Caminho da Geira e dos Arrieiros: Campo do Gerês to Lobios – 25 km

One thing we didn’t expect while hiking the Caminho da Geira e dos Arrieiros was to run into Hiking Algarve friends. Yet this is exactly what happened when we went down to breakfast at Pousada de Juventude do Gerês. It was really nice to catch up with fellow hikers Johanna and Mike Bradley over a leisurely continental breakfast. Jo writes the excellent Still Reckless Jo blog. No selfies required – it happened.

Having been told breakfast was at 8am, we were surprised to find the dining room already busy with cyclists, hikers and family groups. Having had such a sparse dinner last night, we were ravenous this morning. Sadly, it wasn’t a breakfast to get excited about – and the tea was dreadful (good job I’d brought my own teabags!) – but at least the bread rolls and jam served as hiking fuel.

We hadn’t had the best night’s sleep. Last night was the final of the UEFA Nations League 2025 and Portugal was playing reigning champions Spain. It was a tense match which Portugal won on a penalty shoot-out. Now imagine all those excited football fans returning to their rooms long after we weary hikers had retired to bed.

It was 9.10am by the time we finally left the youth hostel and it was already hot and hazy, making it difficult to get moving. We will be crossing the border later today, although we’ll only be sleeping on Spanish soil for one night at this point in the route.

For some unfathomable reason, I’ve always loved boulders and the walking between the youth hostel and Campo do Gerês proper was full of quite magnificent specimens, some of which had stone houses built around them.

As we wandered through the narrow streets of Campo do Gerês gasping at its prettiness, there was a real sense of stepping back in time, as if modernity hadn’t yet arrived in these northern villages. I’d been hoping to grab some fruit here, but there didn’t appear to be a village shop.

We turned off the road onto a wide cobbled path and walked into Peneda-Gerês national park for what should have been our second visit but was actually our first. Back in the spring of 2010, we had booked flights to Porto with vague plans to travel to the park and camp there. Unfortunately, those plans were thwarted by the Icelandic eruptions. Uncertain for weeks if our trip was on or off, we didn’t bother making further plans and ultimately forfeited our flights. Fifteen years later, and we were finally visiting Portugal’s only national park.

Immediately, we knew it was worth the wait. Within minutes of arriving, the landscape opened out and the shimmering waters of Barragem de Vilarinho das Furnas lay below us.

In early June, the reservoir was full, however when water levels drop significantly it is possible to walk down a track to see the remains of the village of Vilarinho da Furna, which was submerged when the barragem was constructed in the early 1970s. There is actually a nearby museum which we might have visited had we known of its existence.

This being a sunny June morning and the track surface being so good, there were a lot of cyclists around. We’re still following the Geira Roman road so there were plenty of stone pillars dotted along our route, plus the glass boards informing us of the height we were at – 610 metres at one point.

As the reservoir tapered off, the landscape changed and now there were boulders dotted along the valley floor. Soon, we encountered an area where several small waterfalls cascaded downhill. Local people were taking full advantage of the clear water, with many bathing in the rock pools, while we pilgrims (we’d run into the others by this point) watched on, reluctant to join in such hedonist activities so early in the day.

We’d barely set off again when we ran into a friendly Scottish couple who were dog walking and got chatting to them. They live in the Pyrenees and are looking for pet sitters next spring when they are heading to Australia for three to four weeks. Would we be interested?

After a steep climb through woodland, we emerged at the Portugal/Spain border where our fellow pilgrims stopped for refreshments. A little more climbing brought us to the old customs house, now covered in graffiti and what now seem like ridiculously wide road (presumably to allow for queuing) next to it.

Spanish time, of course, is an hour ahead of Portuguese time, although, for whatever reason, our respective phones don’t necessarily adapt to the change immediately or at all. This means we can be walking side-by-side but in different time zones – it’s confusing.

A bilingual board informed us that we were now in Baixa Limia-Serra do Xurés natural park in Ourense province. It provided some information about the Geira Roman road too, explaining that the stone pillars we kept passing were part of a military ‘milestone’ system. An ancient Roman mile represented 1,000 paces and was a little shorter than the modern mile at around 4,860 feet.

There was a bit of a false start down a mountain biking route, but Harri quickly realised we were heading in the wrong direction and we retraced our steps. From this point, the walking was mostly through gorgeous, wooded areas and across old stone-slab bridges. There was occasionally water underfoot but we managed to skirt around the boggiest sections of path. Apart from the telltale line of electricity pylons, we could have been in the middle of nowhere.

After crossing a road, we joined an amazing Roman road constructed from large slabs of rock. We decided to walk the short detour to the Corga da Fecha waterfall – the highest in Galicia. Fortunately, Harri was several metres ahead of me because as he turned a bend he came face-to-face with a naked man who was just about to plunge into the pool below. We did a quick about-turn and found a patch of grass a safe distance away. While we were still eating, the man’s wife came from the direction of the waterfall and stopped to talk to us. They were a German couple on a year’s sabbatical from their jobs. She had wet hair which suggested she had also been for a naked swim. Once the couple had left, Harri ventured along the rocky path to take a photograph of Corga da Fecha.

All day I’d been looking forward to stopping at Termas de Lobios towards the end of the section, where a warm dip in waters around 36–38°C was promised. Looking back, I don’t know how we missed the (free!) thermal springs, but our own experience of venturing into the shallows of the Rio Caldo was anything but warm. In fact, the water was freezing, which meant the only sensible course of action was to remain upright in the knee-deep water – even that wasn’t easy as the riverbed was so stony. While it was a pleasant enough spot, I felt a little disappointed. Dashed hopes and all that.

It’s hard to get going again after stopping, especially late afternoon when the sun is so hot. I’d left the Rio Caldo with icy-cold feet, but within minutes of setting off I was overheating again.

Harri had warned me that the last few kilometres to Lobios were going to be tough and he wasn’t joking. No matter how fit I am, I always struggle with these steep uphill sections.

We arrived in Lobios just before 6pm, absolutely exhausted, dropped our rucksacks at the hotel and headed straight out to the adjacent supermarket (where prices were sky-high!). After that we didn’t venture out again; we’d had enough exercise for one day.

Our accommodation

We paid 79,00 euros for a double room at Hotel AV Apartamentos Lobios in the centre of town. Our room had a small kitchenette and there are two supermarkets within a two-minute walk so, if you ignore the lack of basic things like a microwaveable dish, it’s easy to self-cater here (which is what we did).

Our route

This stage is mapped at 24.2km with 369 metres of ascent.

Tracking with Outdoor Active, I recorded 25km with 398 metres of ascent.

Download the GPX file of our hike here.