From Portomarín to Santiago

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May 30, 2024

It has been one of the worst nights of the Camino; the heat has hardly let me sleep. At about half past five the first pilgrims set off. I’m awake tossing and turning in the bunk so why wait any longer?

It takes me a while to get ready, pick up and put things on the bike, so I start very early. It’s still dark when I go outside and I get a good surprise: it’s raining.

For the first six days, the weather has been great for cycling. Cool mornings, excessive heat only some days in the hours after lunch, I don’t remember rain (maybe a drizzle at some point), long days… unbeatable.

Anyway, I’m not too worried about the rain; it’s still almost dark, so I put on my lights, put on my reflective vest and leave Portomarín by road. Like so many other days, before breakfast.

I didn’t remember the exit of Portomarín but the second kilometer, still cold, is at 9%. Soon I overtake Virginia, who has left at half past five and we say goodbye.

Passing through Gonzar I recognize the bar where I ate a great sandwich on my previous route. Today it is still a little early to stop. A little further on I turn left, leaving the road. I’ve been riding for about 7 kilometers along the LU-633 and, although there is hardly any traffic, it seems safer to me with the fog.

Although I will soon regret it, because I do not stop climbing and the terrain is getting worse and worse, to the point of forcing me to push the bike for a moment next to the Castromaior castro.

The fog gives a ghostly appearance to some sections of the road; the truth is that it is beautiful.

I cross the road a couple of times and soon join a small local road leading to Ventas de Narón. And, before arriving, I stop to put on my rain jacket because the rain is getting heavier.

Suddenly I remember the Irishman’s muffin and start eating it on the go while I look for a place to get water and a coffee. In the meantime, I observe the distinctive walk of the pilgrims in the rain, which is so familiar to me from the previous trip. Soon I find a bar with a tap to get water; I immediately realize that it is the same place where I stopped in 2022. How many times this has happened to me on the Camino! I grab the opportunity and go in for a coffee.

I get back on the road and, although now in a smoother way, I keep climbing. In the first 10 km I have climbed about 350 meters, which is not bad for not having any mountian pass. But soon I have a break and a very enjoyable descent, in a stretch where the dense forest does not let you see the clouds.

I pass through numerous small villages: Ligonde, Lestedo, A Brea… some of them are just a couple of houses. I’ve been on the road for two hours and I still haven’t reached Palas de Rei. A little before, there is a typically American woman sitting at a table at the door of a farmhouse; I stop to stamp the credential, ask her what brought her here and she tells me that she was doing the road, saw the farm for sale and…. just bought it.

Finally I enter Palas de Rei and soon I reach the stairs where I have fun recording the same video as the previous time: leaving the camera on the ground while I go down them carrying the bike.

Although my intention was to follow the traditional road, I take by mistake the Eurovelo 3 to leave Palas de Rei towards Melide; in this case, it does diverge somewhat from the road. Although it is very pleasant to ride along it and it is a very popular alternative for cyclists, I didn’t want to do it today. But it’s hopeless now.

I rejoin the road near Melide. Although it’s around 9:30 in the morning, there are already some stores trying to offer me a plate of octopus, so typical of this town. I make a brief stop to take some pictures next to the chapel of San Roque and what is believed to be the oldest cross of the Camino, just over 50 kilometers from Santiago.

I go into a bar but I don’t see anything appetizing and I drink a coke, that’s all. I’ll have lunch later.

Last year I started here my last stage and today I arrive with 40 kilometers in my legs so I still have no idea if I will arrive today to Santiago or not. For the moment I continue the trip trying to follow the traditional way.

After a few kilometers, at the Taberna de Parabispo, I stop for a coffee and a sandwich. There is such an affluence of pilgrims that the cook can’t keep up, he burns the sandwich and has to start all over again.

I take the opportunity of the break to look for possible accommodations and I see that in Santiago things are quite complicated. Later I would know that that weekend a macro music festival is taking place in Santiago, which makes things even more difficult than usual. Seeing the low availability and the high prices (it’s the market, my friends!) it seems clear that I have to get to Santiago today; I’m just over 40 kilometers away. Passing through Boente I manage to make a reservation in a downtown hotel at a reasonable price, so not even that bad.

With that serious matter solved, I continue among a heavy traffic of pilgrims that slows down even more my already slow progress. At noon I notice the decline, as many pilgrims stop for lunch and some already call it a day. With that calmness I pass through the wonderful little corner of Ribadiso, which looks like something out of a fairy tale.

Shortly after I cross Arzúa that, after so many kilometers between small parishes, seems to me like a big city. The forests surrounding this town are incredible.

I continue along the road, now much more lonely; A Rúa, Pregontoño…. After A Taverna Vella I cross the A-54 over a bridge; everything is already so familiar… but the kilometers pass slowly and the gradient continues to accumulate. Occasionally, but all too often, small slopes exceed double digits, often reaching 14%. In some of them I choose to push the bike.

Anecdote for those who know Garmin devices: the track of the complete route (630 kilometers from Logroño) showed me in the “Climb Pro” section 36 climbs; well, 15 of them are in this last stage! And there is no mountain pass…….

Without break (because I’m eager to get to Santiago) but without haste (because I don’t want the trip to end) I pass Ferreiros, to Boavista, A Calzada, Salceda, A Brea (A Brea again? Well, yes…) I notice that some pilgrims have continued walking after lunch although, little by little, there are less and less of them. I approach A Rúa (yes, another recurring name) and, a little further on, O Pedrouzo; two towns where it is very common for pilgrims on foot to spend the night before the last stage of their Camino.

Shortly after Pedrouzo I make a last stop at a bar called “Kilómetro 15” (for obvious reasons) and have a coke, a piece of carrot cake and a banana. I know it’s not really necessary, but I’m at that distance where you don’t know if you want to arrive or not. As I leave I’m accompanied for a while by a pilgrim on foot, from Pamplona, who asks me a lot of questions about the gravel because he wants to come back with his cyclocross bike.

Shortly after I go around the airport Rosalia de Castro and find the big milestone that, if I’m not mistaken, marks the boundary of the municipality of Santiago de Compostela. Many pilgrims leave their “offerings” there, so it looks more like a garbage dump than a cairn…

The Garmin still marks a few more climbs and there isn’t one that doesn’t have its 14% slope. I would say that someone had a lot of fun designing these roads 😡 Finally I reach the last one highlighted by the GPS, which holds a nice little gift:

Thank goodness it’s the last one!

Finally I reach the last 10 kilometers. I pass the San Marcos campsite and approach the Monte do Gozo. There, I have to make my way through a stream of kids going to the festival. Another type of peregrinos. From the top I can already see Santiago in the bottom…

I think it’s almost 4 o’clock in the afternoon when I arrive in Santiago. I make an effort to follow the indications of the Garmin, but I end up not paying much attention to it. That forces me to walk with the bike to avoid some forbidden direction.

Suddenly, arriving at the Plaza de San Martin Pinario, the towers of the Cathedral appear. Everything is already excitement, emotions are piling up as I approach the Plaza del Obradoiro; I take the bike to go down the last steps that, under a gallery, take me to the Plaza del Obradoiro. And there, surrounded by the Pazo de Raxoi, the Hostal dos Reis Católicos, the Pazo de Xelmírez and the Colexio de San Xerome, stands the Cathedral of Santiago.

Stage Summary

• Distance: 96 kilometers
• Elevation Gain: 1900 meters
• Time: About 9 1/2 hours, including stops
• Track on Komoot
• Track on Wikiloc

Track

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👈 Day 6: from La Portela to Portomarín