Kevin Kennywalks the second most popular Camino from Portugal
THERE ARE nine Camino routes to Santiago from all over Europe. And while the Camino Frances or French Way, stretching across the north of Spain from France, is the most popular, the 500km Portuguese route from Lisbon could be the second most used.
I started in Oporto, 250km from Santiago. A fortnight allows time to look around Oporto and Santiago, and comfortably cover the ground between. The route is well marked with yellow arrows to keep you on track. Blue arrows pointing in the opposite direction indicate the path from Santiago to Fatima. Most of the trail follows well worn tracks and roads, with small but unavoidable sorties onto busier highways.
Starting from Oporto’s mediaeval cathedral, the official Camino takes you through the city’s suburbs and along busy roads towards Vilar De Pinheiro. An internet search indicated an alternative: 30km of beach and boardwalk to the fishing village of Vila do Conde. From here it’s easy to cut across to Rates and pick up the marked route. A further 17km brings you to Barcelos and its wonderful entrance across the Rio Cávado. Barcelos is home to the legend of a cock resurrecting himself from the roasting pot to protest the innocence of a pilgrim wrongly convicted for some misdemeanour.
Once on the Camino you enter a zone. Your only concerns are food and shelter, answered by an abundance of pensiones, hotels, restaurants and albergues (pilgrim hostels) on the way. Life becomes a simple combination of water, food, sleep – and time. It is the latter which allows a peek at our inner selves.
The Portuguese route to Santiago is pleasant, and for much of the way follows a Roman highway. It is punctuated by quaint villages, stone bridges, rivers and fortified cities complete with cathedrals, monasteries, fountains and cobbled streets.
Valença and Tui stand respectively on the Portuguese and Spanish sides of the Minho river, marking the crossing point into Galicia. You lose an hour as you adjust your watch to the Spanish time – an academic point as by this stage time has lost all chronological significance. Progress is counted by the milestones marking the distance to Santiago.
Two or three more days brings you through Pontevedra to Caladas de Reis. You can bathe your feet in its 40-degree sulphurous waters.
The final stage goes through the riverside town of Padron. Here St James first made landfall in Spain, the pillar to which he tied his boat being reverentially preserved in the local church. The final day into Santiago de Compostela fills with anticipation as the milestones register down to teens and single digits. The dreamy atmosphere that occupied the previous 10 days begins to dissipate as the destination point of the cavernous cathedral looms large in the distance. The winding streets of suburban Santiago lead gradually to the Praza Obradoiro in front of the cathedral. Finally, you have arrived. A moment’s reverie, and then from the throngs in the square, familiar faces materialise of fellow travellers met en route. Santiago De Compostela has been hosting tired but satisfied pilgrims for hundreds of years, and it knows exactly what they need.