The Camino Francés from O Cebreiro to Triacastela

From the car park at O Cebreiro the Camino Francés, the French Way, goes west by Liñares and Hospital da Condesa. The Xunta de Galicia's stage page then has a stone path climbing steeply to the Alto do Poio at 1,337 m, and on by Fonfría and O Biduedo, with the last 1.6 km into Triacastela downhill. The walk is one way.

It is 21.2 km with 216 m of ascent and 852 m of descent by our count; allow about 6½ hours. The Xunta gives the stage as 22.2 km, medium-high difficulty and an estimated 4 h 30, with section lengths of 4.5, 2.4, 2.8, 3.8, 7.2 and 1.6 km between O Cebreiro, Liñares, Hospital da Condesa, Padornelo, Fonfría, O Biduedo and Triacastela. The grade is Hard on our count, which comes from the walking time (6.5 hours by DIN 33466).

The Xunta says that from the hostel at O Cebreiro two routes can be taken to Liñares, a path going up on the right from the doorway or the original route, down to the main highway and along it (about 3 km); that after Hospital da Condesa the way reaches the highway and can be walked along the hard shoulder; and that the section from Liñares to Hospital da Condesa goes up and down a number of steep slopes. The stage page gives no season, snow or fog advice, so ask locally before you walk it in winter.

The Xunta's page on getting to the starting points lists buses from Lugo to Pedrafita do Cebreiro (operators ALSA, González de la Riva and Monbus, five a day from Monday to Sunday except holidays), with the stop on the Avenida Castilla (Nacional VI); it does not say how to cover the way from there to O Cebreiro. No return transport from Triacastela was found on an official page: arrange a taxi.

Route drawn by Global Adventurer along OpenStreetMap paths (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL), with figures worked out from it. Check the forecast and the ground on the day: paths change.