San Antón to Itero de la Vega

I set off this morning a little before 8, and headed up the road towards Castrojeriz. This is a long thin village, the beginning of which was about 3km beyond the convent and the far end of which was at least another 2.5km! I was pleased and relieved to have chosen to stop short of Castrojeriz.

My companion for the first part of the morning was an audiobook, “How to hear God” by Pete Greig, which is a study into the lessons we can learn from the biblical story of the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35).

After climbing a little to go through the centre of the village, the Camino descended afterwards to cross a river valley, in part on a Roman causeway. Then a large hill loomed ahead, and I could see a winding track ascending the hillside.

My initial hope was that the Camino would head one way or the other around the base of the hill. But as I drew closer, I began to be able to see a few dots, often in 2s and 3s, on the path that went up the hill. My heart sank briefly as I recognised that those dots moving slowing upwards were in fact pilgrims, and that the Camino was indeed the winding path I’d seen.

It was a long slow climb of about 950m (vertically), punctuated with frequent stops to check the increasingly wonderful view, but it was all made easier with at least half my focus on the audiobook.

I paused to catch my breath once more from the top of the Alto de Mostelares, as I took in the views across to Castrojeriz and across to the high plains on the far side of the broad valley (from which I’d descended the day before into Hontanas).

After less than a kilometre on the level, the path descended sharply back down the other side of the hill. The Camino was visible stretching out several km ahead. A road sign said the descent gradient was 18%.

As I descended, I started chatting to a grandmother from California, and we continued talking for some 3.5 km.

I then took another pause in a shady spot to admire the view back along the path to the Alto de Mostelares, as my companion continued on her way.

The Camino joined a small road for a km or so before branching off across the fields towards the Puente Fitero, an important 11-arched bridge first built in the 11th century and subsequently remodelled. The bridge and the river it crosses marks the boundary between the provinces of Burgos and Palencia (and the historic boundary between the county of Castile and the Tierro de Campos). The “itero” within the name of the bridge (and many other nearby villages, such as Itero de la Vega) refers to the hito or boundary stone or marker between the historic regions.

Once across the bridge the Camino turned to run along the far bank of the river, leading toward the small village of Itero de la Vega. Having walked just over 18km and with the next village about 8km further, I decided to stop here.

There’s no longer a municipal albergue here in Itero de la Vega. These, and parochial albergues, generally don’t take bookings and so are potentially a good starting point for someone like me who’s not booking ahead.

I approached the first private albergue in the village and discovered a warm welcome (of course) and that they in fact had no bookings and I was only the third pilgrim to arrive this afternoon (this was at about 1.30pm). Even better they still had bocadillos (sandwiches, which here took the form of filled bagels) for lunch!

After checking in and having lunch, and then freshening up, I returned to the bar for a beer and fell into a conversation with a man in his 80s from Northern Ireland. He and his wife walked the full Camino Frances some 14 years ago and were doing part of the Frances again. However due to injuries from playing Gaelic football (including representing Ireland internationally), he and his wife had walked the first 10 km with other friends, and then caught a taxi to Itero, from where his wife had walked back to meet up with their friends. Liam and I enjoyed a beer together, putting much of the world to rights for a couple of hours before the rest of his group arrived to join us for a further round.

A bit later I spoke to 2 other Irish gents who both now lived in Sydney. We compared blister treatment notes, with a diversion to compare the relative ease of travel around Europe with the vastness of Australia!

In the evening, those of us staying the night in the albergue shared a delicious pilgrim meal together, but with a difference. Our hosts turned out to be Ukrainians and so the first course was soup to a traditional Ukrainian recipe. As well as the 4 from Northern Ireland, and me, we had 1 German, 2 ladies from Colorado and an Australian.Read more