This was a nice afternoon hike. It was not a particularly long route, and we actually extended it a bit beyond the park because the weather was nice. The route was 6km in total, there and back, and mostly a flat easy walk.
The path starts in a park with a few walking paths. Caldeiras do Castro has a series of little pools that form naturally in the riverbeds. There is a walking path that overlooks the baths and contines along the river.
The larger walkway was not very long, and we found ourselves “como cabritas” pretty quickly. But the trail is clear and continues along the river. It is lovely and Galician Green.
After a short distance, the path moves off from the river and it is not straightfoward to recover. There is a farm blocking the river access, so you have to walk along the perimeter until you can guess where it is polite to cross down back into the river.
Fortunately, I encountered a farmer driving his tractor. He was able to give me directions and a few tail wags. He was, indeed, a very good boy. He pointed us down the middle of the farm where there was a small path between two fields.
On the other side of farm was a very sturdy bridge… so of course I had to cross it.
And on the other side was this really lovely island where the river split to flow around the sand bar.
The island was not very big but it was pretty! We had hoped to cross the river here to return, but there was not a second bridge so we went back the way we came.
We followed the river back and passed a little mill.
Returning to the car, we took the route closer to the water rather than the path higher up, so this is essentially the close-up of the first photo in the series. It looks like aa nice place to take a swim. It was a little cool for me by the time we came back, but I would absolutely return.
Farmer Dog was so cute he needed two photos. I could not decide which was more adorable so here is the other.
PigTailz 