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  • The division of the route of the Camino Francés into stages is purely arbitrary, though for most people it is constrained by the location of the refugios, whether they want to use the opportunities for sightseeing, particularly in the big cities., and whether they want rest days or half rest days. For example, there are no refugios between St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port and Roncesvalles, so you cannot do a lesser distance, and few people are inclined to do more! Pamplona, Burgos and Leon all have enough sights to fill several days if you have the time.
  • If you would be interested in taking the digital photographs for any other parts of the Camino in France or Spain, please get in touch by Email
  • We would welcome your feedback - particularly if you can identify any of the flowers I was keen to photograph but hopeless at naming.
  • We are most grateful to Verena Moser for translating many of our pages into German , to John Butt who translated all of the pages into Spanish in under a month, to Hideko Suzuki for the many Japanese pages , to Mila Torndahl for the Swedish pages , to Gilles Franqueville and Laure Castillou for the first French pages and to Barry Woudenberg and Arno Cuppen for the Dutch pages - these pages are indicated with a link in the list below. If you would like to help in translations to French, Italian, Dutch or any other language, please let us know
  • Buen camino to all our visitors - and please don't forget to register when you have reached Santiago!

The waymarking along the route is, in general, extremely good. In France, the route from St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port is part of the long-distance GR65 footpath, and is marked by the red and white flash of the GR network. There are separate red and white to indicate changes of direction, and a red line crossed with a white one to indicate that you have taken the wrong turning. In Spain, the official mark is the stylised scallop shell on a blue background, which is often placed on the walls of houses well above eye level to indicate the route through villages and towns. In open country, one frequently encounters these signs are often found embedded in small concrete pillars. There are also signboards with this mark at the top, a pedestrian sign in the middle, and a direction arrow at the bottom; these are much used at road crossings. The red and white GR flashes are also found from time to time in Spain. However, the most common mark is a yellow arrow, which may be painted on trees, rocks, kerbstones, storm water gutters etc. Sometimes a yellow stripe is painted on trees as a continuation marker for reassurance. Some other waymarks incorporating the scallop shell can be found in the photographs.

Waymarking can never be perfect - logging operations appeared to have removed all the marks at two points on this trip, though it was reasonably obvious which way the path continued.

For pictures of many of the different varieties of waymarks, please visit our waymarks page
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