There has been a dearth of negative articles on the camino - which has made me think that the majority of people who do not end up on cloud nine by the time they reach Santiago either feel that they've missed something and are, therefor, somehow lacking in spirituality, or they just keep quiet rather than go against the euphoric flow!
You asked a couple of questions and quoted a few stats that need a comment.
The Camino Norte from Hendaye or Irun is one of the less populated routes that enlisits the most gripes about road walking. You asked a local why alternate paths haven't been created to avoid walking on roads. I would guess that its because a very small percentage of the total number of pilgrims who walk a camino, take the northern routes. (They are not historical routes, do not attract the same investment, and therefor do not have the same infrastructure as the camino frances - which is the Jacobean pilgrimage route).Only about 1% of El Camino is a narrow dirt trail
The full stats for 2009 are not available yet but of the 110 236 pilgrims who earned the Compostela between Jan and August 2009, only 2,341 walked the Norte. Most of the funding for rehabilitation of paths has gone into the more ppulated paths and if John Breierly's camino Frances guide is to be believed, of the 749km from Roncesvalles to Santiago, 505 km consist of dirt paths/tracks, 202.6km on quiet asphalt/tar roads (mostly through small villages) and 90.6km on main roads in and out of cities and towns. A completely different scenario to the Camino Norte.
Where does the Camino Frances start?
Modern guide books usually have stage 1 in St Jean-Pied-Port but in the middle ages pilgrims started from their homes and even Walter Starkie claimed that the Camino Frances started in Paris - a 1800km pilgrimage. I walked the Paris to Spain route in 2004 - a Holy Year - and did not see even ONE other walking pilgrim (just 3 cyclists with Santiagoishells on their paniers) until we reached Ostabat in the south.
Beware of the bitch at the end of the world
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/emoticon-0102-bigsmile.gif)
Gees!! I hope that wasn't me!
![Too Much Info :tmi:](./images/smilies/emoticon-0184-tmi.gif)
At Corcubion - just up the road from Fistera - we had frequent visits by 'professional pilgrims' and my policy was - wait until 7pm, if no more pilgrims come and there is a spare bed, it is yours.
The Federation of Friends of the Camino is a hodge-podge of regional, municipal, church and volunteer groups, held together by spit and sello tape with a few do-gooders and a few movers-and-shakers. When pilgrims whinge and say 'why don't they do this or that.." I wonder who they are referring to?