shortest route

[Ignacio Franc és]

I have just walked this route. I started at Ferrol on August the
14th and arrived at Santiago 5 days later.

You MUST have a good knoledge of spanish because the route is not well
marked. Many of the arrows have either faded or been covered by the
plants. The new highway from Santiago to Ferrol has added some extra cuts.
The only way of arriving to your destiny is getting a photocopied guide in
Spanish from the Tourist office in Ferrol or in the fist Albergue in Neda.
And you will also have to ask the local peasants many times and they will
probably answer you in Galego.

This last month the number of pilgrims in this route is 0-5 dayly. It
is by far the less crowded route. This means that you will walk alone
most of the time. In five days I walked with another 3 pilgrims
along one morning only.

You will only have 2 pilgrim albergues in 130 Km. The third one is been
closed for the last 4 years. This means that you will have to sleep in
hotels at least two days and one of them is on the Meson do Vento road,
2km away from the route. The day I arrived there I stayed lost two
hours in the forest before I found the road because I missed the right
cross over the highway and got into the forest at the wrong point.

Obviously, it is not impossible to do but you MUST know before you go
that it is NOT the french route and that you are going to find more
difficulties and you will have to be mentally strong to overcome them.

If you finally decide to go for it and need extra information please
do not hesitate to ask me.

Buen Camino


Ignacio