Camino del Norte
31.5 km, 439 m up and 570 m down, through 13 places, 3 of which have somewhere to sleep. Where you stop is up to you.
Every place on the path in order, with the distance from Granda. 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.
Just beyond Castañera the camino joins the N-634 for a short while as it enters Colloto.
Between Colloto and Oviedo it is mostly urban walking, and entirely along the trajectory of the N-634 into Oviedo.
The road out of Oviedo is notoriously confusing. To make matters worse, there are too many shells on the ground to be helpful, especially in the center. They mark several of the caminos into, and out of, Oviedo. There is no distinction between the two directions.
This is how it is done:
1. With the main facade of the Cathedral to your back, walk to the opposite end of the plaza and take the exit on the right. This is the Calle San Francisco.
2. San Francisco ends when it meets Calle de Uría (350m from Cathedral). Turn right and follow Calle de Uría. For the first 250m, the Parque de San Francisco will be on your left. Stay on this road, regardless of arrows or shells. It is about 700m long and ends at the train station.
3. At the train station, turn left along the Calle de la Independencia. Stay on the right-hand side of the road. You will pass 7 cubist looking apartment buildings before the sidewalk turns sharply back to the right. Follow the turn and cross the road towards another cluster of 4 similar buildings with a plaza in front. From here it is safe to follow the arrows.
4. At the end of the plaza is a roundabout. Cross to the left (clockwise) twice and turn left along the Calle de la Argañosa. When it turns to the left (700m) you should turn towards the right, looking out for the pedestrian bridge which crosses the train tracks.
5. The arrows from here zigzag you through new development which ends quickly. By the time you get to an urban looking track and have left Oviedo behind, you will have covered about 3.6km.
The camino goes straight through the hamlet along the road but leaves it in favor of a track on the right. This track crosses the countryside into Lampajúa.
Follow the track in front of the chapel as it veers to the right and away from the road. There are a fountain and picnic area a short distance ahead.
Follow the road through Lloriana. It will merge with the larger AS-232 in La Bolguina.
Beyond La Bolguina the camino keeps to the road, passing through Fabaria, and only leaves it just before the río Nora. It does so in favor of crossing the river via the Puente de Gallegos and quickly returns to the road as it passes through Gallegos.
After crossing the bridge, continue along the road. It will take you uphill and straight through town. The arrows at the end of town turn right into the forested countryside. This is officially the camino, but on very wet days it is very muddy and it is just as easy to stay on the road into Escamplero.
If you chose to stay on the road, remember that drivers expect you to be on the trail.
Exit town via the road (turn left from the albergue). Before Valsera, the camino will leave the road for 400m.
The camino rejoins the road in the small hamlet of Valsera, be on the lookout for a marker on your left where you will once again leave the road and follow a track through the countryside. You will once again meet a road shortly before arriving in Premoño.
At the end of town, the camino turns to the right near a large horreo (the square plan structure on stilts) and onto a country track. Cyclists should leave town by staying on the road, down the hill, and to the right at the first junction (PALADIN 1km). It is the same distance and well marked but avoids some unfriendly (for bikes) terrain. Both options descend to the río Nalón.
Between Paladin and Peñaflor you will be walking with the río Nalón and the train tracks on your left-hand side. You will pass through the roadside villages of Puerma and Laracha. Peñaflor is on the opposite side of the river when you get to the first bridge. Once you have passed the church on the opposite side of the river, the camino immediately leaves the road to the right to follow signs in the direction of the FEVE railway station.
The camino leaves the main roads and crosses underneath the railway in Peñaflor, and will cross back over them at the outskirts of Grado.
Leave Grado along the main road (N-634). You will pass the 18th century Fuente de Arriba, from which the people of Grado drew their water before the installation of running water, on your right. Shortly beyond a cruceiro (stone cross) on your left the camino turns left and begins climbing, first on a concrete road and then on a gravel path.
The camino emerges onto the road, turns right, and passes over a newly constructed roadway. It then passes through the hamlets of Cascayal and El Valle (a place with no buildings whatsoever, but which does have a dumpster). At the next road junction is the turn to San Juan de Villapañada.
Beware guidebooks which erroneously place the Villapañada albergue in Grado, when it is in fact 3.5 km outside of town.
Distance, climb and descent are measured along the GPS track for this camino — 749 recorded points across this span, the same track the app carries. The town-to-town figures in my data put it at 32.3 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.