Walking the Camino backwards from Santiago to Porto...

Nightbadger said:

Hello,

I'm planning to walk the camino in September with a group of friends. We want to walk it in reverse. Does anyone know if there is a map that takes in the Coastal Route from Santiago to Porto? Has anyone done this? If so, what would you recommend?

I've walked a few Camino's on my own before so not daunted by any challenges - especially as I'll be with friends this time.

Thank you!

Vicky

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Hi Vicky, how'd you go with this? I'm planning on doing the same and at this stage have zero info, was just going to turn up n hope for the best!

Olá,

on my caminhos from Porto to Santiago I met some pilgrims who did it backwards. They all told me it´s sometimes difficult to find yellow arrows. All on the "wrong" side ! That´s the only problem. Therefore you have to look back very often.

I read something interesting recently, when searching for Camino walking map apps, it said that Camino Portugal has been substantially updated and changes made up until 2016.
Anyone else read this?

December 2011 after finishing the CF I continued to Finisterre, per usual, and then walked down to the Portuguese border at Tui/Valenca do Minho. This involved going " backward " along the Camino Portugues from Santiago.

To go backward is more complicated than you might think; since then the path was hardly well marked, searching for the famous yellow arrows pointing opposite my direction wasn't easy. Viewed backwards the arrows resembled anchors. Thus it all was a bit of a treasure hunt!

However, the Galician Xunta albergues along the route were GREAT in Padron, Caldas de Rei, Pontevedra, Redondela, and O Porrino. At Valenca do Minho where my husband met me by car we stayed within the hilltop 17th c fortress at the elegant Pousada Sao Teotonio which was SUPERB as was the view back to Tui.

Check out this 2010 blog in English by a cyclist who rode 'straight up' from Lisbon to Santiago. His descriptions and photos will give you an idea of the terrain.

Bom Caminho!

My wife and I walked some of the coastal route backwards in 2015 after walking from Porto to Finisterre quicker than we thought. We had about a week left so decided to walk part of the route backwards to catch our flight back from Porto. I can't remember off hand which town we got the bus back to from Santiago. It may of been Vila Do Conde.

What we found was the route was being completely re-routed and new roads/paths were still being laid which made it very difficult to stick to without wandering back and forth between the old and new. We found it very hard to find arrows and ended up following the red/white line marks that we came across or we just tried to stick as close to the coastline as best we could. Although that brought about it's own difficulties when we got caught out with trying to find our way across river inlets that stopped us dead in our tracks! We did a lot of backtracking and a lot of extra mileage that we hadn't banked on. We ended up sleeping rough a lot of the time as we had no idea regards albergues. We made some benders in the sandhills on some of the beaches and we slept in bushes close to gypsy sites. It was a real adventure but also really tiresome and we eventually took solace at a medieval festival we'd seen was happening in a place called Camina. We rested a few days there before heading back down the coast still sleeping rough until we landed in Porto.

My experience of walking backwards was that it takes a lot more out of you because you're not just looking ahead for yellow arrows or shells. You really have to play detective and work hard to find the route. But I guess whichever route we took was the path we were meant to be on for our journey. If I could give any advice I would say have the adventure and do it but expect the unexpected.

Bon Caminho