Since our last post, we have travelled the impressive distance of 94.5km. We left Belorado and headed 24k to San Juan, from there we went a mighty 31k to Burgos, then 19k to Hornillos and today we walked 21k to land us in the lovely city of Castrojeriz! Whew! For some reason, we hit a stretch of hostels that either didn´t have internet, or their internet didn´t work, so we have been unable to update you lovely people....bet you were worried about us, eh?
A few fun stories along the way to share:
On the walk to San Juan, we were mostly travelling through dense forest, and at one point on the path came across a small wild pig. We were walking seperately but both came across him at some point. My encounter began when an older German lady was afraid to keep walking towards this piggy because she thought it would charge at her. I figured it would be ok, so we walked slowly up to it on, and when we reached it realized it had no eyes.........creepy! But kinda cute as well, the story ends with everyone not getting attacked by a wild pig, so all in all, a good day!
Also on the walk to San Juan, Jess began walking with a young Czech guy, who we have come to call Super Andy. He walked with us the next day to Burgos as well, and half of the walk to Hornillos with us yesterday. He was a trooper, as he had a bum knee, and about 8 pretty awful blisters!
San Juan to Burgos proved to be a very long day, as you can imagine, and we were all pretty exhausted by the time we reached the hostel, which was located in the middle of a park in the city, and was pretty cute. We tried to find somewhere to eat dinner, but none of us was very keen on the idea of much more walking, so we ended up getting some baguette and meat and cheese and having a little picnic in the park.
Little side note, the various pains of this day included heel spurs, shin splints, 2 new blisters for me, and some pretty intense ankle pain for both of us, apparantly walking 31k in one day makes for sore feet.......go figure.
The walk from Burgos to Hornillos proved to be pretty nice, and it was our first day walking in the Meseta ( Spanish equivalent of the Prairies ), and we were lucky to have great weather. We decided to take a short day and only walk 19k to let our feet rest a a bit and recover from the day before. It was about 27 degrees with a nice cool breeze, so the walk that day went by pretty quickly, despite some very sore feet.
Also on the way to Hornillos, we were met by a nun from one of the villages, who greeted us all as we were walking, and gave us little medallions of the Virgin Mary to take with us, to bless us on our journey. Not being religeous, the symbol itself was not relevant, but the gesture was very kind and much appreciated. No pilgrimage is complete without a small piece of religeous iconography for the road, so now I´m a real pilgrim!
Today may have been one of my favourite days of walking so far. The weather was absolutely perfect again, not too hot, and the scenery was really beautiful. Also, we stopped in a great little town for breakfast called Hontanas, and the next stop along the way was at the ruins of an old cathedral, which had been turned into a pilgrim hostel ( we didn´t stay there), it was so pretty! From there it was just a short 4k walk to Castrojeviz, where we are now, and the town so far is really cute. The pilgrim´s hostel was full when we arrived, so we had no choice but to get a private room at a local inn. Oh darn. For 30 euros we have a private room, non bunk beds, our own bathroom complete with shower, and a great view. I kinda hope that the hostel was full more often!
On Monday we will cross the halfway mark, by Friday we will be in Leon, and then just a few weeks of short (long?) walks to Santiago! So far we have crossed 3 Spanish provinces, we started in Navarra, then we crossed into La Rioja, then the province of Burgos, and tomorrow we will walk into the province of Leon! Sounds more impressive in Canadian terms to say we´ve walked across 3 provinces, than it does to say we´ve been walking for 17 days!
As usual, I am looking forward to my pilgrim´s dinner tonight, 3 courses including wine and dessert, can´t be beat! So I´ll be signing off for now, and hope that our internet drought is over, and that I will be able to regale you all with tales of the Camino again tomorrow!
For now,
Adios Amigos!
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