Vía de la Plata
19.1 km, 167 m up and 269 m down, through 3 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 Zafra. 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 through Zafra crosses most of the important landmarks. It enters town near the train station (if you arrived by train, leave the station and turn right) and follows the boulevard straight towards the Plaza España and the large Parque de la Paz. It turns left at the Plaza (before the Parador/Castle) and crosses it diagonally, and on the far end it turns right onto Calle Sevilla (a pedestrian road). From here it passes through the Plaza Grande and makes a right hand turn onto Calle del Conde de la Corte. It will pass through one small triangularly shaped plaza and then exit the old part of town onto the Calle López Asme. From here turn left (the Convento Albergue is ahead on your right) and then right at the Convento Albergue. From here it is straight to and across a roundabout on the N-432. After passing to the left of a housing development the camino returns to the countryside.
The arrows bring you through Los Santos, but near the albergue they are not too clear. In fact, they pass behind the albergue which sits like a walled island between two small roads. It returns to the countryside for a long (15km+) road to Villafranca.
Pack extra water when leaving Los Santos de Maimona, the next source is 15km away.
The stretch of the camino between Villafranca and Torremejía includes a long straight gravel section which is an original Roman road. It makes a few minor twists and turns but eventually heads directly into, through, and out of Torremejía.
Distance, climb and descent are measured along the GPS track for this camino — 93 recorded points across this span, the same track the app carries. The town-to-town figures in my data put it at 20 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.