Stage Santa Croya de Tera to Mombuey

At nearly 37 kilometres this is the longest day on the Camino Sanabrés and one of the most rewarding: the scenery shifts from the cereal meadows of the Tera to the oak woods and heathlands of La Carballeda, gateway to the Sanabria mountains. The profile climbs very gradually, from the 740 metres of the valley to almost 900 at Mombuey, and Rionegro del Puente allows those who prefer an easier pace to split it in two.

From Santa Croya de Tera you cross the bridge over the river into Santa Marta de Tera, whose 11th-century Romanesque church, a former abbey, keeps on one of its portals the oldest known sculpture of Saint James as a pilgrim, now an icon of this route. It is worth lingering before continuing along the meadowland, following the murmur of the river among poplar groves and orchards towards Calzadilla de Tera and Olleros de Tera.

Beyond Olleros the path leaves the valley floor to skirt the reservoir of Nuestra Señora del Agavanzal, crossing its dam to follow the shore among pine woods and scrubland. It is one of the loneliest and most serene sections of the stage, with the mirror of the water for company over several kilometres.

You then reach the small hamlet of Villar de Farfón and, after a stretch of oak wood, Rionegro del Puente, birthplace of the founder of the Brotherhood of the Falifos and home to the sanctuary of the Virgen de la Carballeda, centre of a deeply rooted local devotion. It is the last place with services before the end.

The final kilometres run among holm oaks, rockroses and farmland, climbing gently until the Romanesque tower of Mombuey, built in the 13th century and a listed National Monument, comes into view. The village, strung along the old main road, offers the pilgrim rest and the unmistakable atmosphere of the Zamoran highlands on the way to Puebla de Sanabria.