Camino Francés
19.1 km, 103 m up and 275 m down, through 1 place, 1 of which has somewhere to sleep. Where you stop is up to you.
Every place on the path in order, with the distance from Villamayor de Monjardín. 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.
The 12 km between Villamayor de Monjardín and Los Arcos is one of the more tedious stretches on this section of the Francés. The terrain is open and exposed, with long straight tracks through farmland and almost no shade. Stock up with water and food before leaving. The walking is flat but the monotony and heat (in summer) make it feel longer than the distance suggests.
The camino exits through the Arco de Felipe V and crosses the Río Odrón. A few albergues are on the west side of the river. From here the route heads through rolling country toward Sansol and Torres del Río — about 7 km with some ups and downs that earn this stretch the local nickname 'The Knee Wrecker.'
The descent from Sansol to Torres del Río is steep and short. You'll wonder why anyone built a town at the bottom of a valley with so little defensive advantage — the answer is the Río Linares and easy access to water.
Distance, climb and descent are measured along the GPS track for this camino — 196 recorded points across this span, the same track the app carries. The town-to-town figures in my data put it at 19 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.