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Stage 29 · Camino Francés
Sarria → Portomarín
The hundred-kilometre mark and the Miño
You leave Sarria along the Rúa Maior, cross the river by the Áspera bridge and are quickly out in the country: walled corredoiras, oaks and meadows, picture-postcard rural Galicia. Barbadelo, with its Romanesque church, comes early; then endless hamlets, Rente, Mercado, Morgade, linked by earth paths and tracks, many of them with bars. It is 22.2 kilometres with 390 metres of ascent in short pulls and medium difficulty.
At Ferreiros, around halfway, stands the marker for kilometre 100 and the obligatory photograph. The kilometres that follow, through Mercadoiro and Vilachá, run level and downhill over easy ground, until the route drops sharply to the Miño, or rather to the Belesar reservoir, which stills the river here. The bridge, long and high, is crossed on foot with the water below and, when the reservoir is low, the ruins of old Portomarín showing through.
On the far side, the stairway under the arch of the old bridge climbs to the new Portomarín, a 1960s village moved stone by stone when the original was flooded, with the fortress church of San Nicolás at its centre. There is everything you need to eat and sleep.
Tips
Leave early: from Sarria the route is very busy and walks better in the first light.
Remember the two daily stamps in the last hundred kilometres: bars and hostels in the hamlets give them without any fuss.
The descent from Vilachá to the bridge is short but very steep; take it slowly in the rain.
The bridge over the reservoir has no shade and the wind blows; cover up before you start across.
There is water at springs and bars for most of the day, but fill your bottle in Ferreiros just in case.
In high season Portomarín runs out of beds during the afternoon: book ahead or arrive early.
Where am I?
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Walk with me
It crosses where you are with the time, the daylight left, the water, the beds and the notice board. Three things at most: the ones that actually change your afternoon.
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It checks GPS every 6 min while you keep it open. GPS drains the battery: if yours is low, switch it off.
Your position is used to answer you and is not stored anywhere.
Profile and services
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The weather
14°C
Fog
- Feels like
- 15 °C
- Wind
- 1 km/h
- Daylight
- 08:40 – 19:50
- Today 🌫️ 23° 13° 3 %
- Wed 🌫️ 28° 11°
- Thu 🌫️ 28° 11°
- Fri 🌧️ 21° 10°
- Sat ⛅ 19° 11° 5 %
- Sun ⛅ 19° 9° 4 %
- Mon ⛅ 17° 7° 8 %
Data from Open-Meteo, refreshed every half hour.
What's there today
Nobody has reported anything on this stage.
Tips from people who walked it
The things that do not expire: where the fountain actually is, which bar opens at six, where not to go in the rain.
None here yet. If you have just walked this stage, you know something tomorrow’s pilgrim does not.
Emergencies
Call 112112 is the same number in Spain, in Portugal and across the European Union. It works with no credit, with no SIM, and over any operator's network, not just yours.
Say where you are I am walking the Camino Francés, on the stage from Sarria to Portomarín.
- Pharmacy Pharmacy km 19,8
- Alicia García Baamonde Pharmacy km 19,8
The map
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What to see on this stage 7
- Igrexa de Santiago de Barbadelo Church km 1,9
- Capela de Santa Mariña Church km 9,8
- Capela de San Vitoiro Church km 11,1
- Igrexa de Santa María de Ferreiros Church km 11,4
- Igrexa de Santiago da Laxe Church km 14,3
- Capela de Nosa Señora das Neves Church km 19,7
- Igrexa de San Nicolao de Portomarín Church km 19,8