Camino Portugués
11.7 km, 163 m up and 190 m down, through 3 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 Saxamonde. 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.
On the approach to Redondela, you will walk along the N550 for a stretch of about 600m. Do your best to cross to the right-hand side as soon as the opportunity presents itself; the official turn is along a curve in the road which is problematic.
When leaving town, the camino crosses the N550 at a bottleneck on the north side of town that is heavy with traffic at all hours. Cross the N550 as soon as you get to it, and almost immediately veer left gently onto a side road.
The arrows from here leave a bit to be desired. They are present, but have been spray painted with a not quite right yellow and at times, they don’t feel legit. Follow them all the same, and as you near Cesantes the stone markers return.
Getting past Cesantes means crossing the N550 once more, at probably the most dangerous point in a curve in the road. Head straight across and keep to your right.You are climbing uphill now and will traverse around the O Viso peak. Along the way you pass an installation of pilgrim shells and if you have a marker on hand you can leave a message on a sun-bleached shell. From here it is downhill again to the N550.At the entrance to Arcade, the camino turns left rather unnecessarily. It will cross back over the N550 in a few hundred meters, taking you past the albergues and shops of Arcade.
If you fancy oysters — and you should — Arcade is the place. The Ostras de Arcade have a protected designation and are harvested from the ria just below town. Several bars along the waterfront serve them fresh. The bridg…
After crossing the bridge, take a left turn on the first street. This turn is followed by a series of zigs and zags that take you up and through town at the highest point. The camino takes a welcome break from the road traffic between here and O Pobo.
Distance, climb and descent are measured along the GPS track for this camino — 173 recorded points across this span, the same track the app carries. The town-to-town figures in my data put it at 12.2 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.