If you want to avoid the crowds, there is an alternative route from Boimorto which joins the C Frances just before St Irene. The first half is now official, with Xunta de Galicia stone markers, but that then takes a very boring route using main roads, so I have given a quieter route from there on as an alternative.
It's very easy, flat, all on tarmac, and very quiet, although the occasional car can come quite fast, so keep alert. You need to take food and water for the whole day, there are bars but opening is uncertain.
It's 25 km from Boimorto to Pedrouzo.
This resource has been updated October 2024 to take account of the officialisation of the first half, and the completion of the autovia.
Links below are to Google Maps.
Directions
Leaving Boimorto by the standard route, bear right just after the health centre by the basketball court (instead of left for the normal route via Arzúa), taking road CP-0603. You'll soon see the football stadium on your right, keep going straight on the CP-0603, a few km later a pretty chapel (Capilla / Ermita Da Mota) is on your left, with an unreliable water fountain opposte. Keep going straight following the official markers.
Once you have passed the chapel, start to look out for a very distinctive white cylindrical concrete pigeon tower with a pointy roof in a garden on your right visible though the gate in a high and dense evergreen hedge (see photo). When you pass it, at the junction, ignore the official camino stone marker opposite and turn left onto the DP-0604 for 200m. Then turn right, signposted Parroquia des Oines. This is now the unofficial route and unmarked.
Keep straight again for several km, through Ferradal and other scattered settlements. Look out for a bridge sign (see photo) then immediately bear right just before the houses, ignoring the clearly signposted dead end. Cross the new bridge over the autovia A-54, with it's blue guard rails.
Continue straight ahead after the bridge, after about 300m you will come to a junction on a slightly busy road (N-547) with a few houses. Cross this road, and go a few metres up the lane opposite, signposted Loureiros. You'll see a dirt path running alongside a hedge, with a white official marker stone - this is the Camino Frances. Turn right for St Irene.
It's very easy, flat, all on tarmac, and very quiet, although the occasional car can come quite fast, so keep alert. You need to take food and water for the whole day, there are bars but opening is uncertain.
It's 25 km from Boimorto to Pedrouzo.
This resource has been updated October 2024 to take account of the officialisation of the first half, and the completion of the autovia.
Links below are to Google Maps.
Directions
Leaving Boimorto by the standard route, bear right just after the health centre by the basketball court (instead of left for the normal route via Arzúa), taking road CP-0603. You'll soon see the football stadium on your right, keep going straight on the CP-0603, a few km later a pretty chapel (Capilla / Ermita Da Mota) is on your left, with an unreliable water fountain opposte. Keep going straight following the official markers.
Once you have passed the chapel, start to look out for a very distinctive white cylindrical concrete pigeon tower with a pointy roof in a garden on your right visible though the gate in a high and dense evergreen hedge (see photo). When you pass it, at the junction, ignore the official camino stone marker opposite and turn left onto the DP-0604 for 200m. Then turn right, signposted Parroquia des Oines. This is now the unofficial route and unmarked.
Keep straight again for several km, through Ferradal and other scattered settlements. Look out for a bridge sign (see photo) then immediately bear right just before the houses, ignoring the clearly signposted dead end. Cross the new bridge over the autovia A-54, with it's blue guard rails.
Continue straight ahead after the bridge, after about 300m you will come to a junction on a slightly busy road (N-547) with a few houses. Cross this road, and go a few metres up the lane opposite, signposted Loureiros. You'll see a dirt path running alongside a hedge, with a white official marker stone - this is the Camino Frances. Turn right for St Irene.