Elevation question - coastal camino

[angmsmith]

Hi all- I’m finding conflicting information about the elevation from Esposende to Viana. Can someone confirm what I should expect?

Thank you

 

[jungleboy]

The conflicting information might be because there are two options for this stage: coastal (which is mostly inland on this stage) or littoral. The littoral will be quite flat. Here is the elevation chart for the coastal from Marinhas (Esposebde to Marinhas is completely flat) from Gronze. There are a couple of 100m climbs (and subsequent descents) and it's otherwise pretty flat.

 

[angmsmith]

The conflicting information might be because there are two options for this stage: coastal (which is mostly inland on this stage) or littoral. The littoral will be quite flat. Here is the elevation chart for the coastal from Marinhas (Esposebde to Marinhas is completely flat) from Gronze. There are a couple of 100m climbs (and subsequent descents) and it's otherwise pretty flat.

View attachment 176339

Ah, makes sense. I have found it difficult to find maps for littoral way. Any recommendations for this? I want to try to stick to the actual coast as much as I can.

 

[jungleboy]

Ah, makes sense. I have found it difficult to find maps for littoral way. Any recommendations for this? I want to try to stick to the actual coast as much as I can.

The Wise Pilgrim app has both routes, where blue is the standard coastal and red is the littoral (at the points where it exists):



From Esposende-Viana I chose the coastal and not the littoral, and the following day out of Viana I chose the littoral. I was happy with both choices! This is what I wrote about my Esposende-Viana stage:

Day 3: Early morning fog — again! — but thankfully it doesn’t last today. By about 8:30am, the sun breaks through and it turns into a beautiful day, and an easier one than yesterday for a solar-powered pilgrim.

One of the quirks of the ‘coastal’ camino is that a fair bit of it is not by the coast at all — that’s what the Senda Litoral is for — and the official route today between Esposende and Viana do Castelo is entirely inland with not a single boardwalk after the outskirts of Esposende.

The early part of the day is fairly unremarkable (towns and cobblestones) and I am lost in thought when I suddenly realise, about three hours into the stage, that I’m in a forest for the first time on this camino. It’s not the most amazing forest I’ve ever been in by any stretch of the imagination and it only lasts a few minutes and there’s a fair bit of eucalyptus, but despite all of that, I irrationally love it. There’s actual terrain and I can feel the earth under my feet and hear the flow of a nearby river, and this is what the camino is for me. The river crossing over a stone bridge is nice and although there’s an opportunity just after the bridge to head towards the coast, I stick with the inland route and am rewarded soon enough with another forest, which is not quite as thrilling as the first one but worth it all the same.

It’s also another day of churches and there are several on the trail that I like: Belinha for its quasi onion dome, rare in Portugal in general but somewhat common in this part of the country; Castelo do Neiva for its AD 862 inscription that shows it to be the earliest known sanctuary to Santiago outside Spain; and Anha for more surprisingly interesting modern art, this time stained-glass windows.

I arrive in Viana do Castelo by 2:30pm; it’s an attractive town with a picturesque historic centre, and it’s a good place to reflect and ponder over an afternoon drink at a garden kiosk. If the lesson from today is ‘the further inland you go, the more authentic a camino this is’, what does that mean for the coming days?

 

[angmsmith]

The Wise Pilgrim app has both routes, where blue is the standard coastal and red is the littoral (at the points where it exists):

View attachment 176340

From Esposende-Viana I chose the coastal and not the littoral, and the following day out of Viana I chose the littoral. I was happy with both choices! This is what I wrote about my Esposende-Viana stage:

Day 3: Early morning fog — again! — but thankfully it doesn’t last today. By about 8:30am, the sun breaks through and it turns into a beautiful day, and an easier one than yesterday for a solar-powered pilgrim.

One of the quirks of the ‘coastal’ camino is that a fair bit of it is not by the coast at all — that’s what the Senda Litoral is for — and the official route today between Esposende and Viana do Castelo is entirely inland with not a single boardwalk after the outskirts of Esposende.

The early part of the day is fairly unremarkable (towns and cobblestones) and I am lost in thought when I suddenly realise, about three hours into the stage, that I’m in a forest for the first time on this camino. It’s not the most amazing forest I’ve ever been in by any stretch of the imagination and it only lasts a few minutes and there’s a fair bit of eucalyptus, but despite all of that, I irrationally love it. There’s actual terrain and I can feel the earth under my feet and hear the flow of a nearby river, and this is what the camino is for me. The river crossing over a stone bridge is nice and although there’s an opportunity just after the bridge to head towards the coast, I stick with the inland route and am rewarded soon enough with another forest, which is not quite as thrilling as the first one but worth it all the same.

It’s also another day of churches and there are several on the trail that I like: Belinha for its quasi onion dome, rare in Portugal in general but somewhat common in this part of the country; Castelo do Neiva for its AD 862 inscription that shows it to be the earliest known sanctuary to Santiago outside Spain; and Anha for more surprisingly interesting modern art, this time stained-glass windows.

I arrive in Viana do Castelo by 2:30pm; it’s an attractive town with a picturesque historic centre, and it’s a good place to reflect and ponder over an afternoon drink at a garden kiosk. If the lesson from today is ‘the further inland you go, the more authentic a camino this is’, what does that mean for the coming days?

Thank you. I’ve been using a different app but will try this one

 

[trecile]

Thank you. I’ve been using a different app but will try this one

I think that Wise Pilgrim is the best app for the Portuguese Caminos because its maps shows all the different routes.

 

[lt56ny]

Hi all- I’m finding conflicting information about the elevation from Esposende to Viana. Can someone confirm what I should expect?

Thank you

Remember from a guy who hates hills. The coastal is a piece of cake compared to just about any camino I have walked. When are you going? I will walk it again as my last leg of this year's camino. Probably be there about November 1. Walked it last November but as anyone who walked it then will tell you we pretty much swam to Santiago. Buen Camino

 

[angmsmith]

Remember from a guy who hates hills. The coastal is a piece of cake compared to just about any camino I have walked. When are you going? I will walk it again as my last leg of this year's camino. Probably be there about November 1. Walked it last November but as anyone who walked it then will tell you we pretty much swam to Santiago. Buen Camino

I’m here now! I leave esposende in the morning

 

[Elle Bieling]

I may be too late, but here is my map of the day from Esposend to Viana, with both the Coastal and the Senda Litoral routes: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1l-rALgm1qtUys2E80gX-xV8y4htDZkDp&usp=sharing
It will open in google maps or google earth.

Here's my entire route in Google Maps: Camino Portugués Entire Route - https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1UWvZ3tZ9pMSoEXfY8sIK7ZZlBGw&usp=sharing

And finally, if you are more savy, here is the actual KML/KMZ file of the entire Coasal and Senda Litoral routes if you want to see it in Google Earth: https://www.pilgrimagetraveler.com/...tugues-entire-coastal-route-with-features.zip You will have to click on the file when it downloads to extract it!

Buen Camino