Camino Maps...

[zee]

Does anyone have any source for decent PDF or JPG maps online. I'm looking for detailed maps from Cebreiro to Santiago. The camino maps section on the main site does not contain any links or files and the others I found online are too broad or too crude.

So far this is the Itinerary I created for the 7 days, any tips or suggestions are welcomed.

Summary Longest stage:
Palas de Rei - Ribadiso da Baixo: 25.7 km.
stage: O Pedrouzo - Santiago de Compostela: 20.1 km.
Total distance: 160.1 km. Stages: 7. Average: 22.9 km per walking day.


1) O Cebreiro - Triacastela 20.9km
2) Triacastela - Sarria 24.6km
3) Sarria - Portomarín 22.4km
4) Portomarín - Palas de Rei 24.9km
5) Palas de Rei - Ribadiso da Baixo 25.7km
6) Ribadiso da Baixo - O Pedrouzo (FR 500 m) 21.5km
7) O Pedrouzo (FR 500 m) - Santiago de Compostela 20.1km


Thanks to all!

[Tanya Yaksich]

Hi Zee,
There are a couple of good sites with free info and maps. www.godesalco.com You can plan your whole itinerary stage by stage and play around with it and then print it, it's great. The other site is www.mundicamino.com/ingles, that also gives you stage by stage description to read or print. Has medical chemist and other info. The godesalco site also gives you every hostel, auberge, hotel etc. with cumulative kms. and altitude.
Cheers Tanya

[HuskyNerd]

Hey, Zee ,
Sounds like you've got a great plan for your Camino. I've relied on the maps in the Brierley guidebook myself, though it's completely possible to do the Camino with no map at all. There are plenty of markers along the way to guide you. In my experience, though, most English speakers do carry Brierley.

Do you have plans to stop at Samos? I feel it's one of the Camino's most unique spots and worth the extra steps.

¡Buen Camino!

[Covey]

Why worry about maps?

Your life on the Camino, irrespective of which route you take or for how long, is ruled by the yellow arrows! If they say take a left, then that is what you do. Your map might tell you that there appears to be a shorter or less hilly route, but if you are walking the Camino, you do what the yellow arrows tell you to do. I never carry a map or guide book. They just tell you where the yellow arrows are pointing.

One of the things a lot of pilgrims like about the Camino is that most of the choices which befuddle modern life are reduced to simplicity. You get up, you follow the yellow arrows and they will guide you to where you are going to sleep that night. In between, you can empty your mind of all your normal daily clutter, look around you and absorb the beauty of the different countrysides as you walk along, chat to all sorts of people you would have never met at home, and in the quiet moments, you can think about what drew you to the Camino?

PS: You will see some BLUE arrows along the Ways. THEY ARE THE ARROWS FOR THOSE WALKING THE REVERSE ROUTES FROM SANTIAGO TO THE START POINTS> ie: Santiago to Leon, Burgos or St Jean

[Leslie]

The first year I walked I took maps and the biggest dam book on the Camino I could find. I could not dump it because it belonged to one of my flat mates - I hated that book at the end of every day during the first week or so. I was searching my pack every night to see what I did not need - and there was that book winking at me...

I like having a list of all the albergues, so I know how far it is to the next one if I don't stop at the one I am at. On this note I will have a pdf that can be download up on the albergues page during the next week or so - I just received a copy of the list that they hand out at St Jean, things have moved on a bit since I was last there it is fairly comprehensive.

[Covey]

If you look around the albergues in the evenings you will probably see a copy of every guide book written about the Camino, and in a wide variety of languages, being carried by virtually every pilgrim in the place. Some carry more than one!!! but when you add up the weight some are carrying an extra couple of kilo's in guides, maps and notebooks.

Some start with huge pre-planned itineraries of where they plan on staying each night, what buildings or churches they wanted to visit and photograph, the exact distances they were going to walk each day and I have even seen a daily menu to ensure the couple were getting a balanced diet. My comments that I could go a long way on a Gin & Tonic did not seem to hit the mark with them.

My serious advice for anybody wanting to walk the Camino is to put a lot of thought into making sure you have the right equipment and clothing to make life a little easier on yourself. Do some long training walks before you set off so that your boots/shoes are well broken in. Make sure that if you are flying around the world to get to your start point that you have a couple of rest days to get over the jet lag. The first day out of St Jean is the hardest day of all on the Camino Frances.

Having arrived at your start point, take a deep breath, and empty your mind of all the clutter of "what if" and "when do I" and relax. The Camino will hold you safe, and what will be, will be. Each day starts with your mind like a blank sheet of paper, and the nice thing is that you don't have to fill it up. I don't start thinking about where I am going to sleep that night until lunch time. It depends on the weather, the company, how I feel, how much laundry I need to do and all sorts of really inconsequential things. Those who decided such things six months before sitting at home thousands of miles away, are really missing the point!!

[HuskyNerd]

Good advice from Covey and Leslie, as always. On my first Camino the value of the Brierley guidebook was to know my options for the day (there sometimes are 2-3 choices of routes), to know what points of interest are around me (I'm a Medieval history buff), and to clearly understand the housing options for the next night (I prefer albergues 4-5 nights followed by a hotel, and there are often many options for both). I'm also counting ahead to make certain I'm keeping my pace to finish on time (or early to go to Finisterre). Brierley's daily stages help in that regard. For this his book was worth its weight in gold.

This year on the Via de la Plata (my first) I will not be taking a guidebook, though, and instead will rely on web research and my still-humble Spanish skills. And then next year on the Camino Frances I will not take a guidebook as the ground is familiar and a guidebook will be unnecessary. So while I greatly respect you two Camino veterans I'd still recommend a single, choice guidebook as adequate for the first time, but relying on your memory and yellow arrows the second time is just fine.

[zee]

Thanks everyone for the great tips and advice, I'm not really planning to take a guide book with me, basically my map search was meant as a way to find out about the different areas I would pass, and what would be of interest in there. As a photographer I always like to scout and inform myself ahead of time, as I like to learn about the history and the places as much as to photograph them.

My challenge now is trying to decide what lens I should take, since I want to keep it to a minimum and I don't want to carry my whole set up....I might go with an small middle range zoom , but might lose on the wide angle for landscapes....decisions...lol

As far as the maps, after some digging, I was able to find an AMAZING resource online that just fits my needs. The only downside for those who do not know Spanish, is that is a Spanish website, but if that's not a problem for you , you can find very nice and detailed information about each section, information on services and albergues, recent reviews from other pilgrims and even a way for you to save the whole thing as a pdf.

Since I'm only starting from Cebreiro, I just printed the last section maps and compiled the main information on each section into small prints, so I can keep them inside my Moleskine whenever I need to refer to it while I do my journal each day. For those interested, this is the Link: El Camino Frances

Buen Camino!

PS/ And yes, Samos all the way! I've been at the Monastery before when I was a kid, now I would not miss it for the world as a pilgrim

[HuskyNerd]

Thanks, Zee, for the tip on the Consumer Eroski website. Fabulous! It's just what I needed for the Camino Sanabres and translating it will help me practice my Español. Great help. Thanks!

[zee]

Most of the time if you use the Google Language tools one can get a basic understanding of the paragraph even if it was done literal. On another note, this is the link where they host all the PDFs for each section of the camino, (they also have a larger PDF with the camino as a whole) http://caminodesantiago.consumer.es/...ela-al-camino/

If anyone needs help translating a particularly hard section, I will be more than happy to assist.

Zee ya!