First stop – Belorado
Still a little sad to be walking on without Jackson, I headed off early to Belorado, hoping to arrive before the worst of the day’s heat. My Camino crew were a day ahead so I was on my own for a couple of days.
After putting in the first 7kms for the day, I arrived in the village of Grañon, perfect timing for breakfast.
Church on one side – bar on the other. Tends to be how it is in almost every village. My friend, Leanne, tells me that she slept on a gym mat in that church. One of her more interesting Camino experiences – but better than on the bare floor, I guess.
As I departed the village, this gentleman was seated in prime position to greet perigrinos and we communicated with my extremely limited Spanish vocabulary- but he was eager to wish me well!
Arriving on the outskirts of Belorado around lunchtime, I stood outside the first Albergue, wishing desperately that it was mine. My feet were aching, burning, bright red and it took everything I had to take another step. Note to self: never stop until you don’t have to walk any further at the end of your day’s walk. The struggle to walk those last couple of kilometres is very real!
Once I’d finished my pity party and found my rhythm again, I meandered through the streets until I found a bar. It was hot, dry and I had a raging thirst. And miracle of all miracles- they actually had olives as a snack! And don’t judge me – I love anchovies!
I had booked an albergue for the night, and yep, I’d picked one on the other side of town. There were only two of us in the dormitory though – and when the other occupant told me they’d been staying there because they were unwell, I chose a bed in the far corner of the room and huddled up there for the night.
The walls, like every place I’d stayed in, were paper thin and a woman (who was walking with her little poodle🤷🏻♀️) in the private room next door chatted loudly on her phone til after midnight.
So here I go again for this part of the post – had so much done and phone froze and it didn’t upload… so today, I’ll probably tell you my story from a completely different perspective!
I tried, to no avail, to book accommodation for the next day so that I could have somewhere to send my pack on to. I’d intended to try and walk on until I was just on the outskirts of the city of Burgos.
With the prospect of no place to stay, no more bus stops on the next two stages, along with my feet issues, I made the very difficult decision to skip a day and a half’s walking and catch a bus straight to Burgos where my Camino crew were meeting up for a two night stay. They even booked me in to a BnB with them!
The next morning we did a self guided tour of the amazing Burgos cathedral- me faster than the others because I’m adverse to the hoards of tour groups blocking our view to absolutely point of interest. We’d started out early in an attempt to beat the crowds but apparently, the tour groups are doing that too!
Next on the agenda was to find some new hiking shoes – eventually, success! A pair of Altra Timp 4 runners – weird looking shoes but I was assured they’d get me through the remainder of my hike. 🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼
While I was off in search of my miracle Camino saving shoes, the rest of the crew were focused intently on writing postcards to their family. Their word flow was helped along by the most excellent and perfectly chilled Spanish beer! Well, Mani had already moved on to his Vino Blanco…
That afternoon, we headed to the amazing Museum of Human Evolution- self explanatory for what you are going to see and learn there. The day of hiking that I’d missed would have taken me through a place called Atapuerca, a World Heritage listed archaeological site that contains rich fossil records of the earliest humans in Europe. https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/989/
The museum in Burgos is said to be an even better experience than the exhibits at Atapuerca so I was grateful to have not missed out entirely. Although I’m told that the sunrise from up there is spectacular.
rockybeginnings 