Practical
Water, Food & the Empty Stretches
The Lana's silence comes at a price you pay in your backpack: on several stages there is nothing along the way. No bar, no shop, no reliable fountain. Plan your resupply and the emptiness stays a pleasure instead of a problem.
The hardest day for supplies
Retortillo de Soria to Fresno de Caracena is the one to take seriously. The villages on the way — Tarancueña, Cañicera (population four), Caracena, Carrascosa de Abajo — have no dependable bar, shop or fountain. Leave Retortillo with two litres of water, two meals (lunch and dinner), a kilo of bread and something calorific. Even if you don't usually carry food, carry it today.
The first stage, too
The very first day out of Monteagudo de las Salinas has no water or food on the route, so do your shopping the evening before. The Bar de Abajo and a small tienda are the only options, with variable hours — buy when you can.
Where the comforts are
Trillo, on the Viana–Cifuentes stage, is a proper resupply: bar, shop, bakery, even a cash machine — stop long. And don't underestimate the small things: a village square with a shaded bench, the horn of the bread van, a fountain someone points you to. On the Lana these become events.
“Don't fear the weight of the water you carry: by mid-morning you'll have drunk half, and be light again.”