Stage Balugães to Ponte de Lima

At 16.5 kilometres, this stage completes the official route between Barcelos and Ponte de Lima for those who choose to split it at Balugães. It is a short day but not a flat one: the profile strings together continuous short climbs that add up to close to four hundred and fifty metres of ascent before the final descent to the valley of the Lima.

The exit from Balugães runs between farm estates and vine trellises, on rural paths that barely touch asphalt. In about four kilometres you reach Vitorino dos Piães, a scattered hamlet that has made a name of its own on the Portuguese Camino thanks to Casa da Fernanda, a family-run place to stay that pilgrims who have passed through speak of with devotion. Many walkers break the official stage here, so the section is usually well travelled in season.

Past Vitorino, the route enters a rolling, shaded stretch that crosses Facha and Sobreiro. The paths run among eucalyptus and pine woods, on a surface of earth and loose stone that calls for care on rainy days, something frequent in the Minho spring. Granite chapels and cruceiros follow one another at the crossroads, and the landscape alternates dense woodland with clearings of farmland.

From Seara the final descent towards the floodplain of the Lima begins. The land opens out, the first riverside orchards appear and the river announces itself long before it comes into view. The entry into Ponte de Lima is made over the medieval bridge, Roman in origin and remodelled in the 14th century, which crosses the river in a long run of stone arches to the tower and the church of Santo António da Torre Velha.

Ponte de Lima is considered the oldest town in Portugal, with a charter granted in 1125 by Queen Teresa of León. There the pilgrim finds a riverside promenade of century-old plane trees, a monumental old town of manor houses and arcades, and the larder of vinho verde at its best. It is also the last generous rest before the stage that climbs to the Portela Grande on the way to Rubiães.