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Stage 15 · Vía de la Plata y Camino Sanabrés
Embalse de Alcántara → Grimaldo
Before you set off
Nowhere to eat
From kilometre 0.0 to 13.4.
Cañaveral and the puerto de los Castaños
A short stage, but with climbs: 20.4 kilometres with 390 metres of ascent and 220 of descent, low difficulty, although the opening tells on the legs. You leave the Alcántara reservoir on tracks that climb among holm oaks and scrub, with the water behind you and good views of the Tajo and the sierra, and head for Cañaveral over stony ground, at times beside the road.
Cañaveral, at about kilometre 10, is the only village of the stage and has everything: bars, shops, a chemist. A good place for a late breakfast and for a stamp. From there the climb to the puerto de los Castaños begins, easy-angled but long, on a path among chestnuts and oaks that gives shade and cool air, a rare thing in this part of the route.
From the pass the way drops through dehesa and pasture on wide, easy tracks to Grimaldo, a small hamlet beside the road with very little: the hostel, a bar and the houses. Arriving with your shopping done in Cañaveral is the sensible plan. The afternoon is quiet and silent, the kind that does you good after the reservoir.
Tips
Take your time over breakfast in Cañaveral: it is the only thing there is before Grimaldo and the halt of the day.
Buy whatever you want for supper in Cañaveral; in Grimaldo there is next to nothing to buy.
The puerto de los Castaños has shade and water in spring; climb it slowly and enjoy the woodland, which is scarce in Extremadura.
If the bar in Grimaldo is shut, the hostel is the place to get a stamp and to ask.
Where am I?
Your phone says where you are; the guide tells you how far is left and where the next water is.
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Your position is used to answer you and is not stored anywhere.
Walk with me
It crosses where you are with the time, the daylight left, the water, the beds and the notice board. Three things at most: the ones that actually change your afternoon.
Create the free account It is free and forever. An account is needed for the guide to place you. I already have an account
It checks GPS every 6 min while you keep it open. GPS drains the battery: if yours is low, switch it off.
Your position is used to answer you and is not stored anywhere.
Profile and services
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What's there today
Nobody has reported anything on this stage.
Tips from people who walked it
The things that do not expire: where the fountain actually is, which bar opens at six, where not to go in the rain.
None here yet. If you have just walked this stage, you know something tomorrow’s pilgrim does not.
Emergencies
Call 112112 is the same number in Spain, in Portugal and across the European Union. It works with no credit, with no SIM, and over any operator's network, not just yours.
Say where you are I am walking the Vía de la Plata, on the stage from Embalse de Alcántara to Grimaldo.
We have no pharmacy or health centre loaded for this stage. That does not mean there is none: ask at the hostel.
The map
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What to see on this stage 1
- Ermita de San Cristóbal Church km 7,3