In case of the Caminho da Costa it is supposed that once arriving in Caminha and intending to cross the Minho river , pilgrims go to the restaurant where the fishermen meet and pick up them for the crossing to the other (Spanish ) side of the river.
There is no other alternative others than to walk to the international bridge nearby Vila Nova de Cerveira , a detour of about 30 kms .
The Transbordador, the ferry is not sailing anymore due to all kinds of problems so happily there are the fishermen and I thought some so called watertaxis . With the last I have no experience but reading this forum I know they should exist.
The fishermen- as is my personal experience- take the shortest ride from the quay nearby the restaurant - we , by then started at the beach nearby - and they put you off at the otherside between the Atlantic ocean where the river ended up , the so called Foz do Minho and Camposancos what was the landing of the Transbordador.
And when we crossed I took a video of the crossing and that took about 5 minutes and was quite hilarious . By then we paid 5€ each .
From the landings place it was a nice walk along the ocean to A Guarda , about 3 kms.
Annexed a map of it. The red line is the connection by boat and walking to the waymarked caminho path to A Guarda .The yellow line is the route of the former Transbordador .
Writing this all I remembered the story . We did the full Costal in 2015 and in Moledo just before Caminha two sisters from Switzerland who walked with us up to Baiona were approached by a man on a bicycle He asked if we were crossing the river . Yes we did. The ferry does not sail he said. It is broken and the river is too shallow now.
Oh ! And now ? You have to walk to Vila Nova de Cerveira where you can cross the river by the bridge.
But I have a solution for you all. Come to my house in Caminha I have a nice stamp for your credentials and tell you what to do.
So we went to his place, got the stamp and he called Mario a fisherman and told him he had four “customers “ ( he did not know I speak Portuguese so I could follow the complete discussion) I became suspicious because what if the Transbordador should sail. The fare was 5 € each while the ferry costed 2 € each.
Anyway. At the end it seemed that the Transbordador indeed did not sail but during the crossing I turned my head to be assured that the Transbordador did not sail.
By then during more than 2 years the Transbordador did not sail and for the fishermen it was an extra income to set pilgrims over . The man with the bicycle must have received commission for every pilgrim he called Mario and collegues.
No problem. It was very clever .
Later in 2018 the Transbordador was sailing .we saw it while walking to Valença by the Ecopista path.