Pay Attention and follow the arrows

Day 14 Burgos to Boadilla del Camino
6 and a quarter Hours
316.98km walked so far
412353 steps so far

Today was good. Hot and long.
We transferred from Burgos out to our starting point at the ruins of San Antón. It was a beautiful place to begin. Standing inside the ancient stone walls with the sky where the roof once was, it was hard not to imagine how beautiful it must have been in its day.
We headed towards Castrojeriz and the path was lined with poppies and wildflowers almost the entire way. Early in the walk I had a dream that seemed to be asking me to look for something red and obvious. I assumed it was the poppies, but today I saw entire fields of them in the distance. Red paddocks are pretty impressive
One of my friends gave me some red poppy seeds for my birthday about five years ago and growing them was what started my love of gardening, so they’ve made me smile every day along the way.
Castrojeriz was a beautiful village and you could see how much pride the locals take in keeping it that way. There was a lovely little Intention Tree where you tie a ribbon and make an intention.
I had to think about mine for a while. My intention was to leave guilt behind. Somebody once told me that you should only feel guilty if you have intentionally set out to hurt or harm somebody, yet I seem to carry guilt for things I probably shouldn’t. It’s hard to let go of, but hopefully saying it out loud might make me think about it differently.
We headed out and tackled a pretty big climb. It’s a bit daunting when you look up and see winding roads disappearing into the hills, knowing you have to climb them. But it’s also a bloody good feeling when you reach the top and look back at how far you’ve come. I still love that we move forward every day and everything is new.
A little hilltop food van felt like an oasis. A lovely young couple were running it and encouraging us with the news that we only had 9km to go.
There was a little hiccup though. At no point were we lost, but we did end up somewhere off the Camino, which added about 3km by the time we got back on track.
Probably not the best day for a detour because it was already a long one. Onwards and upwards though.
It was hot today and I had a really sore left calf muscle. I think it’s just overuse and hopefully I’ll be right in the morning.
When you come over a hill and see your destination for the day, usually a church in the distance, it’s pretty exciting. It’s also a bit of an illusion because those last couple of kilometres seem to go on forever. They are definitely the hardest kilometres of the day.
My little pilgrim passport is filling up with stamps. It feels a bit like a good behaviour chart and every new stamp brings a little burst of joy.
One of my walking buddies, Foxy, just massaged my calf for me. I’ve done my hand washing, written my journal entry for the day, and now it’s time for dinner and bed.
Another beautiful day on the Camino.
On another note, I’m showing you all the good parts, there’s a lot of times we are walking through industrial areas or alongside the highway, it’s not nearly as remote as I expected it to be - you’re often not far from civilisation and mobile service here is much better than home xRead more