Camino Portugués
25.6 km, 176 m up and 187 m down, through 9 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 Santa Clara. 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.
Follow the winding cobbled lane downhill all the way to the bridge into Coimbra.
If you are keen to pass through Coimbra, turn left after crossing the bridge and begin following the river walk. It will pass underneath the highway and then veer right to parallel a canal (on your left).
Stay on this paved road through a roundabout and soon you will have a different canal on your right. It remains a straight road until just before Adémia da Baixo, where it turns left. Cross the overgrown Rio Velho to the right into Adémia.
Cross the bridge over the canal which you have been walking along and you are in Adémia de Baixo.
In Fornos, keep to the left at the first fork (a big garage door with blue tiles above). Cross a roundabout and turn uphill all the way to Trouxemil, passing underneath the A1.
Pass straight through Trouxemil on the main road. The town is spread out along the road to Sargento Mor which is also spread out along the road. Continuous asphalt the whole way.
The camino leaves the road at the start of town near the restaurant Manuel Julio.
Turn left off the N1 at the start of town. DO NOT stay on the road to Lendiosa.The camino leaves the N1 and paved roads and into a eucalyptus forest. It will take you to Lendiosa by way of Mala.When the camino emerges onto a paved road, follow the arrows to the right and into Mala.
Be careful not to follow the old camino arrows which have you follow the N1.
One cafe-bakery in town. The camino passes through on its way between Santa Luzia and Lendiosa.
Turn right at the start of Lendiosa, at the bus stop. The arrows lead you to a road which ends into a trail. This trail will take you to the outskirts of Mealhada, via a roundabout with a statue of Bacchus seated atop a wine barrel.
The camino leaves town along the highway towards the suburb of Sernadelo where the private albergue is located. The arrow for the turn-off from the main road is not easy to see but can be recognized for the Restaurante Tipico with its massive awning.
The private albergue known as Hilario is in Sernadelo, just past the turn-off from the main road. The camino leaves Mealhada along the highway and turns right here.
Distance, climb and descent are measured along the GPS track for this camino — 181 recorded points across this span, the same track the app carries. The town-to-town figures in my data put it at 27.8 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.