In September 2016, I decided to walk the Camino Portugues. I started in Porto, Portugal and walked a total of 300 kilometers (186 statute miles) to Santiago over a 12 day period. In May 2017, I started in Lisbon and walked over 650 kilometers (405 statute miles) over a 27 day period It was a great experience, and I dreamed about the Camino every night for 6 weeks afterwards. I took that as a sign that more Camino was in order.
My son Paul and I began a 6-week training program of twice weekly hikes, starting at 16 km (10 miles) to 32 km (20 miles) in length. We had assumed that our shoes would be broken in and blisters sorted by the end of training. That was not the case - real Camino walking on a wider variety of surfaces, including cobblestones and Roman roads, generated blisters in new places.
We planned for the trip using The Pilgrim's Guide to the Camino Portugues by John Brierley (8th edition, 2016). While it provides invaluable information, the directions are not always crystal clear no matter which version of English you speak or understand. We used the traditional route between Lisbon and Porto, and the coastal route north of Porto. The coastal route hugs the Atlantic coast and Vigo Bay until merging with the traditional Portuguese route near Redondela, Spain.
We both had Google Fi smartphones, so weren't worried about phone and web connectivity. I used the Geo Tracker (geo-tracker.org) application as we walked and to generate the map/track photos on these web pages. I found the 30-second update mode to be a bit unreliable; the 1-second mode provided more accurate and complete tracks.
Our daily itinerary and log is summarized in the following table:
Day Location or Route Distance km Duration hr
-1 Flights Boston USA - Madrid - Lisboa ==== ====
0 Lisboa (Lisbon) ==== ====
1 Lisbon to Santa Iria de Azoia 19 4.5
2 Santa Iria de Azoia to Vilafranca de Xira 28 7
3 Vilafranca de Xira to Azambuja 20 5
4 Azambuja to Santarem 33 9.5
5 Santarem to Golega 33 9.5
6 Golega to Tomar 29 8
7 Tomar to Alvaiazere 31 9
8 Alvaiazere to Ansiao 15 3.5
9 Ansiao to Condeixa a Nova via Conimbriga 29 7.5
10 Condeixa a Nova to Coimbra 18 5
11 Coimbra to Mealhada 24 5.5
12 Mealhada to Agueda 26 6
13 Agueda to Albergaria a Velha 17 4
14 Albergeria a Velha to Sao Joao de Madeira 29 7.5
15 Sao Joao de Maderia to Grijo Monastery 19 4.5
16 Grijo Monastery to Porto 19 4.5
17 Porto to Povao de Varzim 30 8
18 Povoa de Varzim to Esposende 19 4.5
19 Esposende to VIana do Castelo 27 7
20 Viana do Castelo to Vila Praia de Ancora 19 4.6
21 Vila Praia de Ancora to Oia Monastery 28 6
22 Oia Monastery to Baiona 17 4
23 Baiona to VIgo 22 5.5
24 Vigo to Redondela to Pontevedra 32 8
25 Pontevedra to Caldas de Reis 22 5
26 Caldas de Reis to Padron 18 4
27 Padron to Santiago de Compostela 28 6
28 Santiago de Compostela 651 163
29 Flights Santiago - Madrid - Boston USA ==== ====