Stage Vilalba to Baamonde

The stage between Vilalba and Baamonde covers 18.5 kilometres of Terra Chá and is, on paper, the easiest of the Lugo section: barely 209 metres of positive ascent and 273 of descent, without a single climb worth mentioning. Its merit lies not in the profile but in the terrain, because it is one of the few days of the Camino del Norte in Galicia that does almost entirely without asphalt.

You leave Vilalba with the Torre dos Andrade behind you and the Camino is at once in its element: dirt tracks, narrow footpaths and sunken lanes hemmed in between stone walls and vegetation, that deep, shady way so characteristic of rural Galicia. The other side of the coin is the mud: after a day of rain -and in the Terra Chá it does rain- these stretches turn muddy easily and call for footwear with a good grip, and patience.

The day goes on crossing the network of streams and small rivers that drain the plain towards the Miño basin, over bridges and stone footbridges, among hay meadows, maize fields and stands of eucalyptus and pine that already announce the forest landscape of the interior. The two intermediate points of reference are San Xoán de Alba and Pedrouzos, hamlets of a few houses where services are reduced to the bare minimum: this is not a stage on which to stake everything on finding a bar open in mid-morning.

Baamonde, in the concello of Begonte, is a small crossroads beside the N-VI, with a pilgrim albergue, hostels and bars. Its most singular corner is next to the church of Santiago: a centuries-old chestnut tree, hollow inside, in whose trunk the local sculptor Víctor Corral carved a chapel with an image of the Virgin. Corral's own house-museum, peopled with figures of stone and wood, can be visited and is a rewarding stop for an afternoon's rest. From here, the Camino prepares for the long day towards Sobrado dos Monxes.