The Rio Miño and Rio Sil

For a couple of days or so on our  recent holiday two rivers dominated our travels, the Rio Miño and its tributary the Rio Sil in Galicia, NW Spain. They are both long rivers at about 220 and 140 miles respectively. For part of it's length the Miño marks Portugal's northern border with Spain and we had crossed it earlier for a brief trip into Portugal. This coincided with the Popes visit but that's another story.

On this map the rivers are shown in bold our route for this part is in red with the towns and cities of Vigo Ourense Lugo Santiago de Compostela and Foz to help orientate it. 

Anyway recrossing it into Spain on the PO432 at Salvaterra de Miño and joining the PO400 after ten km we came to a free overnight stop by a graveyard at As Nevas. Note that the best approach to this Aire (shown by white arrow) is to go from the PO400 to the east of the town on to the PO415 then from the roundabout into the one way system, red arrow, ie  not the way we went through the town! 

The next morning we followed the Miño up stream until we came to the crossings, old and new, near Filguelira which we crossed both ways just for the craic. It was the first right turn and river crossing that didn't deposit you back in Portugal! 

We strayed away from the Miño for a while that day only to rejoin it at Ribadavia which is a wine centre for the area, it also has a castle and an ancient Jewish quarter. Our stop for the night was on the banks of the Miño just on the western outskirts of Ourense. There are no facilities there its just a car park where you are allowed to park overnight There are benches, an icecream van and the bus stops there.

The next stage of our trip would take us to the area of the Rio Sil and our guide book suggested  a circular tour starting at Ourense and half way around getting to Castro Caldelas.  We felt we couldn't afford the time to do the complete circle and the part to the north where the Sil joined the Miño looked a little too awesome for comfort in a motorhome 2.4m wide. So we took the southern route (OU536) and modified it by crossing to the northern part after reaching the Alto del Rodicio a magnificent viewpoint. By the way we had fun tackling Ourense in the morning rush hour. In general we failed to take photos I was too busy keeping the van on the road and there were few if any places to stop.

So we then went on this little road north to Parada de Sil and turned right above and along the Rio Sil again going upstream. It was a 15km stretch and it took about an hour and that was without meeting any oncoming traffic. The road in places was scarcely wide enough for us and in some places it hung above a sheer drop to the river, not that I had time to look. 

When we climbed out of the gorge at Piedra del Sol instead of the obvious left turn to follow the river for a few km more the GPS steered us back to the road we had originally left the best part of ninety minutes before, Afyer the experience of the last 15km I wasn't going to argue. Castro Caldelas is a charming little town where the north and south routes join, it has a castle and we stopped there for lunch and to regroup. Thank goodness we didn't do the complete northern leg. 

The Rio Sil then heads upstream into the steep hills with only a few tracks to keep it company whilst the road takes a roundabout route to rejoin it near A Rua. In places the 536 was a bit twisty after Caldelas but suddenly after A Pobra de Trives it takes on the character of a mountain pass, still wide enough but with steep hairpins clinging to the side of hills. We found somewhere to let an empty logging lorry pass, it was the one that was attempting to pass or to mate with us, but fifteen minutes later we could still see it on the next group of hairpins or on the other side of the valley. At A Rua we reversed our direction going onto the N120 and following the Rio Sil downstream towards the point where it disappears into the hills. We camped alongside it at S Clodio. Next morning after a few km we said farewell to the Rio Sil. Later the same day we crossed the Miño  to get to our nightstop at Chantada, see photo below 

We weren't yet finished with the Miño because the next day approaching the Old Roman city of Lugo we crossed it yet again and the next day as we went towards the north coast of Spain we must have passed its source.

If we are ever in Galicia again this is an area we will revisit, perhaps take some better photos 

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