HIKING ROUTES

This route starts from the As Dornas dock, named after the name that the old boats of this fishing town received. It passes through the small town of Curro and upon reaching the main crossroads, in front of the church, it continues along the paved track of the island, which reaches the Ons Lighthouse. This route gently ascends the eastern slope of the island, allowing us to contemplate the extensive Bay of Pontevedra and the Costa da Vela cut-off shore.

The path continues up north, until it reaches the highest point of the itinerary: the crossroads where the track that comes from the lighthouse meet.

Up to here it takes about 40 ‘approximately. The path continues northwards between gorse, heather and broom, with the immense Atlantic Ocean as a continuous scenic background. If visibility allows, from here you can see the Sálvora Island, with Ribeira in the background, the entrance to the Bay of Arousa and the tip of the O Grove peninsula. The path, now descending, continues to undulate until it reaches a junction where if we turn left it will leave us, in about fifteen minutes, at the Punta Centolo viewpoint. After two hours of journey, this spectacular balcony, located in the extreme north of the Ons Island, will allow us to enjoy one of the most beautiful and complete views of the coast: Sálvora, now very close to the Riviera coast and the cut-off mountain range of the Barbanza; behind the peninsula of O Grove, A Lanzada, the Bay of Pontevedra, the small Bay of Aldán, Costa da Vela, Onza and the Cíes Islands as a backdrop.

The importance of this place, in addition to being landscaped, lies in the fact that it is one of the breeding areas for the shag cormorant and the yellow-legged gull, the two most abundant and representative species of seabirds in the National Park. For this reason, access to the viewpoint is restricted from February 15 to July 31, the nesting season for these birds. Contrary to the always boisterous seagulls, which will play with the wind next to us, to observe the elusive shaggy cormorants we must look at the most remote rocks and islets, where they gather to dry their black plumage in the sun. We will pass through Punta Liñeiros and Punta Xubenco, until we reach the Melide Beach, the most beautiful sandy area of ​​Ons. Years ago, Melide was the place chosen by many visitors to spend long periods on the island; from this time, only the nudist tradition of the beach survives, since currently camping is only allowed in the area established for it, in the place of Chan da Pólvora. Next to the descent to the beach, to the south of it, begins the path that, skirting the east coast of Ons, will take us to the starting point. At first, among eucalyptus trees, which are gradually giving way to native vegetation, such as some young horses, laurels and even a specimen of Cytisus insularis, a broom for now only described in Ons and Sálvora, which we can observe along the way, next to a small elderberry. When the scrub becomes predominant, it will be interesting to look back to see Alto de Centulo and Melide, with the sandy bar of A Lanzada in the background. Soon, arriving at the Cucorno neighborhood and after the willow-covered slope, you can see part of the lighthouse lantern.

The first point of interest on this route is the As Dornas Beach, a small sandy area that gets its name from the old boats used by the islanders, the dornas. This type of boat, inherited from the primitive Norman ships that in the 10th century invaded these coasts and that were adapted by the islanders to the conditions and type of fishing in the area, could be seen in large numbers in this natural anchorage. Today, only some of them, practically in disuse, rest in the sand. Climbing the stairs next to the fountain, among trees, is a small rest area equipped with wooden tables that we will leave on our left to take the path, which runs smoothly along the coast to the north. If we look back, the Ons dock appears and behind it, the southern coast of the Bay of Pontevedra. The sea, to our right, tirelessly shapes the profile of the coast, work shown by the rocks at low tide.

We cross a small trough in which the native riverbank woodland, such as willows, indicates the presence of fresh water, which in these islands, unlike Cíes, is abundant. A little further on, looking to the left at the height of a small clearing, we will see the lantern of the Ons Lighthouse appear, at 128m above sea level. The path, which now winds through a corridor of hawthorns, sloes, rockrose, gorse and ferns on a fluffy carpet of clovers and silenes, will take us to the Mirador do Castelo (15 minutes from the pier), an old defensive fortification, nowadays in ruins, and that we will find to the right of the clearing in which the path ends.

This magnificent watchtower offers us beautiful views of the entire eastern coast of the Ons Island and the Bay of Pontevedra. Towards the North, in the foreground, we see Melide Beach, the most beautiful and emblematic sandy area of ​​the Ons Island. To the South, the pier, Curro, the Canexol Beach, the small Onza Island and in the background, almost always between mists, the Cíes archipelago.

Following the coastline, the trimmed profile of Costa da Vela, the small Bay of Aldán, Bueu, the inside of the Bay of Pontevedra and to the north, the spectacular A Lanzada Beach, stand out.