Discover the hiking routes of '80 cm 'by 21 provinces of Spain!

Agua de CastillasoBre Agua del Río Valdavia.

In our 80 centimeters today

We propose to hiking in the channel of Castilla,

One of the most important engineering works

made in Spain there are almost three centuries.

The 207 kilometers of channel are a paradise for hikers,

Cyclists and runners.

We are going to carry out a couple of sections,

But it is that the channel gives a lot, but for much, we will see.

Go for it.Each adventure begins with a step

And one step is 80 centimeters.

(Head music)

My first route in Castilla Canal passes

In the province of my beloved Valladolid.

We will start from lock number six,

that is between Tamariz de Camposy Belmonte de Campos.

Soon I will reach the number seven lock.

I have eight and a half kilometers ahead,

practically flat.

I will leave my left Villanueva de San Mancio

Until my ultimate goal, Medina de Rioseco's dock.

(Music)

Precisely the lock number six

I have stayed with the historian Asensio Asensio,

author of a port of sea land inland,

Castillaen Channel Medina de Rioseco.

You will see, it is one of the people who knows about the channel.

Virginia, how are you.Hello.Good morning, Juanjo.

After ten years of research,

How do you define the Castilla Canal?

Well, look, if I ask me, it's today the channel,

I would tell you that it is a paradise,

A paradise for lovers, nature,

of sport...

It also shares some sections with the Camino de Santiago,

But it is a paradise with history,

What is the story of a dream, the dream of those crazy enlightened,

of those politicians, thinkers,

that what the country wanted

And that economically resurgues as a phoenix, say.

So, we must not forget that we are in the barn of Spain

And then what they raised was

build a network of roads, roads and navigable canals,

as is the channel of Castilla,

that connects the heart of Castilla

With the ports of the north.

For the time, a remarkable engineering work.

Of course, I believe that to understand the magnitude of the project,

We would have to place ourselves in the 18th century.

Plant yourself at that time, open a gap on Earth

and divert the water from the rivers

To turn it into a navigable channel.

A tremendous effort was required,

not only economic, but also human,

Because the channel was excavated, say, peak and shovel

And engineering elements were built

very important, of a great caliber,

so that the channel could discuss with happiness.

For example, bridges, aqueducts, excludes, docks, spills,

Reliviaderous the famous locks,

that were designed by Leonardo da Vinci,

Mitra type locks,

Well today we are shown in an outdoor museum,

In a total of forty -nine locks,

oval and rectangular.

And bridges to give continuity to the roads above the channel,

aqueducts, so that rivers and streams continue

Below the channel...

that is, a construction barbarity.

Do you think we are walking? So you tell me more anecdotes.

And we see the aqueduct, do you think?.

(Music)

(Other music)

(They chat between them, but unintelligible)

Look, Juanjo.This is the aqueduct.

Here we have five stone arches.

Below is the Sequilloy river over the channel,

which is an incredible engineering work.

Water on water.That is exactly

Very well explained.

(Music)

Before saying goodbye,

Why the water of the channel does not arrive the sea?

Well, for several causes, but, mainly,

For the appearance on the set of the railroad.

The railroad was thought, first, as a complement to the channel,

To complete that part that was not built to the sea.

And immediately it was seen that it was a faster means of transport,

more economical...

You didn't have to do merchandise borders

From barges to the railroad...

So what they did was extend the railway line

and abandon navigation.

Interesting, Virginia,

Thank you very much by your explanations.

To you, delighted.Until next time.

(Music)

If with Virginia we have known a little more the history of the channel,

With our next guide, Miguel García,

We will know your present, your current uses.

I have stayed with him a little further from the lock seven.

(Music)

Miguel, good.How are you.Hello, Juanjo, qué tal.

It seems that the channel is in full shape.

Yes, the truth.

Keep with its uses, which I always had,

as are the water supply; which has always been supplied with water,

Currently, almost 400.000 inhabitants,

of cities like Palencia, Valladolid Medina de Rioseco.

The irrigation, with more than twenty milhectas of adjustable cultivation

and sport;Currently, sport and tourism.

Is a lot of sport practiced?

It is an ideal site to practice physical activity,

Like hiking, the career continues, cycling,

Even fishing.

There are many people who come to fish.

And all that has led to it is

The center of some competition activities.

For example, here it is celebrated

The oldest triathlon of Castilla y León

And one of the oldest in Spain.

(Music)

Look.Good athlete.Yes, here we have.

Hello, buenos días.Hello, buenas.

-Hello, Rubén.What happens, Miguel?

I'm going to introduce you to Juanjo.How are you?

Well, I see you perfectly equipped.

Yes, the walk on the channel is not missing, in the morning, there is no lack of.

A good area to train.Also not cold or anything.

Within what fits, as there is a lot of tree and vegetation,

We warm us a lot.A good area, then.

Athletes value many sites where we do

And this is pretty.

And for Montanbike? Perfect, right?

Perfect.For adults, for children...

It is almost where we learn to ride a bike.

We are going to let you continue route.See you later, goodbye.

We continue to Medina.See you later.

(Music)

And we are going by the old Sirga road.

Sirga roads are still calling them,

because it was where, formerly, when the channel was navigable,

Where did the mules that were pulling the barges.

When they reached the bridges,

The mules also had to have their step

To be able to pass under the bridge.

(Music)

Juanjo, as he told you, the mules would pass here

And, when pulling with the maromas, they would leave the signal on the stone.

(Music)

Look quién viene por ahí.

Hello good.How are you?

I'm going to introduce you to Juanjo.Hello, ¿cómo andas?

Here we are, doing some exercise.

Career, right?.

To those of the Rioseco, nobody stops you.

You have to exercise, which is what it is about.

This area does characteristics have?

It is a place where, first, you do not find any vehicles.

The firm is the ideal,

both to make fondocomo to make a career, series...

And well, this is where I move

And practically all the people who do sports moves...

of these characteristics in Rioseco Medina.

A lot of hobby.Much, a lot of hobby.

Here are triathletes, athletes, there are people who run,

marathon, some of them.

We are not going to entertain you anymore.Do not stay cold and follow your series.

Well.Pleased to meet you.See you later, Miguel.

That awful.Excellent.

(Music)

(Music)

Friends, more hikers.No, Juanjo, no.They are pilgrims.

Because this is on the way to Santiago.Is it telling me a milonga?

No no.We are on its way to Santiagoen this Jubilee Year.

The Association of Friends of the Camino de Santiago

of Medina de Rioseco.

Within his activities, he is programming

and starting serel jubilee year of the year 2021.

Here, with a group of pilgrims,

that we are on the way to this Rioseco stapade to Cuenca.

That we are walking through this area, accompanied by several pilgrims,

We are doing the way.

Within everything that is the road, land of fields we are lucky

to find this Vergel, which is the Castilla channel.

Why are you talking about Vergel?

What wonders what characteristics...?

Because we have the characteristic that we have water, shadow

And sites to take refuge,

because the rest of the way, many of the parties,

That is another incentive, we have a flat road,

full of spikes in summer, with heat,

And, in winter, raw.Well, we are not going to entertain you more,

That you have the right track, pilgrims.

And we continue our path on the channel.

Good way.Good way.

Utrella, what a great star.

That awful.

Hey, the Castilla Canal is a box of surprises.

Completely.

(Music)

(Music)

(Music)

Well, pues ya estamos aquí, Miguel.

We have already arrived.At the end of the road.

La gran dársena del Canal de Castillaof Medina de Rioseco.

More than three hundred meters of Silleria stone

of the convents of confiscation.

And we have to imagine the barges arriving,

downloading and loading these paneras

that were on both sides,

With cranes,

And this water that,

After having done so much effort to these barges,

It will still have a last effort

To move this flour factory, that of San Antonio, five floors,

where the wheat of the entire region entered to be cleaned, grinding

and convert in the best flour at the time.

I loved the route.

I take note, because it is to do it as a family.

Well I think yes.

It is an ideal route to come with the family

And make a route well by bicycle, well walking, well walking,

Because he has no danger

And it is totally flat;

Because being an artificial river, it cannot have pending.

The river next to the Sirga road,

Where to walk with the family is wonderful.

Well, thank you very much, because we loved.

(Music)

(Alive music)

Obviously, this is not the Canal de Castilla.

It is one of our most beautiful Romanesque churches,

that of the monasteriode San Martín de Frómista,

Restored already in the nineteenth century.

If you have not visited it yet, forgive me,

But there are no excuses not to do it.

From right here, from the center of Frómista,

I went to my meeting point.

There awaits my guide, Araceli.

(Music)

Hello good, Araceli.Hello, Juanjo.

Tell me why you have cited me this point.

Because we are visiting

some very important communication routes for our region.

We are on the Water Way that is the Canal de Castilla,

And on the railroad.The train, the train.

The two wanted to reach the Cantabrian

so that we could export surpluses.

And the channel was the first one that was put into operation,

at the end of the 18th century;

And then the railroad, in the mid -nineteenth century.

In the beginning, it was complemented with each other,

But later, the railroad...

He ate the channel.

But the channel has followed you uses uses,

Although at that time it has already been functioning as a transport route.

(Music)

(Music)

(Music)

Well, Araceli,qué maravilla de esclusa.

Well here we have the quadruple lock,

which is the only one of four jumps, and, as you can see, it has oval shape.

This means that it was

From the first period of the construction of the channel.

And its construction was very expensive.

And also its filling, because it carried more water.

But the advantage that had two barges at the same time,

both a low rate.

There are four consecutive jumps.

Each lock had their gates, which closed,

and, through tajaderas, which they had at the bottom,

They opened and produced the lock.

Once the water rises to the level of the above,

The gate opened,

The little boat that was here was the first glass.

The slopes were fought.The unevenness was fought.

(Music)

Well, Araceli, punto de partida,muchos caminos para escoger;

what do we do?

Well,pues estas señales nos indican

The roads that there are holy cities.

And this signal indicates that we are on the Camino de Santiago,

The French road.

And at this point, specifically,

The path of reason with the path of faith is crossed,

I mean,

The Casa de Castillacon Cário El Camino de Santiago.

What will we do today?

In the stage I propose to make you take off fields.

Let's go to the Boadilla del Camino Board.

Then, we are going to see the seventeenth source

And, passing the sixteenth, we will reach the field requena.

There are nine kilometers, with barely unevenness,

that can take us two hours.

But we are not going to do everything.No.

I have already told you the channel for a lot.

So it gives a lot.

First, we will do it by boat, if you think.

(Music)

(Music)

Go for it.Araceli!

-Wells días.-Hello.

Look, te presento a Jesús,el patrón y Jorge, el marinero.

An inland captain.You see, here, in Castilla,

La Cunade Los Almirantes de Castilla,

The Burgos Sea Consulate, the best site to navigate.

Few jokes, then.None.

Well come.To embark!

(Music)

(Music)

(Music)

Jesus, how long was it navigable? The channel.

The channel was for the function that is performed,

For transport navigation, above all, summer,

It was until 1959,

that he already retired the last boat that was left.

And then,

The Confederation decides to make a transformation to the channel,

To convert a channel of irrigation.

For which to remove the gates of the locks.

That concrete rise was made.

And the channel is no longer for navigation

And there is already a water transport channel,

For irrigation and drinking water.

With respect to navigation techniques,

Have they varied a lot? Of course,

We are here once a ship that is electric.

The same channel provides us with the energy necessary to load.

And regarding navigation techniques, well,

The sources are very scarce that remain,

And very diverse too,

above all, at first.

It is thought that they could also put a small Latin candle,

To help mules.

But traditional transport that has been done on the channel

It has always been blood drag, which they called,

Animal.Animal drag.

Never threw the tip of the bow,

From the roda,

Because the bow would tend to go the shore.

So, navigation was not going to be possible.

For which, throwing from the side of the starboard.

Generally.And from the right side from the notebook,

practically yadesde through.

And thus, when pulling the bar, the barge turned a little,

And the pattern can correct.

Y con eso, ya,siete días desof Medina de Rioseco,

A alar of the king, it was what took, at the pace of mule.

(Music)

(Music)

Araceli. Well, Jesús, Jorge,muchísimas gracias por la travesía.

We have enjoyed a lot.

Well, I'm a lot.When you want, here we are.

Great.OK.

Come, until next.

Well, pues nada, Araceli.

We will keep walking on the channel.Nothing.

Walk, no.I have you prepared a surprise.

Is that the channel gives a lot, looks, Jesus is waiting for us.

Let's see what tells us.

Oh, Araceli! What do you think?

Here are the surprise.

I introduce you to Jesus.-What boys.

Here, prepared to make feel

what is the Castilla channel by bike,

which is an experience that is increasingly accepted by the family,

the friends...

A well easy tour, to savor the bike.

Great, pues venga,vamos a poner los cascos.

-On going.We prepare.

This would be mine.

(Music)

Well, Jesús, háblamedel desafío Canal de Castilla,

that is disputed here.It is a very interesting test,

that has Yance editions celebrated

and that what the channel of Castilla does,

From Alar del Reya Medina de Rioseco.

It is a non -competitive test,

And the cyclists come out from the Drsenade Alar.

Always on the ground, as I say, descending,

Although you almost always have to pedal.

You see that almost everything is very flat.

They are grouped into cold, there is a kind of flying goal.

Distance? 163 kilometers.

Little joke, little joke.

You have to come prepared, exactly.

Here, you also have your own triathlon, in cold.

Of course, we have a triathlon team in the town.

And the truth is that they make a triathlon

With the best of the national panorama of triathletes.

I know nothing, how can it be otherwise,

In the Castilla Canal.

And, with an Olympic distance,

What they do is the bicycle and run, in the town.

(Music)

Jesus, how cool the experience! I have enjoyed the beautiful;

No surprise me that a paradise for cyclists is considered.

We arrived.Thank you very much, Jesus.

Thanks to you, come here.

Araceli, and now what do we do? We continue walking.

Walking.Walking.

We are going to approach Requena, do you think?

Perfect.There are four kilometers.

Light, like the bike.Very good.

Great.And there we will end our stage.

Well, the mess.

(Music)

(Music)

Araceli is curious how, as we walk,

the physiognomy of the channel changed.

What yes?We have been able to check little space.

How were we out of the water and, suddenly, we see him there.

Now it looks like a river.Semienterrado.Like it's a river.

This depends, of course, on the orography of the land.

When you have to save slopes, they made locks,

But here a mound was found

And they had to half.

207 kilometers of channel, which is said soon.

And the good scheme is divided into stages,

Because, of course, everyone cannot afford luxury

of 207 kilometers.Nor have time to make them.

It is divided into nine stages the channel.

Nor are the stages all of the same kilometers.

There are some more kilometers.

There are from nine kilometers until twenty -five kilometers,

For people to adapt their measures, to their needs,

to your possibilities, how will you do.

If you are going to do with family, with friends if they are young or older...

You on your website, give all kinds of information.

On the website it is hanging a guide,

called the channel guide.

And in that guide there is a part that is dedicated to the stages.

There we see the nine stages.

Hay cuatro en el ramalNorte.

There are two in the Ramal Campos

And there are three in the southern branch.

There, in addition to saying the locations that we are going through,

You have a small map, a sketch, with the channel scratch,

and a yellow, very important line, next to the stripe of the channel,

What tells you what margin of the chance to upload.

(Music)

Well, pues llegamosal puente de Requena.

This is the Requena bridge.This is the Requena bridge.

(Music)

Route end.Route end.

End of these nine kilometers of today,

that we still have two hundred kilometers

To continue enjoying the channel.We will do that on another occasion,

Because you've seen the channel for a lot.

For a lot.

(Music)

On my last tour on foot the channel,

I approach the triple Calahorra de Ribas..

One of the most beautiful prints

of all this fantastic work hydraulic engineering

What is the channel of Castilla..

(Music)

The importance of this place lies in the fact that it was here,

precisely,

When on July 16, 1753 they started

The construction works of the Canal de Castilla.

I look at that magnificent lock.

I relate it to hiking, because the channel of Castile is that,

The idea of the illustration of walking,

The idea of illustration

to get Castillade his isolation.

(Music)

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