In the ninth century, King Alfonso II walked from Oviedo to Santiago to confirm the discovery of the apostle's tomb. Twelve hundred years later, the route he took is still there — quieter than the French Way and a good deal hillier. I had one week, a 30-litre pack and no bookings, so I decided to walk the first part of the Primitivo and let the trail decide the rest.
Why the Primitivo
The Camino Primitivo runs about 320 kilometres from Oviedo to Santiago, joining the French Way at Melide. Most of it crosses Asturias and Galicia in a series of short, steep climbs rather than one long mountain pass, and only a fraction of Camino pilgrims choose it. In high summer you might meet thirty people in a day instead of three hundred.
The trade-off is honest: this is the original route, the one the king walked to verify the relics. The reward is the greenest walking in Spain, with the sea on the horizon for the first days and the Cantabrian peaks close enough to touch.
Day one out of Oviedo
Start at Oviedo's cathedral, where the pilgrim office stamps your credential and warns you, accurately, that the first day is long. The way out of the city climbs past the hilltop village of Premoño, where the first serious ascent ends at a stone church and a drinking fountain, then drops through farmland into the market town of Grado.
Grado has a municipal albergue, a supermarket and two bakeries, which is all a tired pilgrim needs. The first stage is around 30 kilometres if you do it in one push; nobody minded that I arrived at four in the afternoon and spent the rest of the day on a bench with a bag of oranges.
The Hospitales decision
The defining choice of the Primitivo comes after Pola de Allande, where the route splits. The valley way drops to the village of Porciles and follows the river; the Hospitales variant climbs to the line of abandoned medieval hospitals after which it is named and stays above 1,100 metres for hours.
Take the high road if the sky is clear. It is exposed, wind-scoured and short of water, but it is the heart of the trail — open moor, a distant glint of sea, and a descent into Berducedo that will test your knees. In fog, choose the valley; the Hospitales is not a place to navigate blind.
Into Galicia
A day after Berducedo you cross the dam that holds back the Grandas de Salime reservoir, a strange blue interruption in the green, then climb steadily to A Fonsagrada, the first town in Galicia. The language on the shop signs changes, the locals start calling you peregrino, and the landscape softens into pasture.
From there the route rolls through O Cádavo and into Lugo, whose Roman walls still ring the old town. Walk the full circuit on the ramparts before dinner. A week of moderate days gets you to Lugo or just past it; the remaining stages to Melide and Santiago keep for the next trip.
Sleeping without a plan
Not booking ahead is easier on the Primitivo than on the French Way. Municipal albergues run about 10–15 EUR a night and take walkers in order, and when one fills up the hospitalero usually phones the next village to hold beds. Across a week I slept in Grado, Tineo, Berducedo and a private albergue in A Fonsagrada and was never turned away.
Carry a sleep sack and earplugs. Blankets are provided, but shared dormitories are not quiet, and be willing to walk on when a town is full — the trail has a habit of providing the bed you actually need.
What to carry, and when to go
Keep the pack small: two pairs of socks, a rain shell, a down jacket for the high afternoons, sandals for the albergue, and more sunscreen than you think a rainy region needs. Poles earn their weight on the Hospitales descent.
May and June are the sweet spot, when the hills are loud with birds and the days are long; September is drier and just as quiet. July and August bring heat and the occasional thunderstorm on the high ground. At about 35–40 EUR a day for a bed, breakfast and the two-course menú del día, a week costs less than a weekend in a Pyrenean resort.
Planning nothing turned out to be a plan. I walked slower, stopped for coffee in Salas and let the cloud decide the passes. The Primitivo rewards that.
