Just saying hi

Hi, welcome to the forum! It depends how you define “long” stretches – 5kms, 10kms, 20kms . . . If you are not carrying a guidebook, so you are not aware of the places ahead of you, and only following the yellow arrows, and you are a person who drinks a lot of water, then carry at least one litre, and preferably two, as there may be a few stretches where water is limited. I have frequently come upon a café that is mentioned in the guidebook, only to find it is closed, for whatever reason. Bom caminho!
Jill

Hi and welcome to the forum @Flory
I start the Camino Portugues tomorrow, also from Porto but following the central way, but perhaps we "run" into each other? Buen Camino, SY

Bom caminho! I, too, drink a lot of water while walking, and the only place I ran short was along the variante espiritual, which I highly recommend. I actually went to a house just off the camino and the lady didn't refill my bottle as I asked; she gave me a 1.5 liter bottle!! Someone later told me I'd missed a fuente in the park at the end of the camino de agua y piedras, but the V.S. isn't quite as developed as the other ways of hiking the CP, so if you choose that, you might want extra water for those days.

We are on the coastal at the moment, heading to Caminha today. There are lots of beach cafe on the first days as far as Esposende, from there to Viana do Castelo the route turn inland and not as many. There is a supermarket and cafe in Belino and then nothing until Chafe, marked on Brierly map. Hope this helps Bom Caminha

Welcome and Buen (Bom) Camino !!!!!!!!

I did the coastal senda Litoral in June from porto via Vila do Conde, esposende, viana, caminha, oia, baiona etc. As indicated above its not all coast walking especially esposende to viana ...although it's still a great stretch. June was very hot and on the first major stretch (they average around 22kms) to esposende i didnt buy enough water and got into a little dehydrated. So i got into the habit of making sure i always started with a litre and some (to be hot) days at least a litre and a half. I also found distances on paper a bit deceptive as its not 'crow flies' ..you stop...you can get a bit off track at times. So for me I worked on the basis of averaging about 3kms an hour...meaning at least 6 hrs walking each day. I did not always have formal breakfast (leaving to early) and I found cafes and shops did not always appear when I needed them...so I always took some food...fruit, ie bananas and cherries, biscuits, cake, sometimes nuts as well. I found I really needed to take breaks and eat some of these as I went to keep me going. If I was leaving very early (which became more necessary as I was walking in a heatwave and trying to get as far as possible before early afternoon when it was seriously hot that walking was very hard) I would buy the food the night before. Just to say it's the Atlantic coast and can be very windy on the Portuguese coast especially.
Bom Caminho!