Camino Portugués 2022: Camino Day 20 - Vila Praia do Āncora to A Guarda

Day 20 of our Camino walk (Friday, September 16) was another beautiful day of walking along the beach and through a cool shady forest to the town of Caminha and then a water taxi ride across the estuary to A Guarda, Spain. Because this was a short day of walking (less than 10 miles), we slept in a little and didn’t leave our hotel until after 9:00.

Leaving Vila Praia do Āncora

Getting a stamp in our passport at a small chapel along the way

View of Monte de Santa Tecla. A Guarda is on the other

side of the mountain.

Both the beach and forest walking were quiet and peaceful, and the forest path deposited us at a waterfront boardwalk a short way from Caminha’s town center. We saw a number of small boats operating as water taxis there, but our information said there was a ferry terminal in Caminha where we could catch a ferry to A Guarda. As we walked along the boardwalk we looked for ferries crossing the estuary and became a little concerned when we couldn’t see anything resembling a ferry on the water. Once we arrived at the ferry terminal, we were told the ferry wasn’t running any more (we assumed because it was now off season). Luckily, there was a water taxi that had just arrived, and he ferried us across.

Climbing into our water taxi

Once we reached the ferry terminal on the other side, we still had @ a 4 mile walk via the Senda Litoral to the town of A Guarda itself. By the time we got to our hotel it was almost 5:00 and there was some must-see sightseeing near A Guarda we wanted to do. We quickly showered and changed and got a taxi to take us to Monte de Santa Tecla where there are ruins of a Celtic settlement from the 1st century BC. Didn’t get to dinner until 8:00, which meant we didn’t get back to our hotel until 10:00. For what we thought was going to be a relatively short day, it turned out to be a very long day indeed.

Along the path to A Guarda