Day 26 - Villafranca to Las Herrerias

Today's official stage to Vega de Valcarce is only 18km, so the plan for us was to do another extra 3.7km to get us to the foot of the last big climb, ready for us to attack that first thing tomorrow morning.

Leaving Villafranca we realised it was larger than it seemed when we arrived last night. I had foolishly asked Mitch to meet us at the church as we arrived, this morning revealed there were three huge churches and countless smaller ones!





We had decided to have breakfast at the first town on the map. We had done our research and knew there was a cafe there. It was supposed to be just 4.5km but was a bit more which was a struggle pre breakfast but we were rewarded with a great cafe once we arrived in Pereje.



Most of the route today was following a road, passing through villages and under immensely tall bridges carrying a motorway high above us as we wound between hills.

The next village was Trabadelo which we just passed through. Our aim was to reach Vega de Valcarce for lunch, so we had one more drink stop just outside La Portela de Valcarce.







On to Vega de Valcarce where unfortunately no bars or cafes were open, so we picked up bread, cheese and ham from the supermarket and ate sandwiches on benches by the church underneath a Saracen castle on the hill. 

I had been feeling a bit ropey all day, so Mitch and I pushed on to try and get to Las Herrerias so I could have a siesta. There was one more village to pass through. It's little chapel looked a quite run down compared to most, but the door was open, so we popped in. It was less ornate than others we use seen, but beautiful nevertheless. 


Finally we were at Las Herrerias. It is also beautiful, quite small, but lovely accommodation.

We plan to set off at about 6.30am again tomorrow to tackle the last big hill of the Camino.


Today's route...





 

Comments

  1. Anonymous4 July 2025 at 22:11

    I am absolutely loving reading your blog each day Mairi and relaying your adventure to Penny and friends. We hope Mitch's feet are much better and hope to catch up and hear all about it when you are home. You should write a book 😉 Donna x

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