Camino Francés
18.3 km, 182 m up and 289 m down, through 3 places, 2 of which have somewhere to sleep. Where you stop is up to you.
Every place on the path in order, with the distance from Hontanas. Most are too small to sleep in — a fountain, a chapel, a bar that may or may not be open — but they are what the day is actually made of.
Hontanas takes its name from the fontanas (natural springs) that dot the area. The springs still pour day and night, feeding fountains around the village. In summer, the local pool does most of the refreshing. The villa…
The ruins of the Convento de San Antón are one of the meseta's finest surprises. The remains of the monastery arch over the camino itself, and you walk through what was once a grand pilgrim hospital. The Antonine monks w…
The road ahead climbs to the Alto de Mostelares — the highest point on the meseta section. There's little shade between here and the crossing into Palencia.
The descent from the alto follows a resurfaced track, steep at first then gentler. Between the alto and the Ermita de San Nicolás there's a shaded picnic area — the only real shade on this stretch.
Just beyond the ermita is the Puente Fitero, which crosses the river of the same name and brings you into the province of Palencia.
Distance, climb and descent are measured along the GPS track for this camino — 175 recorded points across this span, the same track the app carries. The town-to-town figures in my data put it at 18.4 km.
Esta entidad ha sido beneficiaria de una ayuda del Programa de incentivos a la movilidad eficiente y sostenible (MOVES III), gestionado por la Xunta de Galicia a través del Instituto Enerxético de Galicia (INEGA) en el marco del Real Decreto 266/2021, y cofinanciada por la Unión Europea — NextGenerationEU, dentro del Plan de Recuperación, Transformación y Resiliencia.