"The Camino Primitivo" Top 5 Page for this destination Asturias by into-thin-air

Asturias Travel Guide: 509 reviews and 6,849 photos

Perigrino’s take a break at “The Menthal Hospital”

The "Way"

September 2008 and I have returned from yet another Camino in Spain, again walking to raise sponsorship money for Cancer Research at The Royal Marsden Hospital.
The Camino Primitivo was both the Friendliest as well as the Hardest Camino that I have walked to date, Friendliest because of the Most Helpful Hospitalaro’ s, Helpful Restaurant owners who were prepared to open up early to feed hungry Perigrino’s often under Curfew Rules, Friendly Shop and Bar Owners and Most Importantly Very Friendly Fellow Perigrino’s !!
Hardest because the “Way” was longer than I originally calculated, Once because I failed to double check my daily total and a couple of times due to detours due to road building and associated quarrying and the route is against the grain of the land, often crossing several “Altos” then plunging into deep valleys in one day – But I LOVED It !!

The history

The “Way” through Penaflor

The route takes you approximately 350k from the north coast at Villavicosa, through the city of Oviedo, across the mountains to the walled city of Lugo and eventually joins the Camino Frances in Melide, a mere 53k from Santiago.
This is “The Original “Way” and might well have been taken by King Alphonse “The Chaste” who played a decisive role in confirming that the remains unearthed in Santiago de Compostela did indeed belong to the Apostle Saint James.

Stages and My Compoanions

Birgit and Stevie take a break near San Roman

With hind sight we were probably a little over ambitious with the way we split the route into stages, we did this way mainly to be able to fit the trip into a 2 week timeframe, If I were to plan the same trip again then I would allow at least 14 days walking and then ideally, instead of ending the Camino at Melide, trek the extra 53k into Santiago de Compostela where everyone else walking with us was heading for !!
I will break down the route into the stages that we did under Sports Travel tips, but will also include a with hind sight option.
We based this Camino on a return flight to Santiago de Compostela with Ryan Air, then bussed with Alsa, first to Oviedo and then to Villavicosa the starting point of The Camino Primitivo.
Then from Melide we caught a bus back to Santiago de Compostela for our return flight

My travelling companions for part of the way were again my friends Stevie from England and Birgit from Berlin, as well as all the Perigrino’s that I met on the “Way” including Christian from Bavaria, Willem from Belgium and Carl from Germany to mention but a few :-) Thank you All for your company :-)

Pros and Cons

Pros:Beautiful route, not so crowded, wonderful albergues and very friendly people
Cons:None to mention
In a nutshell:Wonderful Camino

Last visit to Asturias: Apr 2009
Intro Updated Aug 11, 2009
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Comments (4)

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garridogal Aug 14, 2011 at 5:46 PM

Great photos! I spent some time in Asturias last fall and absolutely fell in love with the region.
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nomad7890 Nov 24, 2009 at 7:26 PM

Hello Rob, Birgit (bijo) heard I wanted to walk the Camino and mentioned your name - what nice pages! Do you know of anyone walking this special year late summer? -All the best, Martha
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ncfg Oct 7, 2008 at 12:17 PM

Great tips! When i visited Asturias i stayed in Villaviciosa, it is a nice little town.
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bijo69 Sep 27, 2008 at 6:16 AM

Yes, it definitely was a great camino!