Cebreros to Herradón de Pinares

At under eighteen kilometres this is one of the shortest stages of the Camino del Sureste and yet one of those most felt in the legs. It concentrates the leap from the Alberche valley, at around eight hundred metres, to the more than eleven hundred of the sierra of Ávila, with the Arrebatacapas pass as the gateway.

Cebreros sends the pilgrim off among vineyards. The town gives its name to a denomination of origin of Garnacha wines grown on slate and granite at high altitude, and its centre preserves the Renaissance church of Santiago Apóstol, beside what was once the home of Adolfo Suárez. The path heads north and begins to climb almost immediately, first among vine terraces and then through scrubland of rockrose and broom.

San Bartolomé de Pinares arrives after some fifteen kilometres of continuous ascent. It is a mountain village of stone houses known throughout Spain for Las Luminarias: every 16 January, on the eve of Saint Anthony, the village horses ride through bonfires lit in the streets in a tradition of medieval origin. From there the route crosses the road and tackles the hard part of the day: a continuous ramp of some three kilometres that gains three hundred metres to crown the Arrebatacapas pass at 1,068 metres. The name — 'cloak snatcher' — says everything about the wind that sweeps this col.

At the top there are two options: continue for some four kilometres along the path near the AV-503 road, or take the quieter itinerary that climbs Cerro de la Estrella and runs along its ridge, with wide views over the Alberche valley and the Sierra de Malagón. Both converge in the descent to the Gaznatilla stream, from which the final climb to Herradón de Pinares begins. The village, clustered around its church and surrounded by pine woods and granite outcrops, offers just the right rest before the final descent towards Ávila.