Since I was last here in 2011, much has changed (for the better). There are several new explanatory plaques about the ancient Roman road, which the VDLP follows, including one sort of recreated section that gives you an idea of its width and general contours.
At the base of Pico de la Duena, the highest point, there used to be a marked detour for cyclists or anyone wishing to avoid climbing the steep, rocky hill. Now it's crossed off. I think I know why. Last night, our casa rural hosts said the markings on the desvio (detour) were terrible, and many cyclists and other peregrinos routinely got lost. One landowner was also intentionally hindering pilgrims, I think they said. Long story short, you must make the climb. But it's not bad at all.
When we got to the top, I pulled out some of Riley's fur and Maura and I each gave Riles a little eulogy of sorts before scattering his fur to the wind. RIP, Riley!
When we emerged onto the highway leading to San Pedro, I was interested to see that now you're guided off-road for most of the way. This is much nicer than walking 7-8 miles on the highway, as you had to do in the past. There were some flooded parts we couldn't hop over, though, so we did spend a little time on the road.
Eventually we reached the path to San Pedro. Interestingly, new Camino signage tells pilgrims to continue along the road, bypassing San Pedro and heading straight to Morille. Since we're staying in San Pedro tonight, we went there. Locals assured us San Pedro is still the original, official Camino, and politics is behind the change -- lots of politicians live in Morille, and there's a government-run albergue they'd like lots of pilgrims to patronize.
Our stop tonight is VII Carreras, a wonderful hotel/bar/restaurant. Mari Carmen, the proprietor, is lovely, as is the entire facility. Bonus: She offered to wash our clothes. That always wins my heart when I'm hiking!
great to read your blog! As it happens, there is a ferocious competition between San Pedro and Morille which is plain stupid. The diversion that avoids climibing Pico de la Dueña avoids all tarmac and allows pilgrims to have shorter stage (11 miles to Pedrosillo, where there is an albergue, instead of 18 to San Pedro) if they are not willing or able to make it to San Pedro. The San Pedro people have crossed out the arrows so that EVERYBODY has to go through San Pedro, which I find very unfair. This said, the San Pedro people have ALSO crossed out the arrows that allow you to go to Morille without having to cross San Pedro, which I find very unfair too, it adds a couple of extra km which you might not need to do. To top it all, San Pedro is full of yellow arrows pointing you to a private rural house and to a bar, but not the real albergue. After seeing all that, I decided to move on to Morille and I am glad I did so; Morille is a beautiful little town, with a great bar, excellent atmosphere for pilgrims and a brand new beautiful albergue, it seems a lot friendlier a place than San Pedro. It was also the local festival and everybody was dressed as in Middle Ages. Morille also has a "Modern Art Cemetery", where they bury "modern art pieces". Very original idea.
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