Avilés to Muros de Nalón
Leaving the city
- Distance
- 23.2 km
- Climb
- 500 m up, 420 m down
- Ground
- 0 to 210 m
- Time
- 6 to 7 hours
- Difficulty
- moderate
- Underfoot
- forest, dirt, paved, coastal
Where this day sits on the Camino del Norte
Above, the highest and lowest ground of each of its 34 stages. Below, the word each day is given.
From open-pilgrimages: each stage's highest and lowest ground and its interior theme.
The day
The last day of the big-city cluster (Bilbao, Santander, Gijón, Avilés) before the quiet western Asturian coast takes over. Salinas beach is enormous and often nearly empty — hours of walking on hard-packed sand. Muros de Nalón is a sleepy village above the river mouth where the Nalón meets the sea. The pilgrim albergue is small. The evening is quiet in a way the last few towns have not been.
What pilgrims often meet here
- Salinas beach — long, wide, wind-blown
- The shift from post-industrial to rural in a single afternoon
- The Nalón river mouth from Muros
- Falling asleep to silence after nights of city noise
The Camino has a rhythm of city and silence. Which of the two asks more of you?
The ground
Leaves Avilés through the industrial outskirts and climbs into rural Asturias through Salinas, El Castillo, and the village of Muros de Nalón, sitting above the Nalón river. The Salinas beach is long and wide, with an art-installation walkway along the dune crest.
The light
Sunrise and sunset in Avilés depend on the day you walk.
Walk it with Pilgrim
In Pilgrim's Honor mode you can walk this stage as it is drawn here, and save its maps for days with no signal. The morning opens with this day's word, Leaving the city, and its story. When you arrive, it asks the question above, and you can answer out loud. Your walk stays on your phone.
With Pilgrim on your phone, this opens the stage, ready to begin. Without it, you'll see the stage and where to get the app.