Camino del Norte
20.6 km, 690 m up and 894 m down, through 7 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 La Mesa. 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.
Pay close attention to the arrows when leaving town, there are 4 roads not including the one you walked into town on. The camino follows the road steeply uphill all the way to Buspol.
The Capilla de Santa Marina de Buspol is the only building of note. The weather here frequently wraps the hilltop in a rainy mist that obscures what would otherwise be a dramatic view of the Embalse de Salime reservoir b…
At the sharp curve in the road in Buspol, the camino finally leaves the road in favor of a mountain track.
NOTE: It is almost entirely downhill to the dam of the reservoir, a descent of over 750m and often very steep. Furthermore, the trail crisscrosses several other mountain tracks, look carefully for the arrows and avoid the temptation to shortcut the switchbacks.
What goes down must go up, in this case it is about 300m back up to Grandas de Salime. It is mostly, but not entirely, along the road. Along the way is a scenic overlook (about 2km from the dam). Shortly after the most severe turn in the road (a 180 degree bend) the camino turns left to follow a trail uphill.
The camino leaves town along Calle Carmen and passes the Capilla de Carmen before joining the AS-28 highway for several parts; leaving and rejoining between towns on its way up to the alto that marks the border between Asturias and Galicia. There is one more albergue on the Asturian side of the border, in Castro. The first hamlet you come to, that of La Farrapa, has no services for pilgrims.
Just past the bar located on the main road the camino turns right to follow a quieter path. Between Cereijeira and Castro is the small Capilla de la Esperanza de Malneira.
The ruins of the Castro de Chao Samartin are visible to the west when leaving town -- a prehistoric hillfort with occupation layers spanning the Bronze Age through the Roman period. A small museum adjacent to the camino …
Distance, climb and descent are measured along the GPS track for this camino — 580 recorded points across this span, the same track the app carries. The town-to-town figures in my data put it at 20.6 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.