We got a lousy night’s sleep to compliment our cold supper. There was one woman to thank for the entire room not sleeping. I would gladly have Richard snore away in the room–at least when he snores, it’s only in one direction of breath. This woman snored in and out. It’s a good thing the Camino is not in the Southern USA or she would have been shot at about 3:30a when a bunch of drunk, sleep deprived rednecks had had enough.
On the bright side, we got our earliest start ever. We were on the trail by 6:15 AM. That’s AM. It was a little cold and we are going with the 30 minute rule from here on out of only wearing what we think we are going to need in the afternoon. It’s a good motivator to walk fast. We covered the little over 2 miles to Ages in just 45 minutes only to find Rob and Michele already ahead of us in line for breakfast. While we were eating, snore monster lady showed up and sat next to my pack. I was ready to head out to get as much distance from her as possible. I hope to never sleep in the same town with her again.
We were booking. We came to Atapuerca in about another half hour. This is an UNESCO World Heritage site and is considered the birthplace of our current species over 900,000 years ago. In fact, the area has been occupied for well over a million years because of it’s proximity to migration paths. There is evidence of 5 different humanoid species living on top of each other over the millennia. There’s also evidence of canibalism but we don’t want to go there after George’s close brush on the Pembrokeshire.
We stopped for an Orange juice in town and some minor adjustments before resuming our hike. We passed Rob and Michele again on the way up Cruceiro/Punto de Vista, which has a cross (not to be confused with where we drop our stones, which we almost did). While climbing up, Fanny (a Taiwanese woman we hiked with over the Pyrenees and have been leapfrogging with ever since) walked with us for a while before passing us.
We also met and walked with Alejandra from San Francisco/El Paso. She initially came up to us because of Pam’s bunny. She was hiking with her dad, but he had a case of tendinitis and had to take a few days off. We enjoyed walking and talking with her until we got to a cafe at Cardenuela. Shaun and Rob were already there.
Shaun walked with us out of Cardenuela and the first 2.5 miles was road in the hot sun (and it was only 10a). We’re beginning to understand the tradition of siesta in Spain if it’s already this miserable at 10a. It didn’t get much better once we got off the road onto a gravel path running past the Burgos Airport. Pam nearly collapsed from the heat and pain in her hips.
We did survive the crossing to Catanares where we found another cafe and shade. We sat in the grass and drank an “Aquarius” with Shaun. We got a text from George that he was already in Burgos and had gotten us a room for the next 2 nights–we were pleasantly surprised. We thought we might not see him again until December.
There was just another 4 miles to go into Burgos. We had hiked 12 miles before lunch. We chose to hike an alternate route along the Rio Arianzon so we wouldn’t have all road walk into town. We were a little mistaken about avoiding the road walking. I suppose with up to 250,000 people a year hiking the Camino, natural tracks just can’t support that load. Once again, we were hiking on concrete the majority of the way into Burgos. Other than sun and concrete, another thing there is an abundance of in Spain is cottonwood trees. The cotton was so thick it looked like snow falling and accumulating along the trail.
At least we had shade. Once again it was 30C (86F) which tends to slow one down. We made it into Burgos near the old town before 3p but I was irritable and Pam was hurting. I didn’t want to walk a single extra step so I was trying to figure out where the Pencione was that George had gotten us a room. I asked for directions from a local (my Spanish is good enough that they can kind of figure out what I’m asking). He directed us to the archway into the old town where we found George standing and waiting for us. Apparently, he had been following us through our GPS trail on In Reach and had a beer between blips (30 minutes between points = happy George).
We dropped our packs and chilled a bit. Finally, Pam got a hair up her butt after her shower and decided we had to go out NOW. I hurriedly showered only to find her playing on her phone and taking her sweet time getting up to go out. We walked up to the cathederal and were amazed by its size and complexity. We are definitely going to tour it tomorrow.
I wanted a beer, but Pam wanted food so we compromised and got food. At least we got enough food to last until evening meals start getting served around 8. Now that Pam had a little food, we could head to another plaza to people watch and drink a beer or two. After our first beer, it was already 6:30 and some people around us started getting food. We didn’t even have to change locations for food. We ordered food and another beer. While we were eating, Georgie from Scotland, who we haven’t seen since the Perigrino Monument 9 days ago, came up and joined us for supper. We found out she is only 19 and hiking this trail solo–a very amazing and brave fete.
One thing George had been saying all afternoon is “ICE CREAM”. We had no choice but humor him. I could have survived without, but Pam and George both insisted–I’ve always been a sucker for peer pressure. We managed to stay up until almost 9:30.