Vía de la Plata
29.5 km, 383 m up and 318 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 Puerto de Béjar / Peñacaballera. 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 camino turns left and away from the road at the entrance to Penacaballera -- if you got distracted and ended up at a roundabout you went too far. From the alto the camino begins its winding descent to La Calzada de Bejar, crossing along the way the Puente de la Malena (4 km).
Mostly straight and mostly flat walking all the way to Valverde de Valdelacasa. The terrain is open and exposed -- on a hot day, you'll feel it.
Follow the road out of town in the direction of Valdelacasa.
The camino leaves Valdelacasa along a paved road, and in 2km it leaves the road in favor of a dirt track to the left. The signage here is not great and might have you believe that you should stay on the road; it is OK if you do, both ways will get you to Fuenterroble de Salvatierra.
Between Fuenterroble and Morille the camino splits into two distinct routes. The split happens 11.7km from Fuenterroble at a place signposted as Dueña de Abajo.LEFT ROUTE - 31.8km (20.1km from split)This route is slightly longer but has the benefit of hosting a pair of albergues in San Pedro de Rozados. However, that is the only village with any services until Morille. The high point along the way is the Pico de la Dueña (14.4km) and beyond that is the private pig farm Calzadilla del Mendigos (6.8km).RIGHT ROUTE (THE ALTERNATE ROUTE) - 29.2km (17.5km from split)Slightly shorter but with two places to stop for a coffee, this is the preferred route if you are going through to Salamanca.
The path splits here and rejoins before Fuenterroble de Salvatierra. Both ways are below, because the question is which to take, and that is not a question two separate pages can answer.
Distance, climb and descent are measured along the GPS track for this camino — 146 recorded points across this span, the same track the app carries. The town-to-town figures in my data put it at 29.6 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.