Portuguese Coastal Camino - Day 5. Viana do Castelo to Vila Praia da Ancora

Sunday 7 September 2025 – Viana do Castelo to Vila Praia da Ancora

As predicted, it’s raining heavily as we leave our hotel.  Consequently, we decided to walk the main “coastal route” which runs a couple of miles inland and will hopefully offer more shelter from the rain. It also means a shift from wearing trainers back to my trusty walking boots.

  

The rain wasn’t too horrendous, but we seemed to go a very long way round following yellow arrows to find the “main” route.

  

  

However, it was nice to be back following the traditional arrows. The route itself was mainly along cobbled paths and tracks. Beautiful.  Now we could see what Paul Thomas meant when he talked about his brief and rare brush with blisters. This really felt a proper Camino, unlike the boardwalks, beaches and dunes.

  


 

By 11am the rain subsided and the sun put his hat on….hip, hip, hip hooray!

 

 

 

We stopped at Café Central in Carreço for coffee. There we got chatting to a friendly Danish woman; and youngish Dutch bloke who had walked the Camino Inglés from Reading to Southampton.

 

Then we headed upwards and inland further, passing a really nice looking café next to Convento de Cabanas. A stop here was denied by Cate as we hadn’t walked far enough since the last stop. Very caring!

 

 


After crossing an old stone bridge, we then had a fairly serious climb (unusual for this Camino). I hadn’t been looking forward to this 500 foot climb, but it was reasonably shaded and not as steep as I’d expected.

 

  

From the top we could see the town of Ancora below, and our destination, Vila Praia da Ancora 3 miles away. This last section was pretty boring and certainly felt longer than 3 miles.


Vila Praia da Ancora turned out to be a pretty place with a nice square and church. Even better, was the hotel with its swimming pool. Very, very welcome indeed.


 

 



In the evening, we had a nice wander on the beach as the sun went down. Cate even had a paddle and got her dress soaked. Post cards were written and posted.*

 

 

We’d managed 4 of the 8 days. Or in my case, survived the 4 days

Tomorrow, we say goodbye to Portugal, move an hour forward in time and cross into Galicia, Spain.

 

*PS They took two months to be delivered!

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