Camino del Norte
19.6 km, 670 m up and 234 m down, through 6 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 Salas. 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.
To exit town, carry on under the archway and up the road. There is a fair amount of climbing ahead of you. The climb meets the road at El Llanón, which is easy to miss as its infrastructure counts for little more than an abandoned factory along the road.
The upward climb out of Salas meets the road at El Llanón, which is easy to miss as its infrastructure counts for little more than an abandoned rest stop along the road. Not long ago this junction posed problems, but the way is now clear. Turn right here and follow the road. You will cross under a pair of large elevated roadways, take a wide turn in the road, and then pass back under the same roadways. Shortly afterwards the camino abandons the road and turns up to the left.
Bodenaya doesn't amount to much more than the albergue, but it's a decent albergue and you're welcome to stop for a break. The increasingly rural landscape around here -- chestnut forests, scattered hamlets, cider orchar…
At the far end of La Espina keep on straight, do not follow the curve of the N-634.
This is the last place to buy anything until Tineo.
Approximately 3.5km beyond Pedregal, the camino nears but does not enter the village of Santa Eulalia de Tineo. Turn sharply right when the camino meets the road at this point.
To reach the municipal albergue in Tineo: from the Capilla de San Roque at the park before town, follow the road and turn left at the first fork (towards the pool). Follow this to the first intersection and turn to the left sharply and downhill. The municipal albergue is the second building.
The camino descends to the center of Tineo as far as the church. From there it turns right and begins the uphill climb out of town on the Calle la Fuente; the fuente is the fountain at the edge of town near a small picnic area.
Buy supplies. Between Tineo and Campiello there are no services apart from a fountain at the edge of Tineo.
Distance, climb and descent are measured along the GPS track for this camino — 556 recorded points across this span, the same track the app carries. The town-to-town figures in my data put it at 19.7 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.