Kayak the Camino Santiago. Celebrating 10 years.

The first (and sold-out) tour of the 2024 Kayak the Camino in Galicia, Spain, ended last Saturday with great celebration in Santiago as it was the 10th year of the running of this kayak tour. The tour was started in 2014 after the identification of a suitable route by Johan and Teresa Loots of REAL CAPE ADVENTURES cc. They did a road and paddle trip round the whole perimeter of Spain and identified the Rias in the northwest of Spain as ideal for a week-long kayak tour of Spain. As it turned out their route was a historical one which was followed by the Vikings and pilgrims walking to Santiago, now known as the popular Camino de Santiago, the Way of St James. Through a sheer coincidence the Loots’s found a South African and Spanish couple (Rheta and Carlos Lopez-Blanco) interested in taking on the running of the tour and investing in it to make it their own. The rest is history. Just prior to the Covid pandemic, the tour won a Best Newcomer on the Camino award and they’ve managed to maintain the operation throughout it enabling them to celebrate their 10th year of operation in 2024. Congratulations are due all round and those wishing to do the regular hiking Camino de Santiago from Portugal or France now have the option of paddling a part of the Camino too, getting their record cards stamped in the usual way en route. The tour starts at O Grove, near Vigo, and ends at Padron, a mere 23 kms away from Santiago, meaning that after a week of paddling paddlers can join the hikers and walk into Santiago in the traditional way. The tour runs weekly during the European summer so you can book for any of the weekly tours between the end of June and the end of September. The paddling is manageable by most and there is an emphasis on local culture throughout, particularly on culinary traditions, but be warned, most of the weeklong tours get sold out, so don’t delay your bookings! You can book online, including with REAL CAPE ADVENTURES cc on info. NOTE: REAL CAPE ADVENTURES CC now also runs a complementary weekly kayak tour in Plettenberg Bay, South Africa, called the Plett Kayak&Hike Camino. It operates from late January to end of June and in October and November each year. Contact as above for more details.