Vía de la Plata
29.9 km, 177 m up and 348 m down, through 4 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 Grimaldo. 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.
Located off the camino. 700m to get there. Upon returning to the camino, you will still have an opportunity to take another optional detour via Riolobos.
From the albergue return to the main road and exit town by walking uphill past the walled part of town, keeping it to your right. Arrows bring you to the Rio Jerte (1.7 km) and the Puente Romano which crosses it.
From the river, the camino climbs to a pair of roundabouts which straddle the motorway. It is paved walking to Aldeahuela del Jerte.
Straight through town and out again along the same road all the way to Carcaboso.
The way from Carcaboso to Ventaquemada is a return to nature with a few options along the way. The first turn to pay attention to is less than a kilometre out of town where your natural tendency is to keep on a straight path; the camino turns right at a sign for Finca Bombay (an adventure sports company, in case you're inclined to rent an e-bike). Not far beyond that turn is a split, and here both options are perfectly viable. To the left is somewhat shorter, and to the right is a trail marked H1 along the more historic path.
The two options rejoin and continue through the countryside to Ventaquemada.
Distance, climb and descent are measured along the GPS track for this camino — 133 recorded points across this span, the same track the app carries. The town-to-town figures in my data put it at 30.7 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.