Hi Peter, if you're looking to avoid the crush after joining the Frances at Melide and all the road walking on the Primitivo after Lugo, the Camino Verde is absolutely the way to go. If you add the Norte Variant so that you join the Frances at the airport, it's even better.
Of all the days we've spent walking our four Caminos, the two days of the Verde were the absolute best! It was so beautiful. We walked the Verde on May 29 and 30, so it was still very spring like, especially after the week of rains. The grass was tall, the flowers in full bloom, the trees full of leaves; it was beautiful. There were sections along the second day where the route takes you through old abandoned farm access roads where at times a weed whacker would have been helpful to make our way.
Yes, the elevated walkway has been repaired.
Day 1 to Friol is very well marked with green arrows. We never got lost, but there was an intersection roughly halfway through the day where the arrows pointed both right and left. We ended up going right and it was just fine. There's very little road walking, but where you had to walk along the road, there was very little traffic. The exception is at the end. You walk out of the woods and have roughly two miles of road walking to get to Friol. While we didn't stay here, the food at Casa Benigno in Friol was very good, and the service was excellent.
Leaving Friol on day two was a little confusing since we tried to follow the PDF write up. The write up was, with apologies to the author, far too detailed. For example, it says within the first mile to cross a wooden bridge and "bear right", which gave us the impression that the path divided and we should take the right. There was no divided path. The path simply goes right. A hundred meters further the path comes to a T with no green arrow that we could find. We thought this was where we should bear right, but it didn't make sense for leaving town, so we correctly went left. We only saw two other pilgrims on these two days. They went right at the T and got lost. They got lost several times on day 2, but mostly from not paying attention. The green arrows on the black asphalt can be difficult to see at times, plus some vegetation has grown over some arrows.
Once you merge with the Norte, it's mostly walking along a path beside a very busy road. In a few miles the way takes you away from the busy road and you walk along a suburban road with houses on the left and right until you arrive at Sobrado. We stayed at the very nice Pension Via Sacre. They have one of the best breakfasts that I've seen on Camino, and the café next door does a great pilgrim meal.
The Norte Variant leaves the Norte just past A Gandara and is the right way if you're looking to avoid the Frances. Lots of road walking, but mostly on small secondary roads. I don't think we saw more than four cars pass by us on this section. There's roughly four miles along a road with heavy traffic, but there's a gravel service road alongside that is easy walking, but zero shade. Then you cross a bridge over the A-54 right at the end of the runway and join the Frances.
Do note that there is zero support along the Verde. No cafes. No gas stations. Nothing at all, so you have to bring all the food and water you'll need.
. (Also got solid rain for the 3 days from Lugo and it's mainly on road verges so empathise Nick)
