The Camino Lebaniego is an approximately 75km trek through Cantabria, a Northern region of Spain. (I say ‘approximately’ because the actual distance travelled will vary depending on who you speak to. The walk itself is signposted well but the kilometres stated on the signs are sometimes a little bit optimistic!) The route consists of a variety of terrain, snaking you along roads and up mountain tracks, whilst meandering you through remote villages in between. The Camino originated as a pilgrimage, a religious journey that finds its final destination at the Monasterio de Santo Toribio de Liébana, just outside of a beautiful village called Potes. 2023 marks the 75th anniversary of the Camino, due to the fact that April 16th lands on a Sunday. This makes it a particularly special year to complete the Camino, as La Puerta de Pérdon (the door of forgiveness) is open at the monastery. Once you’ve walked through this door, is it said that all of your sins will be forgiven. (We were due to arrive at the monastery on a Sunday, so I expected a busy service!)
Some Background
Before talking to one of my Spanish friends about the Camino de Santiago, asking for advice on which route to take, I had had no idea that the Camino Lebaniego existed. But, as it turned out, she and her family were actually planning on completing the Camino Lebaniego this year, and when she invited me along for the journey I couldn’t turn down the invitation. I tried to do some research before the trek, but with it being a relatively new route still, there really isn’t a lot of information about it online. So, I packed my backpack as best as I could, and set off into the unknown.
Day 1
I arrived in Bilbao airport late on a Thursday night, with my friend waiting to take me back to her flat in Santander. (Santander is about an hour away from Bilbao airport in the car, so unless you have someone to pick you up it probably isn’t the easiest place to get to, especially on a late arrival. Plus, the Camino doesn’t start there! I would recommend either staying in Bilbao for the night, or taking the trip to the start of the Camino, San Vicente de la Barquera, and perhaps stay in a hostel ready to set off the next day.)
After very little sleep, we woke early the next day and drove to San Vicente de la Barquera, where we met the rest of her family. From here, the start of the route was easy to find, with the signature red half-cross pointing us in the right direction – and so our pilgrimage began!
Walkers of this route often do the same amount of kilometres as each other each day, largely due to the lack of hostels and restaurants along the way (top tip: take your own lunch and snacks to get you through three days of solid hiking), and so you start to recognise some familiar faces. The first stage of the trek consisted of what we thought was a 35km route to the first hostel in a village called Lafuente – in reality, this stage actually took us 41km. Thankfully, it wasn’t too hot, but it was humid! The majority of this stage was spent following different roads through the countryside, with the most interesting part coming at around 12km in, where we followed a river through the trees for about 7km. This was the perfect place to cool down if you wanted to, as there was access to the river right beside the picnic area. After a little ciesta, we carried on our way, with my friend and I arriving at the hostel ahead of the rest of our group, at about 8pm. We showered, prepared our beds (if you want a bottom bunk you would have to arrive early, as they were the first beds to go – understandably), and then went to eat dinner. This day felt the toughest on my body, and I took a funny turn before eating, but after some food and electrolytes I started to feel better. (Another top tip: there are water fountains along the route, so don’t do what I did and carry 3L of water! The less weight you carry the better, especially as you have to carry your sleeping bag with you for the hostels.)
Day 2
Day 2 was set to be a considerably shorter route, at about 25km, but the terrain was more challenging. After the first 5km, where we reached a nice little village (top tip: learn some basic Spanish, as these small remote villages are unlikely to know much English), we began to ascend into the mountains. Even for a seasoned hiker like me, this was tough going. The ascent was pretty much 900m of solid verticals, again in air that was thick with humidity, but we all powered through it and eventually summited, with some beautiful views of the mountains further afield. After an even more arduous descent (my poor knees), we lunched in a village called Lebeña, and then finished off the stage with an approximately 4km hike up to our hostel in Cabañes. This hostel was much better than the first one – the food was more plentiful (even for a vegetarian like me), the rooms more private, and it even had a pool. In all, this stage took us 20km, which was a nice surprise after the extra mileage we had done the day before!
Day 3
Day 3 was the shortest day of them all, with only circa 15km left to complete the Camino. We opted for no breakfast at the hostel, instead choosing to stop at Potes in a restaurant my friend had been to before, and so we set off at about 8am on the 10km hike to the village. This was a short stretch, and not too hard going, but after two days with a heavy backpack my body was starting to protest, and the last kilometre felt like it went on for miles. Eventually we reached Potes and fuelled up on tortillas, and I almost cried in relief when the restaurant said we could leave our backpacks there whilst we made the ascent up to the monastery. From Potes it’s only 3km to the monastery, but it is uphill – although nothing like the day before! We made it just before 12pm, when the service was due to start, so we headed through the Door of Forgiveness and found our seats. Now, I’m not a religious person, but after completing the pilgrimage I felt it was the right end to the journey, even if I couldn’t understand much of what was being said!
In Summary
Any through-hiker will tell you that the completion of a journey is always bittersweet. Reaching the end and achieving your goal leaves you feeling elated, but it also reminds you that the real destination is the journey you take, and finally that has come to an end. If I could spend all my days hiking and exploring, I would choose to do so in a heartbeat – returning to “normal” life is never easy for me. But I’m working on that!
So, if you like long hikes, and you want something a little less busy than the Camino de Santiago, then the Camino Lebaniego is for you. You could even extend your trip, if you wanted to, and venture into the Picos de Europa.
If you have any questions about my trip, please leave them in the comments!
Until next time,
Chloe x
Conscious Creative 
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