Augapesada to Negreira

The second section of the opening stage of the Camino Finisterre is brief in kilometres but concentrates the greatest effort and some of the most memorable corners of the route. From the Ponte de Augapesada to Negreira there are little more than eight kilometres, in which one goes from the bottom of the valley to surmounting the day's high point, only to descend then, almost without transition, to the valley of the Tambre.

The march begins at once with the demanding climb up the Alto do Mar de Ovellas. In barely two kilometres the path gains more than two hundred metres of height along corredoiras and tracks among oaks and eucalyptus, on the hardest rise of the entire day. The effort is rewarded at the top with wide panoramas of the valley of Ames and of the mountains surrounding the Tambre basin.

After cresting, a steady descent leads to the hamlet of Trasmonte and, a little further on, to the Ponte Maceira, without doubt the great landmark of the day. This medieval bridge of several arches, spanning the río Tambre beside a cluster of mills, manor houses and a small chapel, forms one of the most photographed scenes on the Camino. Pilgrim legend places here the miracle by which the bridge collapsed to halt the soldiers pursuing the disciples of the Apostle.

Having crossed the Tambre, the itinerary leaves the municipality of Ames and enters that of Negreira. The final section runs through Logrosa and its surroundings, among gentle hills and hamlets, until it comes out at Negreira, capital of the district of A Barcala and the classic end of the first day's journey towards Finisterre. The town, dominated by the pazo do Cotón and its arch, offers the pilgrim every service to recover strength before continuing towards the Galician west.