Caminho do Norte: Day 3 – Barcelos to Gião

We woke around 6am after an odd night, which included delirium (me) and the early-hours noisy movement of furniture or luggage (the guests staying above us). I was still blocked up and aching, with a general feeling of lethargy. It wasn’t the best start to our third long day in a row – around 31.8km today.

It hasn’t taken me long to lose track of which official stage of the Caminho do Norte we’ll be walking today. Harri very much based our overnight stops on where he could find decent accommodation. There are actually road signs on route listing the local albergues (pilgrim hostels); this is ideal for pilgrims who haven’t decided in advance how far they are walking every day. If someone is not used to hiking long-distance, it means they can start their caminho doing shorter days and gradually build up. Staying in an albergue isn’t our idea of fun, however, so I’m unable to offer recommendations.

We’d attempted to do some washing last night but none of it had dried – this is another of the problems of hiking in less than perfect weather. Breakfast at the Top’Otel was delicious with lots of variety – which was great because we were both starving.

Fortunately, the sky was looking much brighter this morning and I started to feel a little better once I was out in the open air. The greyness of yesterday was soon forgotten as we climbed steadily and the landscape opened out.

From our vantage point, Barcelos looked like one big urban sprawl (the city had a population of 26,042 inhabitants in 2021, but the wider municipality boasts more than four times that many people). A big group of cyclists passed and many of them shouted out ‘bom caminho’ which was nice. The carrier bags, underwear and tee-shirts pegged to the outside of our rucksacks must have given us away!

For once, we reached the highest point of the day’s walking early on, albeit it only 156 metres.

Pedra Furada

We paused briefly at Pedra Furada, where local legend claims a strange round stone with a hole in the middle originates from the tomb of Saint Leocádia who was killed by the early Romans during their persecution of Christians. By some

miracle, she was resurrected and is said to escaped from her tomb through that hole. Legends and miracles aside, an information board said the stone was likely to have originated from a pre-Roman bathing temple.

Soon afterwards, we left the main road and began to climb again, passing several quintas – I would really love to see what’s behind those intriguing high walls.

It can often be difficult to find places to sit when you’re walking through rural areas so we were delighted to stumble upon a wayside shrine with wooden and concrete benches; of course, that Barcelos rooster took centre stage. It always intrigues me when we stumble upon these shrines, not least because they often include a hiking boot or two! Are their pilgrims who carry a spare set of boots so they can leave one behind at various stages of their journey? Or have the boots we see been replaced by new ones? You must agree it’s a curious practice.

São Pedro de Rates

We meandered into the pretty village of São Pedro de Rates which, had we stopped at Tamel last night instead of continuing to Barcelos, would have been the end of today’s stage. As it was, we still had a long way to go. We were doing well timewise, however – and it was hot – so we decided to stop for drinks in a large venue with entrances/exits onto two streets. Harri’s beer was served in an ice-cold goblet.

We got chatting to a young pilgrim walking the Caminho Português. Her mobile phone was flat and she was concerned, so Harri gallantly lent her our power pack to recharge it. We were gradually noticing the sound of planes overhead was getting much louder so we knew we must be approaching the vicinity of Porto airport, which is north of Porto.

After yesterday’s humidity and rain, it was now 25 degrees – and we’ve had very little shade other than a short spell through a eucalyptus forest. I was feeling better in myself, however my nose wouldn’t stop running – not a small inconvenience when you’re hiking.

Harri had been saying how we haven’t seen so many pilgrims in the afternoon (when many of the albergues have opened their doors), when we encountered a large group of them walking painfully slow downhill towards us. The speed at which groups like this progress is one of the reasons we prefer to do our own thing.

Dom Zameiro bridge

I’d been promised another medieval bridge this afternoon, but as we approached it down a very steep, wide cobbled road, I began to dread the inevitable climb uphill on the opposite site. That said, the granite Dom Zameiro bridge – which is mentioned in historic documents as far back as 1220 – was a delight with its round arches.

But what really caught our attention was the River Ave below. The surface was so densely covered with lilies you could barely see any water. It was tempting to clamber ‘overboard’ and attempt to walk on this lush carpet of vegetation. It really was an amazing sight, and one we shared with two similarly incredulous pilgrims heading in the opposite direction.

Heading into Vairão

Uplifted, we powered up the hill only to join the main road into Vairão. Suffice to say the next kilometre or two amounted to pretty unpleasant walking. Not only did we have a steady flow of fast traffic whizzing past us, but the pavement was so narrow we had no choice but to walk in single file. The road went on and on (at least it felt like it did), making the final few kilometres of today’s route very tedious.

In Vairão, we stopped for drinks but decided against a detour to visit the local monastery. Then there was a short section of hiking, again on a main road, before we reached our destination: a beautiful old farmhouse in Gião.

Summary

The majority of today’s hiking was pleasant. After we’d conquered our ‘summit’, there was a lot of level lanes making it easy to cover the distance. The only really unpleasant walking was the long road stretch into Vairão.

Accommodation

We paid 75 euros for a double room with en suite and an excellent buffet breakfast at Casa Mindela Farmhouse, Vila do Conde.

Our room was in the main house which dates back to 1864 and has been sympathetically modernised throughout. I was particularly impressed with our large bathroom, which had double doors leading into it.

Honestly, I would have been happy to move into this beautiful stone-walled farmhouse with its surrounding, renovated buildings. Even the reception area was beautiful and there were pilgrims sitting around on the grassed areas and wandering around the gorgeous courtyard. Best of all, there was an enormous cat.

Our route

Our combined one-and-a-half stage was mapped at 31.8 km with 394 metres of ascent.

Tracking with Outdoor Active, I recorded 33.2 km with 427 metres of ascent.

Download the GPX file of our hike here.