Again, many thanks for your (mainly generous) comments.
We have had a very difficult couple of days brought about mostly by a combination of the weather and the terrain. We left Borgos on Sunday and surprised ourselves by completing 31k . This in itself is a record (for me, but not of course for the Olympiad) but it also gave us a preview of the much feared " Meseta" - for those who don't know, this is a stretch of The Camino that runs arrow straight across a semi arid stony landscape with barely a tree, a river, a living creature in sight. In fact the Way is interspersed with the bleached bones of the weak and feeble pilgrims who were overcome.. Unlike Michael and Jen,Shawrie Q&A we did not have baking sun to contend with,just the wind which hit us straight on,powerful enough to blow the hats of our heads. With our bowed heads and clutching hats to our chests we must have looked a sorry sight.
Luck was with us as we shuffled into the only village (Hontanos) see photo, for another 12k and we found the last bed in the hotel.
Thoughts that kept us going for the last little bit that day include remembering all the delicious pinchos we had in Burgos - bacalao, botones, cheese balls, conjodones - all sorts - during our a Spanish Pub crawl to 6 different bars sampling some wonderful local red wines during the evening...actually I think is is part of the reason why the day was so long.
Suffice it to say we did not follow the unbelievably heroic steps of Michael and Jen the following day (who did another 30k) rather we did 12k and booked into a small hotel at about 1045 in the morning. This proved a very fortuitous decision as the weather really set in and the wind picked up and the rain lashed down all afternoon, we were snug in our hotel (hee hee).
The town was called Castrojeriz and it is hidden in a narrow fluvial depression. A strange town with not a shop or cafe or restaurant open at least that is what we thought. After searching in vain for somewhere to have lunch we were on the verge of eating our remaining chocolate bar when we came across a tiny sign advertising a restaurant, upon entering the place was full to bursting, Nikki commented that it seemed to be all men (which it was) - we made our way to our table all eyes on Nikki....about 100 pairs of them...
A funny thing struck us all the men had very small heads,what were they all doing there? it turned out it was a meeting of the all the surrounding villages volunteer firemen (¨bomberos¨), I cannot explain the small heads (maybe they get discount helmets I dont know).
We are now going to nip out to get something to eat and will finish this at another time..
Back now after our Peregrino supper. where we had salad,lovely fish n chips and ice cream and a bottle of wine all for 9 Euro. Prior to that and much to our delight we came across a Cheese Museum where we enjoyed a sample of the local cheese and a vino tinto.
Today was another pretty tough walk up hill and down dale to start with then a sandwich in a windswept village square and followed a canal during the afternoon.
We had thought to entitle these last few days " Cuckoos to Curlews" as the dominating sound in the oak woods before Burgos were cuckoos and on the moorlands and some parts of Meseta were curlews. The wheat crop is ripening before our eyes and today it was a light yellow. OK enough already off to bed for a sleep.
3 comments:
So recognise the pictures you've posted and so wished we were there with you (even in the lashing wind and rain, or should we say, especially in the lashing wind and rain).
XXX Q&A XXX
It can't be colder than Melbourne at the moment. I would kill for some of those churros.
i am so jealous about the churros and the slidge hot chocolate you get with it! many an early morning after boogying in madrid and seville spent at the churreria. (i love the way the spanish make a shop name out of the product and just at 'eria' on the end). so simple. much like their chorros and chocolate, actually.
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