Camino 2019

An early start this morning, in fact our earliest start.  We’re getting very spoilt walking the flat and as a result the pace is picking up.  So much so that a fellow Peregrino suggested we were on “marching pace”…need to slow down a little me thinks.

We stopped by a 13th Century Knights Templar church, Santa Maria in Villacazar de Sigla and continue to be blown away by the size and level of detail of these buildings.  We also were blown away by the view in the distance of the mountains still covered in snow – wheat fields and snow just doesn’t add up for West Australians.

We are staying in a fantastic venue tonight, the converted monastery of San Zolio in Carrion de los Condes – amazing.  Laughter abounded as we came into the court yard to see masses of police folk – wondered whether we had signed all the appropriate papers last night….discovered it’s a police conference.  GREAT uniforms!!!!

 

 

So we woke to find that the walk today was going to be in rain and we had heard that there was going to be ‘a climb’…. ‘a climb’ was a bit of an understatement.  When all is said and done, it was great to get up to that height because the view over the Meseta was beautiful.  The down for me is always worse than the up especially on the shins, but once we were down it was great.

The path is straight through the middle of wheat and oat fields.  Not too many towns today, just long straight sections of walk.  We pulled in to Boadilla del Camino and found the most wonderful Albergue where we had a shared Peregrino meal – again 10 Euro for three courses with wine included.  A paddock full of white horses, of course an amazing church from the 12th century (young really) and buildings with intricate brickwork.  It POURED in the afternoon so it was cards (Gin Rummy was taught to another willing victim – because it is the only game I know how to play).  Lori read her book (read she had a snooze!!!).

  

The instruction before leaving was to take the time to smell the roses…. and so on purpose I have made sure that I have stopped to smell roses along the way, much to the amusement of my fellow Peregrinos.  So today they baited Lori to get the photo – and then Lori got into it as well – but we need to work on her style.

The Meseta is BEAUTIFUL and in June is NOTHING like they have described in the books. We are lucky to be walking in the “green” and not the “yellow” of harvest.  The walk was a breeze, such flat undulating country and apart from the civil guard whizzing past us on four wheel motor bikes (who knows what they were checking) out in the fields, only the Peregrinos were out and about.  What is it about this country – Julie, a fellow  Aussie walker swears the Martians have come and taken most of the locals away…there is NO ONE to be seen ANYWHERE during the day….what do they do? Where do they go? We know that today was Monday and we know that Monday = weekend but truly there was NO ONE ANYWHERE.

The town we are in, Castrojeriz is beautiful.  700 inhabitants and about 2km long, many of the houses have been restored and the place is spotless.  We again shared a great 3 course meal provided as a Pilgrim menu with wine and bread included for 10 Euro.  To top it off we were all offered liquors and for the Croatian readers, they make Travarica here too!

There is a wonderful sense of comraderie amongst the crew walking and it is best felt in the hour leading to dinner.  We sat in a cellar having a drink before dinner with Aussie, Americans, Canadians, Norwegians, Indians and Irish and basically everyone is chatting away, sharing photos and stories of the walk.  It’s 10pm and still light and apart from us two insomniacs, there isn’t a sound in the place.  Fast asleep and ready for early starts tomorrow.  INSANELY short walk tomorrow because of an accomodation issue which will bite us the following day when we have to make up the distance.

So today we entered the Meseta.  We have now realized that all the descriptions of dust and heat we are likely to miss because of the time of year that we are walking – it’s green as far as the eye can see!  Field after field of wheat and oats and more and more and more.  To be sure that we arrive clean and bug free in Santiago we shared the Camino with a tractor full of fumigant today!!

We stopped at a church to get our stamps  – see photo of Lori in front of church. For those that don’t know, we are required to collect stamps in our pilgrim passport in order to qualify for the Compostela once we reach Santiago – for those that join the Camino for the first time at Sarria (which is the final 100 km)  two stamps a day are required.

We then walked on, stopping only for drinks and “fruit and nut break” (me seated on rock) and made it to our destination in about 4 hours – 22km = a breeze.  Lori was coming down the hill a little behind and shouted “ORDER ME A SHANDY”  -as she entered the town…and I did – This remarkably has become her drink of choice.

Our accomodation is out of town about 3km and for my Korculani friends I feel like I’m staying in Cara.  There has been a bit of a stuff up and basically we have “no room at the inn”.  So we are up the street in the “annexe”.  Enough of that, these are stories best shared over a drink back at home – shandy for Lori.  Dinner was shared with folk we have met along the way with a new addition of Paul from Montreal.  The final photos were taken at the magical time around 9.30pm when the breeze disappears completlely and twilight is about to set in – the shots are from and of the church above the town of Isar.

Burgos at night – video

So what do you do in a European city at 9.30 at night….walk….couldn’t resist putting these up….

Bugos – day off – video

 

  

Never having heard of Burgos, now completely sold.  A GREAT place to get a day off to prepare for the next challenge – the Meseta – the next 10 days.  Our trusty guide book says… “today we leave behind the built environment and enter the relative wilderness of the sublime Meseta – over half this stage is by way of earth track across the peace and quiet of the endless crop fields.  There is little or no shade on the Meseta, so protect yourself from the sun and carry water.”  So I figure, it will just like walking from Cunderdin to Merredin….and I’d do that because…….?

   

 

At breakfast in San Juan we met two German guys who are doing the Camino on mountain bikes.  We laughed when they said that they would be done in 14 days and we are doing it in almost 40! I had never heard of Burgos before and now that I am here I’d happily come back and recommend it to everyone.  The old city is beautiful and houses what the local guides refer to as the second largest cathedral in Europe after St Peter’s Basilica in Rome.  Having googled this last night there is clearly conjecture about the claim, but nonetheless the building of Santa Maria of Burgos is phenomenal.  What is equally as  amazing is the beauty of the city. The Centre is entirely car free and feels to me like a giant Split or Dubrovnik.  As usual the crowds are nowhere to be seen until dark and then the place bustles.  More on that in tomorrow’s blog.

We are on a rest day and it couldn’t have come soon enough. Having walked for 10 days straight it is a welcome reprieve and sitting here in the room overlooking the city at 8.32am is PURE luxury.  The walk was pleasant enough and we took some options on the path so as to not have to walk in through industrial areas.  This brought us into the city via the perimeter of the airport (I only now realise how much land they take up having walked the fence) and along the banks of the river which runs through the city of Burgos.  Apart from the wondrous sight of the cathedral and city, the most joyous building of all that we have encountered on the trip so far was the laundromat!   Clean walking clothes and that potent smell of European laundry detergent fills the room – it’s the simple things in life!

To end the day, caught up with our two German mates on pushbikes in a tapas bar last night.  I had to laugh because our walk took us about 5 hours and their ride took them just over an hour….

Belorado to San Juan de Ortega – video

Today we walked from Belorado to San Juan de Ortega approximately 23 kilometers.  It was a great walk because we were walking on tracks, generally away from the main roads (which we ALL collectively despise) and  through the most amazing silver birch forests  and later pine forests.  We were pleased to find our walking companion  Anne again who was not staying with us last night and was not lost (for a change).  She had us in fits of laughter telling us of her intimate accommodation which she shared with a priest from Alaska.  Hilarious stories about her discussions and faux pas which seemed to get worse the harder she tried.  We caught up with Maggie who is availing herself of every physio on the route – photograph of her strappings included in the blog photos and then basically headed off to San Juan.

So we have included a video of one of the true blessings of today.  Walking the last 10 km we were in the forest and having not stopped for coffee at the last of the villages before the longer haul, I was pretty much desperate.  We came over a rise and there in front of us was one of the “donation” a donativa stall.  These are set up by locals, and the money usually goes to good causes such as orphanages or support for the homeless.  This one was special.  They had set up totems made from the offcuts of timber and the stall holder provided paints that people could sit an decorate their pieces of timber.  Music playing, coffee, juice, fruit and snacks – help yourself and donate as much as you like.  I bought coffee and some fruit and walked over to a bench to sit down and overhear a Croatian fellow talking to his mates back in Zadar saying that the temperature is 30 degrees and that they are all swimming.  I introduced myself and discovered he was a young priest Ivica from Zadar.  Had a great chat and we have caught up with him again tonight in Ortega.

We are staying in the tiniest of villages, San Juan de Ortega.  No more than about 10 houses in the village and the most phenomenal of all the churches we have seen (in my opinion based on the pure simplicity and lack of ornate and very baroque looking gold relief work that seems to be in every other church).  The church is attached to a Monastery where Ivica pulled the “I’m one of you and need some accom card”.

We had a great light meal at the bar with Jean, a recently retired Montessori principal from San Francisco – such similar experiences in education it was almost frightening.  She too had us in fits of laughter explaining that prior to leaving for the Camino she visited her parish priest for a blessing.  She got the giggles because he got confused and started with a blessing related to transformation, corrected himself and then proceeded … the bit where Jean lost it was as he extended his palm over her head for the final blessing, Jean,a long time educator,thought he was giving her a  “high five” so she gave him one back.  Incredulous look on face!

We had what by definition was  a quick wander around the tiny village (because there isn’t much to wander) and back to our rooms for an early start into the city of Burgos tomorrow.

Santo Domingo De Calzada to Belorado – Video

A strange old day.  We started off at about 8.15 and headed out of Santo Domingo on the way to Belorado.  We walked past the Cathedral and peeked into the Parador – a chain of luxurious hotels that have generally been “built into” amazing old buildings.  We headed out of town and spent some time adjusting wet weather gear and in my case, fiddling with my newly purchased boots.  One of the strongest pieces of advice before coming on the Camino is to wear your boots in – which I had done, but this was of  no use once I had discovered that they are not water proof.  Should have tested this before getting here, but no serious wet weather in Perth in the 6 month lead up and an expectation that we would be walking here in the heat. So it is going to be a process of breaking these new boots  in over the coming days, wearing them for a couple of hours and swapping back to my old faithfulls that now feel like a comfy pair of familiar slippers.

The walk was strange because we largely followed a freeway on paths which ran parallel and in the adjacent fields.  Neither rain nor mist, but something in between.  The milestones of approximately one third of the Camino done together with the passing out of one province and into another semi-autonomous province all occurred today.

We made it in good time and then set about finding somewhere for a beer after the walk followed by showers and dinner in a fantastic Albergue restaurant serving “peregrino menu” – three courses with wine included for 12 euro…..no complaints from ANYONE.  Met father and son from San Francisco, Miles and Greg and laughed when they told me they were friends of the man who owned the company that made the boots I had just bought…

The kilometres are ticking by and this is the 11th day of walking.  The routine is set, the group we will likely walk into Santiago with are pretty much now recognisable to us and we continue on.  We have another day of mid 20 km’s tomorrow followed by a burster of close to 30km  on Friday before we walk into Burgos and enjoy a day off….laundromat and feet up!

     

It is so exciting to get up in the morning and know that we are only walking 22km!  A new bounce in the step and a sense of joy abounds.  Heading out dressed for torrential downpours…no rain.  Again, we stop and strip off the wet weather gear and keep walking.  We only had three  towns to walk through today and we hoofed it through the first, Azofra with the intent of stopping at Ciruena for coffee.  What discover is that this is a new town attached to a golf course in the middle of absolutely NOWHERE.  They have built an entire town and there is NO ONE ANYWHERE to be seen, the roller shutters are down, golf course empty and NOWHERE to buy a coffee because there is no one alive in the place.  We have therefore rechristened it Virus Village and suggest you strike it of your visit list.  We eventually got to the third village and had to hunt for a coffee.  It is amazing what desperation can do.  Recharged we headed off on the path again heading for Santo Domingo  and making it in great time at 4.5 hours and dry .

Again, another phenomenal Cathedral and we weren’t  exactly sure as to why, but there is an entire altar within which lives a live chicken.  Discovered it has to do with the local Saint – we’ll explain some other time.  The sensation however is, that across the road from us, we have been informed by Sue from Alabama that there is a Michelin star restaurant.  Not exactly Camino fare, we may go and hunt for more Pinxos and Tapas to which we have become slightly addicted.  In the collection of today’s photos you will discover our other addiction – never EVER having been a beer drinker, and Lori only in hot weather, we have discovered Shandy on tap….a true miracle to be enjoyed at the end of each day.