From Burgos we'd planned to walk to Hornillos del Camino. This is where the camino heads up into the meseta region of Spain, flat-topped hills, barren or with wheat fields. It is open terrain, with few trees for shade and few water stops.
We were surprised when we arrived in Hornillos a little before 3 to discover that the albergue and all other accommodations (a couple of guest houses) were filled. We could have slept on the floor in the village school, but decided instead to head on to the next village. We called ahead to reserve a room, grabbed a quick snack, and covered the next 10 km of rolling terrain to Hontanas in a little over two hours.
It was with great relief that we dropped off a hill into the village: 30 km is a long day for us. Even though there were still plenty of other pilgrims, the scene was much quieter than in Hornillos. We scored a great private room in a small hostal. After showers, we were walking around before dinner and ran into some folks we'd met a few days back in Villambistia: an Englishman and two Brazilians. We all had dinner together, and then we shared the bottle of wine I'd been carrying since Laguardia. It was a truly outstanding 2008 Crianza, of Tempranillo grapes (thanks, Javier).
The next morning we headed out under cloudy skies. We encountered a first: two pilgrims traveling with donkeys to carry their gear,
By late morning we'd passed the town of Castrojeriz, and shortly after were climbing the 12 percent grade to the next meseta.
The descent on the other side was 18 percent (but only for a little while). The rest of the day was rolling terrain to the small village of Itero de la Vega.
No comments:
Post a Comment