Day 15 - Castrojeriz to Burgos

Calamidad might be my favourite Spanish word - not that I know a huge number. It's just very satisfying to say. It means "calamity" which is pretty much what today was, despite our efforts.

We knew that Burgos was only about 45km away - it's been in our sights for days. After the hills, the rain, the mud, we simply wanted a day of nice smooth roads, not too many hills, no great distances, no tragedies, no heroics. What we got was rain, mud, gravel, hills, cold, wrong turns, trucks on dual carriageways, bleak urban cycling, and hail. And Sarah fell over in a puddle.

It started well. The town of Castrojeriz, like so many on the camino have been, is beautiful, with many old and interesting things in it. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures. We met some nice peregrinos at the one open hostel, had a nice dinner, a good sleep, and a hearty breakfast.

We set off along a charming, narrow, but very quiet and smooth road, lined with trees, surrounded by flat fields full of funny little birds which flittered up and down, and even funnier, fatter, grouse-like ones which waddled away on foot.

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Then, the hills started.

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And it just got worse from there.

We tried to modify our route to hit some nice tarmac, but had to turn back to gravel after that road turned out to be the busiest highway we have seen, very popular with large articulated vehicles.

We tried to hide from the rain in a nice café (where we did get some hot tortilla - score!), but we got rained and hailed on after we left.

We tried to take it slow and, realising we were tired, said out loud "Let's not fall over and have an accident or anything." Seconds later, Sarah slips on the (muddy!) track and, valiantly flailing, does not manage to avoid falling in the puddle. Wet socks again.

We finally manage to make it to the outskirts of Burgos, but, scared of pretty much everything by now, we follow an ugly and bleak main road into the town instead of the camino, which most likely was totally fine and pleasant given it was so close to the city.

It then takes us probably an hour to find some wi-fi, find a hotel, pay much more than we wanted to, and collapse.

Upon reflection, I think we were colder (temperatures were -2c last night and barely above 5c all day) and hungrier (not much to eat after breakfast except the shared tortilla and some packet cake) than we realised. Hopefully a lesson learned.

A difficult day indeed.

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