Inglés.
Buen camino!!
MaryEllen

Hello yet again,
Today we finished our ways to Bruma goal by walking the Coruña section from the panadería da cunha right before the Sergude albergue to Bar Avelina 2.5km from Bruma, We didn't feel the need to rewalk that strech.
This walk was just as we remembered uphill!! However we like to walk uphill so for us a nice walk, the views are lovely. Of the 3 walks this one is definitely the most challenging, especially if you start in coruña. I have to admit that the majority is on hard surfaces (not the final hill though). My son and I don't mind walking on roads but I know for some this is tough. If you start in coruña it is even more road walking simply because you have to get out of the city. I still recommend the walk from Coruña to Bruma if you have a couple of extra days when you come to walk the inglés. I would recommend taking 2 days with a stop at the albergue in Sergude. I have never stayed there since I live so close, but it is well located just about half way. It is possible to walk in one day but it is a tiring day.
As we walked today my son and I talked about why they changed the way between Leiro and Bruma I have read a lot of speculation but we really have no idea. Our thoughts/speculation, it is not because of the hill on the old way, yes it is tough but after the stages from Ferrol nothing out of the ordinary. It could be to make the stage shorter and more direct, it took us almost 1.5 hours less to walk the new way. The old way with out a doubt has better views but the new way is nice too. So why!!?? My best guess is to make it safer and more accessible as the volume of pilgrims doing the inglés grows.
So this concludes the ways to Bruma experiment. It has helped my son pass the time until he gets his scores and I hope can help some of you as you plan your Camino Inglés.
Buen camino!!
MaryEllen

Thanks for your latest update.
We are doing the Ingles as part of our caravan holiday. We intend to use it as a base when we can and use other accommodation when it's not practical. We intend to start in Ferrol and use busses to return to the caravan till we get out of range. When we reach Betanzos we will then move the caravan to Coruña. So your update today was most helpful and inspiring. Regards Bruce and Margaret.