Vikki Fillingham

Portuguese Camino completed

16 days and over 200 miles trod. 150 miles is the official Camino distance, but we added 50 ! The route was from Porto to Santiago so covered Portuguese and Spanish towns.

We carried everything we needed for the journey – for me this meant a 9kg backpack – I will pack lighter next time as the topography is by no means flat so some days were definitely challenging – I had a couple of melt downs – but worked through them- it wasn’t going to beat me!

Obviously, there is little time to sight- see, after early morning starts, arrival at night stops mid-afternoon, a nap, followed by taking on essential calories (food and drink wise) then the all-important sleep! Not to mention after an average of 12 miles each day an evening walk around town wasn’t top of the list!

So, there are places that we would like to go back and explore more including:

Porto – spectacular city, would be incredible without the crowds !! 
Barcelos – known for its plethora of huge painted rooster statues
Ponte De Lima – the oldest town in Portugal (1125) with its iconic roman footbridge 
Valenca – historic fortified city with a massive 17^th century fort overlooking the river Minho on the Spanish border
Redondela – on the stunning Vigo estuary, with its huge railway viaducts
Pontevedra – beautiful Galician City, with a wonderful pedestrianised historic centre. With an accompanying huge thunderstorm !
Padron – obviously the best ‘pimientos de padron’ with stunning outdoor squares and restaurants.
Santiago – The spiritual home of the Camino’s and the emotional end of our journey. After collecting our certificates, we attended the amazing Pilgrims Mass in the Cathedral with the iconic Botafumeiro. The city is buzzing with wonderful food and music from full blown orchestras to street folk bands. 

As for last year’s camino walk, I have chosen to fundraise for Yorkshire Cancer Research’s ‘Walk for Yorkshire’ campaign. Huge thanks to all those who have sponsored me, current total is just short of £300 – you are all stars.

Walking the Camino is representative of life itself, ups and downs, beauty, and struggle, hard and easy. Nothing tops the arrival at Santiago’s Cathedral Plaza, surrounded by other Pellegrino’s finishing their caminos, emotions flowed and we started to realise just what we had achieved.

If you are tempted, I would recommend a camino adventure . It is an amazing leveller, you meet people from all over the world, from all different backgrounds but you are all the same, just putting one foot in front of the other. A camino opens opportunities for calmness, kindness, and simplicity, it is exciting to see what is around the corner, and it has been said that  “After the walk, the journey begins.”

Camino Portuguese / 150 miles

My husband and I undertake our 2nd Camino - The Camino Portuguese in May.

 Last year we did the Camino Ingles from Ferrol to Santiago De Compostela (SDC), this time we are embarking on the Portuguese Central route from Porto To SDC. 

We are basically doubling last years duration and distance i.e. 12 days covering 150 miles eek !  Nothing like a challenge in your late 50s 😮. To cap it all we will be carrying 7kg backpacks. But we have chosen to stay in Airbnb's rather than hostels, after a very poor nights sleep due to other dormitory residents snoring!  

It will be lovely to have my sister join us at Valenca for the 2nd half as we cross into Spain.. she just needs to choose her obligatory Camino tattoo if we make it to SDC 🫡.

 We'll be meerily accumulating credential stamps and meeting lovely people from all over the world before we collect our 'Compostela' certificate. 

Wish us luck! 

Thank you for reading :)