Vila do Conde/Rates to Barcelinhos

When originally planning today’s leg, I’d ended up with an unavoidable 28km-30km stage today or tomorrow, as I crossed from the Littoral route to the Central Caminho Português about 13km or 8 miles inland.

On the basis that I already potentially needed a taxi back to the centre of Vila do Conde and with inland temperatures likely to be of the order of 32C, I decided to take a taxi all the way to São Pedro de Rates, and so reduce today’s stage to 15.8km or some 10 miles. I was also aware that the couple of options for connecting routes are largely (and part busy) road and not highly rated.

São Pedro de Rates is named for St Peter of Rates, who is said to have been a contemporary of St James (Santiago) when he was here on the Iberian peninsula, in 44 AD, and allegedly ordaining Peter as the first of Braga at Easter 45 AD. If the James who is recorded as being beheaded in Acts 12 v1-4 in Jerusalem at Easter 44 AD, this would appear to render this legend rather unlikely (although there are other potential Jameses who could have been in Jerusalem).

The other parallels between Santiago and São Pedro is that he was also beheaded, apparently in Rates, and later Pedro’s grave was lost only to be discovered under a bright star on a field in the 9th Century.

From the 11th century there was a large monastery here in Rates, of which only the Romanesque church and bell tower remain.

I grabbed a quick coffee and breakfast in a bar in Rates, and then struck off to the north following the plentiful shell and arrow markers.

The path led out of the village and onto a dirt track which led between fields, and on one side I could see a tractor pulling a muck spreader across a field.

Before long the path led up hill, which was hard work in the increasing heat. There was at least intermittent shade under occasional large trees or buildings on the sunny side of the path.

When there was no shade, it was incredibly hot but I kept drinking water and stopping whenever there was shade.

Roughly halfway, I found a restaurant in Pedra Furada, which was air conditioned! I enjoyed a ham, cheese and tomato sandwich and some cold drinks. Eventually, I had to venture back into the heat once more.

There were a few other pilgrims at the restaurant and I saw a few others throughout the afternoon.

The path was a mix of fairly quiet country lanes (with the odd tractor and other traffic) and some tracks. After several smaller hills (compared with the first ascent) the route started to descend towards the Cavado valley.

I was aiming for an albergue in Barcelinhos, which precedes its much larger neighbour Barcelos on the far side of a medieval bridge. It turned out this albergue had plenty of space.Read more