Ruta da Pedra e da Agua

The Ruta da Pedra e da Agua (Route of Stone and Water) is the most beautiful part of the Variante Espiritual. It is an 8km walk downstream from Armenteira to Barantes, amid woodland, with remains of 33 water mills all along the way.

This is quite a big tourist attraction in the area, with most people walking it uphill from Barantes to Armenteira. We certainly preferred the downhill walk!

It is fairly well sign posted with white and yellow stripes, though it really is impossible to get lost if you stay close to the water.

The path from Armenteira follows both sides of the stream. The left side is a well graded path downhill that makes for fairly easy walking.

The right hand side follows the water more closely, and has many rocky, uneven sections, but also yields the best views of the waterfalls. Unfortunately, the photos leave out the best part – the sound of running water all along the way!

This was one of the better preserved water mills that we saw.

Most of them looked like this – but you could see the grinding stone still present in all of them.

Then you have Ken sitting down on the job…

I could have sat here all day…

The path was right along the water

I should have counted the waterfalls

But I was too busy taking photos

While Ken was trying to find a slug as large as his shoe – this is the closest he came..

There were even picnic areas along the way

This was the only bit of asphalt all day – crossing the highway near Os Costanos

And then it went back to this, still following the stream…all the way to our lodging at the Os Costanos Taberna.