Camino del Norte
28.4 km, 348 m up and 390 m down, through 5 places, 2 of which have somewhere to sleep. Where you stop is up to you.
Every place on the path in order, with the distance from Abadín. Most are too small to sleep in — a fountain, a chapel, a bar that may or may not be open — but they are what the day is actually made of.
At the end of the very short Abadín, the camino turns right (following the sign to the Correos) and when it reaches the Correos (post office) it turns left. The road here is paved and quiet. Keep an eye open for the grassy trail that leaves the road to your right. It descends to cross the river and eventually returns to pavement, turning left when it does. It enters the area of As Paredes after passing over the A-8.
The camino passes through As Paredes along the same road/trail that you entered on and will bring you back to the A-8, this time to pass underneath it into the hamlet of Castromaior. In Castromaior (not much more than a few houses) signs for the camino direct you back onto a path to Martiñan. Along the way you will again cross beneath the A-8.
The camino reaches, and crosses, the N-634 in Martiñan. It winds its way along a series of back roads, all the while avoiding the N-634 traffic as best that it can. Eventually it returns to the busy road in Goiriz.
Through Goiriz you will have to walk along the N-634 for a short bit. Try to keep to the right as the turn isn’t far. Again the camino keeps away from the N-634. It will eventually return to a different road and follows the heavy traffic into Vilalba, passing around one large roundabout along all the way.
Mind the arrows through Vilalba. The streets here are usually jam packed with cars and trucks and they can be hard to see at times. The center of town is a jumble of roads heading in every direction. Eventually you will pick up on the natural flow of the streets and before long near the end of town. The camino winds its way around a few buildings and in the distance a Repsol gas station comes into view. Shortly before the Repsol station it leaves the road to the right. This is the end of Vilalba and it is gently rolling hills from here to San Xoan. Just before getting there you cross over the A-8 and return to the N-634.
The camino through San Xoan is a bit sloppy, there are no dedicated pedestrian crossings and a large junction means you have to keep alert. Although the camino reaches town from the west side of the road, and later leaves it from the west side, the arrows have you cross over the N-634 to ease the way around a junction; this route also takes you past the church and cemetery. This dancing around the N-634 is almost to an end but there are a few more crossings before Baamonde. The camino follows a few more back roads to Pedrouzos.
After Pedrouzos the camino returns to, and crosses, the N-634. A short distance later it returns to repeat the crossing in the opposite direction and proceeds to pass underneath the A-8. Past two small hamlets, it reverses course and passes back under the big highway and across the small one to reach Pígara.
Distance, climb and descent are measured along the GPS track for this camino — 433 recorded points across this span, the same track the app carries. The town-to-town figures in my data put it at 28.4 km.
Esta entidad ha sido beneficiaria de una ayuda del Programa de incentivos a la movilidad eficiente y sostenible (MOVES III), gestionado por la Xunta de Galicia a través del Instituto Enerxético de Galicia (INEGA) en el marco del Real Decreto 266/2021, y cofinanciada por la Unión Europea — NextGenerationEU, dentro del Plan de Recuperación, Transformación y Resiliencia.