Hi Polite,
I walked the Primitivo this past July 27 – August 12, 2013 from Oviedo to Santiago via Melide. For route info I used two excellent sources: "The Northern Caminos" by Laura Perazzoli and Dave Whitson and the forum post by Peregrina2000 (Laurie) of her 2012 walk.
Overall it was a wonderful walk but in truth, more difficult than I had anticipated. The weather was great. Hot but not unbearably so. The hottest days were also on my two toughest walking days – over the Hospitales route from Campiello to Berducedo and then the next day to Grandas de Salime. There was one day of rain – between Lugo and San Roman da Retorta.
It is indeed a much quieter route than the Frances, but even though I saw few fellow pilgrims during the day, the albergues were almost always full by the end of the day. Only one place was "completo" when I arrived - the municiple albergue in Berducedo. There was room in the more expensive, private albergue.
It is important to be in moderately good shape for this walk. Be prepared for a lot of climbing and a few joint stressing descents. I would also advise packing as light as you can – of course this is important for all routes, but the Primitivo in particular I think demands it.
There are longer stretches between facilities. Make sure you have enough water at all times. I ran out of water on the Hospitales route and it was pretty tough for a couple of hours until I reached the mostly abandoned village of Montefurado. There seemed to be only one inhabited house but there wasn’t anyone home. After a bit of searching, found an open tap on one of the buildings. Such a relief!
The scenery on the Primitivo is spectacular and there are some wonderful places to stop if you’d like to take a break for a day. I walked a shorter stage leaving Grandas de Salime and stopped for the rest of the day and overnight in Castro. A beautiful little spot with a very interesting archeological site and museum to explore.
Also spent 2 nights and 1 day in Lugo – a wonderful city to spend some time and walk the Roman wall that surrounds the old part of the city.
Even though I really enjoyed the quiet times on the Primitivo, I also liked re-joining the
Camino Frances in Melide. Suddenly very crowded but also fun to be around the energy of all the people for the final days into Santiago.
Despite a few tough days, I'm very happy I had the experience of walking the Primitivo. Buen camino!