Vía de la Plata
20.7 km, 102 m up and 38 m down, through 4 places, 3 of which have somewhere to sleep. Where you stop is up to you.
Every place on the path in order, with the distance from Santa Marta de Tera. 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 ahead turns westward and follows closely the Rio Tera as it runs between a string of villages. Shortly before Calzadilla de Tera the camino leaves the road to avoid a blind curve.
A small village along the Tera valley. There's a bar and basic provisions. The camino passes through without much ceremony, but the walking along the river is pleasant.
The camino from Calzadilla follows along the canal, though a number of confusing arrows might lead you to the road, which will also get you there.
From Olleros the camino follows a path to the dam on the east side of the Embalse de Agavanzal (4.3 km). Once over the dam it turns left to follow a path along the contours of the reservoir until it reaches Villar de Farfon.
The reservoir marks a shift in the landscape. The Tera valley opens up and you get your first real sense of the empty country ahead. No services here -- just water, sky, and the path forward.
The camino returns to a rural trail until it reaches the Rio Negro, just short of reaching the N-525. It crosses the river on a small pedestrian bridge and then passes under the N-525 to enter Rionegro.
Distance, climb and descent are measured along the GPS track for this camino — 145 recorded points across this span, the same track the app carries. The town-to-town figures in my data put it at 21.1 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.