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Stage 6 · Camino Primitivo
Berducedo → Grandas de Salime
Before you set off
No water, no food
Between Berducedo and Grandas de Salime. — Leave with 2.0 litres of water.
The descent to the Salime reservoir
A short stage of low difficulty on paper, 20.1 kilometres with 330 metres of ascent and 960 of descent, but with one of the longest and most punishing descents on the whole Camino. You leave Berducedo on a track to La Mesa, a small village with a bar, and from there the path climbs gently to the chapel of Buspol, on a saddle with views already opening over the Navia valley.
From Buspol the descent begins: several kilometres of continuous downhill on dirt and stone paths, zigzagging among heather and oaks, down to the Salime reservoir, which appears far below like a tongue of green water between the mountains. You pass the ruins of the settlement built for the dam workers and cross the wall of the power station on the road. It is a good place to stop, and the only one for many kilometres where something may be open.
Then it is time to climb: the road and then a path among chestnut trees regain height up to Grandas de Salime, which you reach with your legs in pieces. It is a town with every service and an ethnographic museum showing what life used to be like in these mountains.
Tips
Use poles and slow down on the descent to Salime: almost a thousand metres of continuous downhill, and your knees pay for it.
Carry water from Berducedo or La Mesa; there are no fountains on the descent and in summer the sun hits you full on.
Rest at the reservoir before climbing: the slope up to Grandas is tarmac and comes when you are already tired.
Get a transit stamp in La Mesa or at the reservoir, and the arrival stamp at the hostel or the town hall in Grandas.
The stretch across the dam and along the reservoir road is narrow, with bends and no hard shoulder: walk on the inside and in single file if there are several of you.
Where am I?
Your phone says where you are; the guide tells you how far is left and where the next water is.
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Your position is used to answer you and is not stored anywhere.
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.
Create the free account It is free and forever. An account is needed for the guide to place you. I already have an account
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
The elevation for this stage has not been loaded yet.
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 Primitivo, on the stage from Berducedo to Grandas de Salime.
- Farmacia Rodríguez Pharmacy km 20,0
The map
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What to see on this stage 9
- Iglesia de Berducedo Church km 0,1
- Igrexa de Santa María Madalena da Mesa Church km 4,1
- Capela de Santa Mariña de Buspol Church km 6,6
- Iglesia de San Salvador de Grandas de Salime Church km 20,1
- Capilla del Carmen Church km 20,3
- Ermida da Esperanza de Malneira Church km 24,2
- Ermida de San Xulián Church km 24,8
- Ermita de San Martín y Santa Bárbara Church km 25,2
- Ermida de San Lázaro Church km 26,6