Vía de la Plata
29.1 km, 384 m up and 325 m down, through 2 places, 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 El Culebrín. 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.
From the truck-stop, the camino navigates around a pair of heavily trafficked roundabouts to pass beneath the A-66. From there if follows adjacent to the N-630 all the way into Monesterio.
The camino through Monesterio keeps along the N-630 but there are a few arrows which direct you left and into the town and the municipal albergue. At the far end of town, the camino leaves the N-630 by turning left just after the football field.
This stretch of the camino is poorly waymarked and at times there are conflicting signs; follow the yellow arrows when they are. The camino passes the Arroyo del Bodión (13.2km). Entering Fuente de Cantos there are far too many arrows, which isn’t particularly helpful given that the town is a knot of narrow streets. If you are trying to get to the albergue, follow the arrows to the left when you get to the edge of town. The albergue is located in the south-west corner and from there another set of arrows will deliver you to the correct exit point for the city.
A new type of trail marker appears for the first time near Monesterio. It is a square bollard which depicts a Roman arch and pathway, is painted with two colored stripes, and is meant to indicate that you are following along a Roman road.
WARNING: The road beyond Monesterio is again a long one without water, be certain to carry enough with you.
There are as many marked routes through town as there are pilgrims to follow them, it is a bit of a mess. Follow whichever set you can find carefully and they will eventually exit the north side of town (NOT along the N-630) onto another farm track. It is level walking all the way to Calzadilla de los Barros.
Distance, climb and descent are measured along the GPS track for this camino — 179 recorded points across this span, the same track the app carries. The town-to-town figures in my data put it at 29 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.