San Nicolas del Real Camino

Got woken at about 5.30 by a group of guys noisely packing, loudly whispering and shining their head torches randomly in my eyes.  Thanks guys. On the basis that I could either get up or get angry, i got up and hopefully more quietly gathered my stuff, and headed out a bit after 6.30. Found a bar open for a much needed coffee then out into the meseta. Really is getting a bit featureless though a beautiful morning and great to be out walking. As the Camino heads almost due west the sun roses behind you, making for nice long shadows.

A bit of a slog to the first town 17.5 k down the road, but the reward was a great Tortilla. Pushed on a bit past the stop in the guidebook, and a  good thing too as I saw my noisy friends from the last albergue trooping in there as I left.

Passed through a few tiny villages with clear mozarabic influence in the architecture, to hit San Nicolas del Real Camino about 2. Around 33k today. Staying in a nice bar restaurant albergue in a little pueblo that sets a new benchmark for sleepy.

Tomorrow if the legs are good and the ankle holds up, i will try for Reliegos, about 38 k down the road. These towns are not in the optimal places unfortunately! If I can make that, a shortish 24k day into Leon the next day. Saturday night in Leon, whoo hooo.

Anyway, I am better than half way to Santiago de Compostella - only 374 k to go!

Carrion de los Condes

A wonderfully clear morning and brilliant sunshine and blue skies all day. A short flat walk so I chugged along at average 5.3 ks per hour and arrived in Carrion de los Condes a few minutes before the Albergue opened. A nice welcome, with tea and a biscuit as you stumble through the door. Only seems to be two showers in the whole place though.

The portal of the church of Santa Maria del Camino is said to depict a scene from a time before the Reconquista when the local population had to send 100 virgins to the Moorish overlords - but i don't know I would have picked that without the guidebook. Like so many of the churches through here San Maria is decaying away.

The cast of the Camino keeps changing - quite a few people walking the Camino in stages seem to stop here. Some others I suspect might be giving it away altogether. The next section to Leon,  hopefully four days walk, looks pretty sparse, so I found the supermercado and stocked up. Found a shop and bought another recharger - my second so far. Hopefully the last for this trip.

Tomorrow to Terradillos de los Templarios, about 27 kilometres but mostly flat.

Fromista

A longish day today. Slept well despite crowded albergue and headed out of Castrojeriz past the church with its two life size skull and cross bone carvings set in the wall at eye level in the narrow street. One is inscribed "death" mori, the other "eternity" eternitas.

With that cheerful message absorbed, headed off into chilly early morning country side, up the steep climb out of the valley. The grade was 12 percent going up one side and 18 percent coming down the other. A heart starter going up and a knee test going down.

The wind kicked up and it seemed a long cold way to the next village. The albergue had a nice young lady with three nice dogs stationed on the outskirts handing out leaflets advertizing "desayuno completo" basically English breakfast with orange juice and coffee, all for 5 euros, which is what I had sitting in the sun when I got into the village. Hard to see how they make much profit on that.

The weather was mostly sunny but cold and windy, and the country side just glorious. The edges of the fields are a mass of wild flowers - poppies, daisies, buttercups, a deep blue flower which might be a corn flower? Coming from Australia I was expecting the Meseta to be dead flat and empty, but in fact there is plenty of variety.

The last section of around six kilometres ran past the Canal de Castille,  constructed for transport rather than irrigation if the impressive lock system near town is any guide. Lovely to walk beside water.

Fromista has a couple of impressive churches. San Martin, a romanesque church  constructed 1066, has some of the strangest carvings I've seen.

Staying in a lovely private albergue with a big friendly black dog who will happily accept pats for as long as you are ready to give them.

A relatively short flat day tomorrow to Carrion los Condes, so I will sleep in till 7 unless the rustling from the early departing perigrinos becomes unbearable.

Castrojeriz

Didn't sleep so well last night, cold coming on and maybe too much  vino tinto. It was raining in annoying bursts out on the road, enough to get you damp before you got your coat on, then stop so you get steamy so take coat off, and then the rain would start again. Repeat. The first half of today's walk was through purgatorial Meseta mud. Perigrinos were floundering along with a kilo or so of clayey mud stuck to the bottom of each boot. Cleaning the mud off was fruitless as a new crust would form in a few steps. Luckily the muddy part finished before Hontanas, and the path from there was beautiful, winding along the side of a rocky valley covered in wild flowers and filled with bird song. It was like a reward for enduring the earlier section. The path then joins a minor sealed road and curves right through the ruins of the convent of San Anton, established in 12th century. The road goes through a vast arch still standing, and there is a delicately carved tympanium just sitting out there in the middle of nowhere.

Castrojeriz is a funny place. It is very old -originally Roman, and it straggles along the side of the mountain with quite a few adobe buildings, some eroding and some collapsed, and little streets winding away confusingly. Finding the pharmacia took the best part of an hour and required a few requests for assistance from the locals.

Staying in an idiosyncratic private albergue. Quite a few people packed in but i happened to get here just as the door opened and got the best bed, near the window.

Hornillos del Camino

Some pretty wild partying going on in or near the Burgos municipal Albergue last night till the early hours so didn't sleep all that well, but a shortish and flattish 20 ks to Hornillios del Camino. A bit of a one bar one horse town - though I think the horse has upped and left. Lucky the bar is open as that looks like the only dinner option. But it should be quieter than last night i hope. Lots of people pushing onto Hontas 10 ks down the road. Funny to think I may not see them again - they now inhabit a different bit of the moving foot powered conveyor belt of the camino space time continuum. Sad to see them go but also an opportunity to meet some new people.

Tomorrow to Castrojerez, another easy 20k day.

Burgos

Stayed in a lovely albergue in Ages last night. A bit chaotic but like staying in someone's home - very friendly, a great dinner cooked by the senora of the house . Up and on the road early. A cold morning and a climb up to 1200 metres past Atapuerca, a site where Neanderthal sites have been found. Cold, windy and wet up there, but very beautiful. I tried channeling my inner neanderthal getting over the mountain. The trail had lots of potato sized bits of smooth rock all nice and slippery in the drizzle, an ankle twisting opportunity at every step, and sure enough I twisted my ankle. Limped into Burgos, and up to the municipal albergue with its magnificent doorway. After washing self and clothes i headed out to find a pharmacia for remedial ankle treatments. I am applying RACE - rest, alcohol, compression and elevation, plus some tapas  _ should be RICE but no ice and 6you need to be adaptable. Hope it will do the trick. Burgos is a lovely city. I feel a bit guilty missing the cathedral, but I think I need to take it easy if I want to move tomorrow and sitting in the sun out the front of a nice tapas bar, watching the world wander by, with lovely wine at 1.50 euros is hard to beat.

I've been walking with a bunch of people for a few days now - one of the fluid mini tribes that form and evaporate on the Camino. But tomorrow some people staying in Burgos so tomorrow a new start. Tomorrow the Meseta, the much feared high flat plane that drives perigrinos crazy because it involves days of walking across a flat, featureless landscape. Tomorrow, maybe Hornillos del Camino, around 20k,  or maybe Hontanos, around 30 k.

Ages

Nearly 29 ks today, windy, rain and a couple of steep rocky climbs up to around 1200 metres - quite a hard day, but beautiful.

Staying in Ages, a small village with wood framed buildings similar to the tudor buildings in Kent, and a beautiful 16th century church with a couple of storks in residence. Staying in a friendly and cosy albergue here. Dinner options look fairly limited but I dont think we will starve.

Burgos tomorrow - the big smoke after a long stretch in smallish villages.