Stage Higueruela to Albacete

The day separating Higueruela from Albacete is around 43 kilometres and by far one of the longest of the Manchegan section. The terrain, however, poses no technical difficulty: wide farm tracks, gentle gradients and a net descent of some three hundred metres from the moorland to the plains of the capital. Those who prefer to spread the effort will find natural staging posts in Hoya-Gonzalo and Chinchilla de Montearagón.

You leave Higueruela on the Hoya-Gonzalo road, soon abandoned for dirt tracks among grain fields and hills crowned with wind turbines. After about eleven kilometres you reach Hoya-Gonzalo, a cereal-farming village with a proud Jacobean tradition and a good place to refill water and have a bite before the long central section.

The path continues west across the plain, with the hill of Chinchilla gradually taking shape on the horizon. Entering Chinchilla de Montearagón is one of the great moments of the Camino del Sureste: the town, a listed historic-artistic ensemble, preserves its 15th-century castle, the church of Santa María del Salvador, emblazoned mansions and a medieval web of steep streets with immense views over La Mancha.

From Chinchilla some thirteen kilometres of gentle descent remain. The route drops from the hill, crosses the cultivated plains and enters Albacete from the east, making for the city centre along tree-lined avenues.

Albacete, the largest city on the whole route between Alicante and Zamora, welcomes the pilgrim with the Cathedral of San Juan Bautista, the modernist Lodares arcade and a deep-rooted knife-making tradition renowned throughout the country. Its full range of services makes it the ideal place to rest before continuing towards La Roda and the lands of Cuenca.