Camino del Norte
25.4 km, 401 m up and 381 m down, through 7 places, 5 of which have somewhere to sleep. Where you stop is up to you.
Every place on the path in order, with the distance from Canero. 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.
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.
Located off the camino along the N-634. No particular reason to detour.
From Barcia the walk is across gently rolling hills, though along paved country roads. There is a small descent into the east side of Luarca, which is located along a bend in the Río Negro. After crossing the river you enter into the historic center of town, where the majority of the accommodation options and all of the charm are to be found.
Leaving Luarca the camino climbs a bit, winding its way uphill though a residential expansion of the city. The road straightens out and levels off, and the camino follows it all the way to Otur. It crosses the N-634 along the way and when it passes through Otur (which is located on the N-634) it does so to the south of town.
A hamlet between Luarca and Otur. No services.
The camino keeps to this back road through Otur. It follows a not very straight path, and its twists and turns are designed to lessen the steepness of the climb up the Monte Faro. It doesn't climb all the way to the top thankfully, just far enough to get around the nearby A-8. The descent is steeper and brings you to the N-634 once again, which descends to the bottom of the shallow river valley and to Bao.
In Bao the camino follows the N-634 over the Río Barayu but quickly leaves it along a path on the left, charting a different course up this hillside to Villapedre.
In Villapedre the camino follows along the N-634, but only very briefly. Do not miss the arrow to your right which takes you back onto a country road and over the railway tracks. It is the quieter path to Piñera but does require you to cross back over the N-634 again.
The roads in these parts, you may have noticed, are a web of country lanes which are not altogether very straightforward. Leaving Piñera you may or may not cross the railway line twice. But you will certainly return to the N-634 for a brief strech of walking along the road. It leave to the right onto another path and passes through Villaoril.
Distance, climb and descent are measured along the GPS track for this camino — 421 recorded points across this span, the same track the app carries. The town-to-town figures in my data put it at 24.8 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.