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Hi.
Have you already walked this?
The route is fairly well signed. You'll find indication as you arrive in Rates. You leave Rates through a disused railway line, now turned ecopath. You then leave it and follow dirtnpaths through fields and cobbled road.
I believe no cafes or stores until you...
I am a mountainbiker. I have done the Portuguese Camino 3 times (from Rates), the Interior (from Vila Real) once and the French (from Ponteferrada).
I've only had the pleasure of walking it once (from Ponte de Lima).
I have biked, on training rides and day trips, sections of central route...
You can take a train to Vigo and then from there, the Celta train to Porto.
https://www.cp.pt/passageiros/en/how-to-travel/celta
There is bus with Alsa to either Porto airport or the bus station/interface near the "casa da música" metro station.
https://www.alsa.com/en/web/bus/home
Portugal is so small, that most well known dishes spread out. Super local stuff may not exist outside 1 town.
I can't speak much about down south, except maybe ginginha (cherry liquer) popular predominantly in the center, north of Lisbon.
Here in the north (other places as well), but in towns...
Without a good map and/or gps chances of getting lost are high. The only likely risk is loosing to much time and aborting the plan. Although the route takes you through some more isolated spots, it's never truly far from a village (there is no true wilderness in Portugal). Usual moutain...
You can find gps for this caminho "
I found these gps tracks for the portion Barcelos to Lima River.
https://pt.wikiloc.com/trilhas-trekking/caminhos-de-santiago-caminho-do-norte-senhora-do-norte-1a-etapa-11466915...
Yeah, I remember seeing some references to shared pilgrims having used some of the paths. Going through to the S. João d'Arga Monastery I believe.
Going from Ponte de Lima should be pretty scenic: path along the river, Bertiandos nature reserve and a though climb to the top after Estoraos...
I live in the Esposende area. There is no easy route from Esposende to Barcelos.
Both roads, either north or south of the river Cávado are fairly busy and in several points don't have much room for pedestrians.
There are tracks used to access the fields and forests by the river which can be...
On the bridge from Valença to Tui there is a walkway on the side where you can take your bike if you don't feel like going along the trafic. It also allows very good views over the river with Tui in the distance.
It seems you didn't stop in the fortres in Valença. A pity, it can be congested...
I would go for a light-duty sleeping bag, small and light but will offer much more protection than a liner. Some public albergues will not have any covers, as was the case in Ponte de Lima.
DOH! You're right @Albertinho ...
I've biked (in sections) the coastal from Porto to Vila Praia de Âncora. Its very flat until Esposende, with only small climbs afterwards. Anyway that first day to Caminha will be a stretch. You can allways speed tthings up by taking the N13 road northwards.
I have done it on a mountain bike many times. I'd say 4 days will give you time to stop and enjoy it.
I have walk the section Porto to Rates, but only biked from Rates onwards. That first bit will be very fast, especially since there is plenty of road.
If you have to see Porto before you start...
newfydog, I agree on the approach on biking. We gotta remember, as when driving a car or walking sidewalk, that there are other with whom we share the experience.
I have biked the camino several times, never with paniers.
My first camino I used a 30L backpack, it was too heavy and I suffered a bit on the lower back and backside.
But I saw my friends using paniers on mountainbikes and having bolts falling, we had to canibalize from other parts of the bike...
Hi.
The route you are taking is called the "Caminho do Interior". I've done this by bike from Vila Real.
Any particulars, I'd be glad to help.
Check the Interior Route section on the Portuguese caminho main page in this forum.
This is not a very well known camino and not very used. There is not...
I'm pretty certain that there is a waymarked route from Caminha to Vila Nova de Cerveira.
Out of Caminha you have to exit via the N13 road, except for the train its the only connection over the Coura river and the marsh lands where it meets the Minho river.
About 7km away from Caminha (along the...
Any pilgrims on the route going throuh Fatima should expect plenty of company on the 3-4 days prior to the 13th of May.
I lived near Alcanena (20km away from Fátima) and saw that the Santiago route to Fátima tended to be used by the younger pilgrims (scouts and walkers groups) while the...
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