The overall distance of this Camino route is approximately 1000 km and some references quote the overall cumulative climb as 10,000 m.
We decided to allocate 13 days for cycling with one day off in the middle of the trip.
This would mean an average daily ride of close to 80 km.
We planned our day off to be in Salamanca, it is half way through the journey and probably the most interesting historical and architectural location along the ride.
Our original plan was to ease into the ride with 7 days cycling to Salamanca but then realized this would mean our day off would fall on a Sunday, when everything in Salamanca is closed. We re-jiggled the schedule to reach Salamanca in 6 days, on Friday , 20th.
the second factor influencing the length of each days ride was the ability to pre-book accommodation. Many of the towns are very small with the only accommodation being a local, often untended, hostel. Many of these also have limited number of bunks. We decided to try to find accommodation where we could get a private, twin room that we could pre-book. To accommodate this we had to pick our daily stops based on accommodation availability rather than an equal distance each day. The result of this planning is outlined below.
Date Stop Daily Distance Daily Climb
Sept 14 Almaden de la Plata 69.6 km, 902 m
Sept 15 Zafra 78.9 km, 1132 m,
Sept 16 Aljucen 78.5km 432 m
Sept 17 Canaveral 101.8km 599 m
Sept 18 Banos de Montemayor 86.5km 1107m
Sept 19 Salamanca 83.9km 1388m
Sept 20 Salamanca Rest day
Sept 21 Zamora 68.2 km 292m
Sept 22 Camarzana de Terra 100.6 km 954 m
Sept 23 Puebla de Sanabria 69.8 km 772 m
Sept 24 Campobecerros 62.6km 1493 m
Sept 25 Orense 62.7 1728m
Sept 26 Castro a Dzon 59.5 km 1193 m
Sept 27 Santiago de Compostela 49.3km 1336 m
Dermot,
Enjoy and hope everything turns out good.
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Good luck on you first day
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Hola Dermot and John. I just heard of your Camino adventure. I have to admit to a little envy and a lot of admiration. Great to see the blog and looking forward to updates. The VDLP is my next target! Wishing you both a mechanically-sound, puncture-free, safe and enjoyable ride. Buen camino!
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Mary
Great to hear from you!
Dermot and John
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hope things are going well,Malachy
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Thanks Malachite Nice to hear from you
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Just stumbled across this page by accident (coincidentally – as you’re about to begin your ride tomorrow!). I rode the same route over 8 days on a cyclo-cross bike in May this year. It is absolutely stunning – You’re so fortunate to have two weeks to spend on the trails!
http://outdoorfirmo.wordpress.com/
I look forward to seeing how you get on! Buen camino.
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Thank you so much for taking the time to comment. You are clearly a muchore accomplished cyclist than us – mind you we are a lot older so we will use that as an excuse! Thanks again and all the best from Zafra at the end of day 2
Dermot
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Dermot & John, Well done. You have set a great example – Ike took his stabilisers off his bike yesterday – its all been worth it. Cycle safely ! Jennifer, Adrian, Ajay, Mary, Ike & Izzy
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Hi Adrian, great to here from you. Today had its moments but we had a great time and made it
D
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