Stage Ponteceso - Laxe

The third stage covers 25.3 kilometres between Ponteceso and Laxe and breaks the coastal logic of the rest of the route: for much of the day the sea is left behind and the path crosses the interior of Bergantiños, among woods, hamlets and archaeological sites. It amounts to some nine hours of walking with stops, with one climbing section clearly more demanding than the rest.

The start is comfortable: three flat kilometres beside the Anllóns estuary, with the marsh on one side and the pinewoods of the ensenada da Insua on the other. It is the best moment of the day for birdwatching. Shortly afterwards the path leaves the water and takes on the Ruta do Rego dos Muíños, a sustained climb among oak woods and old watermills that marks the turning point of the day.

At the top waits the section with the greatest historical weight on all of O Camiño dos Faros. The hill fort of A Cibdá de Borneiro preserves some fifty structures of an Iron Age settlement, and a short distance away stands the dolmen of Dombate, a megalithic tomb more than five thousand years old known as the cathedral of Galician megalithism. From monte Castelo, at 312 metres and the highest point on the route, the rías of Corme and Laxe are taken in at a single glance.

The descent leads back to the sea through the hamlets of O Curro, Canduas, Vilaseco and Fontefría. The path regains the coast at Punta do Cabalo, a viewpoint over both rías, and lines up the beaches of Urixeira, Rebordelo and San Pedro. The old shipyards of A Telleira announce the arrival in Laxe, a fishing town with a working harbour and a broad beach, which closes the stage.