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Camino Lebaniego Castellano

Rebekah Scott

Camino Busybody
Time of past OR future Camino
Many, various, and continuing.
Don't look now, but here's ANOTHER pilgrimage path to plan for!

The Camino Lebaniego Castellano is a newly waymarked bike and hike path that connects the city of Palencia to the shrine of Santo Toribio de Lebaniego, up in the Cantabrian mountains. It is waymarked from south to north, and crosses the Camino Frances at Boadilla del Camino. It joins the Camino Vadiniense at Potes.

The CLC follows the Canal de Castilla up into the mountains, joins the waymarked Romanesque Route to towns with spectacular Romanesque churches and monasteries (you stay in one, San Andres de Arroyo). The Way is just over 200 kilometers long, and is cut into 11 etapas -- you can cut off the first two or three days if you join it at Boadilla.

Etapas are not terribly long, but a couple of the final days include heavy inclines and descents. Accommodation is a mix of casas rurales, pensions, hostals, and one or two albergues. You'll have to carry food a time or two, and be prepared for any kind of weather. A phone will be helpful, for calling ahead to reserve rooms; you WILL need some useable Spanish for this trail.

I haven't walked this trail (YET!) but I know the countryside and some of the towns. It ought to be a wonderful trip, especially in Autumn when the leaves are turning color. I think the mountain bit could get impassible in Winter, unless you don't mind walking along secondary roads. At the end of the trip is the monastery of Santo Toribio de Liebana, a medieval pilgrimage site and home to the "Lignum Crucis," supposedly the largest bit of the True Cross of Christ in the world.

Turismo de Palencia waymarked it; I have seen the posts in Grijota and Fromista. The .pdf is available here At least some of the path is downloadable on Wikilok.
 
The 2024 Camino guides will be coming out little by little. Here is a collection of the ones that are out so far.
Sounds good, Rebekah! Did the Lebaniego-Vadiniense last year and I just loved it. And I like the sound of it!
 
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STOP IT !!!!!
Sorry, but the Camino de los Merindades, or del Valle de Mena, sounds worth a look as well. Joins Bilbao with Burgos, and was apparently already busy in the 10th century with pilgrims arriving in the Basque ports and wanting to join the Camino Francés. It leaves the Olvidado a day or so out of Bilbao, going up into the Cantabrian mountains, with lots of lush Romanesque for those that like it, taking about 170km to get to Burgos, going briefly over 1200m, so possibly not one for my winter list.

I imagine it's fairly lonely, and there is some doubt about whether the arrows (painted for the last Holy Year) have been maintained and is allegedly "corecta"), but there's lots of wikiloc tracks etc.

http://www.editorialbuencamino.com/caminodesantiago/14/camino-del-valle-de-mena
 
Don't look now, but here's ANOTHER pilgrimage path to plan for!
Sorry, but the Camino de los Merindades, or del Valle de Mena, sounds worth a look as well.
OK, so I already have more walking possibilities than years left in my life - and certainly more than time and resources and visas allow.
I second Laurie's motion, please.
You too, @alansykes. ;) (Whose idea is definitely very appealing. Old, with history and Romanesque, lonely. Anyone?)
 
The 2024 Camino guides will be coming out little by little. Here is a collection of the ones that are out so far.
If I can get someone to come and look after the Peaceable for a couple of weeks (hint hint) I will try this hike in the Fall. I love the Canal de Castilla, and the mountains, and Romanesque!
 
If I can get someone to come and look after the Peaceable for a couple of weeks (hint hint) I will try this hike in the Fall. I love the Canal de Castilla, and the mountains, and Romanesque!
Did you try it ?
 
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