Stage Ribadeo to Gondán

The 20.9 kilometres between Ribadeo and Gondán open the Galician section of the Camino del Norte and mark the route's real change of scene. Up to this point the pilgrim has walked for weeks with the sea on one side; from this stage onwards the Cantabrian Sea disappears from the horizon and the Camino turns decisively inland, towards Compostela. The profile gives no respite: some 602 metres of ascent and 457 of descent over constantly rolling terrain, with no mountain passes but with one short climb after another, which justifies its reputation as a hard stage.

Leaving Ribadeo means leaving behind the ría and the puente de los Santos. The town, with its plaza de España and the indiano houses built by emigrants returned from América, is the Camino's last seafaring picture. Within a few kilometres the landscape changes completely: the route heads into sunken lanes and rural tracks between meadows enclosed by stone walls and the first eucalyptus plantations, passing through Vilela and San Vicente de Covelas. Silence and the scarcity of inhabitants define this first third.

At A Ponte de Arante, beside the sanctuary of Santa María, the serious part begins. Here starts a sustained climb of about five kilometres that gains the shelf on which Vilamartín Pequeno sits and reaches 370 metres, the day's high point. This is a stretch of very scattered hamlets and livestock farming, with practically no services: this is not a stage on which to count on finding a bar mid-morning, so it is worth carrying water and food from Ribadeo.

With the worst behind, the Camino still strings together short climbs between Vilamartín Pequeno and Vilamartín Grande before reaching Gondán, a parish in the municipality of Trabada. It is a small, quiet settlement with basic services for the pilgrim, and it exists on the Jacobean map precisely because of what it offers: splitting in two a day that would otherwise be very long. Anyone who feels strong enough can carry on to Vilanova de Lourenzá, already down in the valley of the Masma.