The last day of my trip to fill in the bits I hadn’t walked, started off in beautiful sunshine, which stayed with me for the whole day. I had convinced the owner of the hostel to open for breakfast at 8.30am instead of 9am, which gave me an extra 30 minutes walking, which was good as it turned out to be a 40km day with almost 1.000m in elevation, and I didn’t reach mu hotel until just before 7pm. So it was a long day.
Today’s stage can be pretty much split into two parts, the morning next to the coast and the afternoon walking inland towards the airport, where I fill in the gap, so I will have walked all kilometers between Sagres and Toulouse.
The first 5 kilometers of todays stage were in the dunes behind the Baldaio beach. It was flat, along small paths in the sand. I guess one could just as well walk along the beach. The last kilometer or so there is a inland lake, probably empty during summer, but just now full of water and a few migrating birds.
From A Pedro do Sal I walked along a wide path overlooking the ocean all the way to Caion, where I stopped for a coffee. It was a pleasant walk, great views along the coast, but also of the town as you walk in.
After Caion the walk changed character as the closest path along the coast were small country roads, with little traffic. After the Barranan beach, the road climbs towards Arteixo – a not particularly interesting stretch.
Halfway up the hill there is a tarmac path (Senda Azul) that continues along the coast to the harbour, follow a dirt path past the harbour (and the power plant) to the Estrada Bens that pretty much takes you to the beach in A Coruna. Unfortunately my day changed from path walking to road walking for the rest of the day and no more views of the coastline.
It was supposed to be a 36km day, but as reached Uzes I took the wrong path, following the recommendation from Google maps. It ended up adding about 4kms, and even worse 4km walking along the feeder road to the airport with a narrow shoulder and 90km an hour speed limit. Not a great end to the day. Reaching the airport I closed the final gap, but I was tired by now and just wanted to get to my hotel, 20 minutes walk away. I passed a snow warning sign, which was a bit out of place when it was 15 degrees.
Although I didn’t walk all the way to A Coruna, the walk from Malpica to Arteixo was a great walk and I have no doubt that walking the last kilometers into A Coruna make a great two day walk that I would certainly recommend. If anybody plans to walk to the airport, don’t follow my tracks after Uzes.
