I am not sure if this is the right place to post this, but it does connect-up with the Frances, so...
I am digging into a camino so old and tough that the
Camino Frances was forged as its "new and improved" incarnation! I refer to the "Camino Viejo," the "Old Camino," a Roman road that stretches through the mountains in the north of Pais Vasco, across Burgos, Palencia, and Leon province to join the Frances in Villafranca de Bierzo. It was used by early early pilgrims, before the Cluny Benedictines showed up and the Moors were driven south in the early 11th century. Pilgs who have walked the Camino San Salvador and/or Vadiniense will recognize some of its towns, and certainly the terrain.
It passes through some of the finest Romanesque architecture in the world, tiny remote chapels out on mountainsides and down in dark valleys, (some in caves) built by Christian refugees during the 10th and 11th centuries... sometimes even earlier! Right up my street.
I have found a Pais Vasco group that is working to waymark and map the route -- it is supposedly do-able already via mountain bike. I hope to join them when they resume waymarking from Aguilar de Campoo, a town in the Sierra Palentina north of Moratinos.
Anyone on here done any of this camino, or know more about it? We mentioned it before -- it is best known for its appearance on a Camino desk calendar and coffee mug a couple of years ago. Anyone else wanna try it, Spring or Summer 2012?