Portuguese Coastal Camino - Day 4. Esposende to Viana do Castelo

Saturday 6 September 2025 – Esposende to Viana do Castelo

Yet again Mac’s had specified a ridiculously long distance to be walked to get to our next destination – 18 Miles to Viana do Castelo, so we took to the decision to shave off the first 3 miles by taking a taxi to Ponte near Guilheta.

 

The walking didn’t start well as the way marking arrows were really confusing. Eventually we found Ponte do Sebastiao and crossed into the Viana district. Once we crossed the bridge the arrows pointed one way, but our App was saying the opposite. We followed the App. It was on this day that we realised there are two different Portuguese Coastal Camino’s – the main one “Portuguese Coastal” that tended to run a couple of miles back from the sea, and the “Camino Littoral” which broadly hugged the coast running along beaches and dunes etc. Our App was taking us down this route. In a number of places the routes merged so we had the opportunity to choose which one to follow. But for today it was the Littoral.


We headed towards the sea again, and eventually stopped for coffee/breakfast in Pedro Alta at Café Linda. Opposite the café there was a huge Benfica flag – rather odd give that we were in FC Porto country.

 

 

The paths on the next stage were frankly shit. Running incoherently through the shifting dunes. At one point we were led down a path that became increasing overgrown and impassable. The only way out was to hack through the bushes and climb over a fence to get onto a road. Shades of Via Francigena!

 



We stopped in a roughish local café in Amorosa (Café Cruz) before more unintelligible paths through dunes. In the end we resorted to just walking along the beach for 1.5 miles. Tough, but better than the dunes.

 


Then we jumped off the Mac’s route to follow directly behind the dunes for a couple of miles. This was much better, and we eventually got to Cabadelo. Here there was meant to be a ferry that could takes across the Rio Lima and save us two miles of walking.

We found the jetty and there was a shabby timetable for the ferry crossings. We were not optimistic about it at all. However, a couple with two young children turned up a couple of minutes after we got there, so we started to believe. Five minutes later we spotted the diminutive ferry heading our way.

 

The crossing didn’t take long at all. Soon we arrived in Viana do Castelo and were immediately struck by what a nice place it was. There were beautiful decorations along the main streets and high on the hill above was a big church which was accessible via a funicular. The people in the Turismo were very helpful.

 


Having arrived at our destination in very good time, and in better spirits than the first two days, we stopped at a traditional Cervezeria that was run by a very old man who must have been in his 80’s. The Sagrés tasted like Nectar.

 
 

At our hotel we received an uber-friendly welcome. My feet were in good nick, mainly thanks to cutting our walk short by circa 5 miles (taxi & ferry)

After resting for a while we took the funicular up Monte de Santa Luzia to visit the church. The funicular was fine, but we were mindful that the previous day 15 people had been killed in Lisbon after a funicular jumped its tracks.


We took the steps to the top of the church tower and enjoyed the spectacular views looking back where we had spent the day walking.

 

 

It was Eliza’s 3rd Birthday so we had a brief video call back home, but she was clearly shattered, bless her.

In the evening, we ate at a touristy place on the main street and then headed around to a lovely pedestrianised square where there was a festival going on. We watched two groups of Galician musicians playing – their haunting and piercing bagpipes bringing back memories of being in Santiago. Excellent.

 


 


 

A much better day. Really enjoyable. That’s more like it. However, the forecast for tomorrow is dreadful. Rain all day!

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