sillydoll said:
In the whole of 2011, 2374 pilgrims walked the Portuguese route. (Not sure what months they started walking though.)
638 pilgrims started from Porto (762 from Tui) The other 1000+ must have started from other towns.
sillydoll, like Johny Walker suggests, those figures seem very unrealistic to me too, UNLESS they are referring only to April - again, if Easter was in april, figures might be relative.
I was in the Portuguese in 2011 myself at the end of June, and in average, there would be 30 or 40 pilgrims per night in the big albergues like Pontevedra, Caldas de Rei or Padron, but in Mos, for example, there were only 5 or 6 of us.
The Portuguese is very popular among Spanish people during the summer months and Easter, but other than that, at least between Tui and Santiago, I would say it is not terribly busy outside those seasons.
Gorgeous camino, beware the segment REDONDELA-PONTEVEDRA seemed a heck of a lot longer than expected.
Buen camino!