Camino del Norte
15.5 km, 273 m up and 296 m down, through 4 places, 4 of which have somewhere to sleep. Where you stop is up to you.
Every place on the path in order, with the distance from Ballota. 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.
The hamlet that gives the route its name. No services, but the views from the approach are good.
A hamlet between Ballota and Cadavedo. No services.
From here the camino passes Villademoros, San Cristóbal, and Queruás along back roads and paths.
A hamlet between Cadavedo and Queruás. No services.
From Queruás the camino follows farms roads towards and under the A-8, and then descends into Canero.
Arriving at the few industrial buildings that signal your arrival in Canero, the camino joins the N-632a briefly. It passes through a roundabout and over the river, and then resumes along a trail on your right. From here you begin climbing back out of the valley, and along the way you pass the hotel and restaurant adjacent to the road. It is possible to stay on the road from the hotel, but there are trails that shortcut the switchbacks in the road and which take you back up to (and under) the A-8. The majority of the walk between here and Barcia is along the N-634.
Distance, climb and descent are measured along the GPS track for this camino — 265 recorded points across this span, the same track the app carries. The town-to-town figures in my data put it at 12.7 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.