A Day on Higher Ground

Another of those days where we couldn't get accommodation at the guide books suggested finishing point, San Juan. So we had to walk nearly an extra 4 miles to Atapuerca making this our longest walk so far.

This was our 11th day of walking, so a third of the way to Santiago in days and just over in distance, at around 165 miles.

First light is now not until 07:40, so got the head torch out for the first time today and set off at 07:00. It felt like the first two miles in the dark we got for free.

After about 5km we saw an old boy ahead walking with what looked like a granny's shopping trolley attached to his waist, trailing behind him. It looked so awkward, jarring from one side to the other over the rough ground. He was stopping every few hundred metres, how he got up some of today's 20%+ climbs I don't know. I know there is supposed to be an element of suffering, but that is totally self inflicted. You can have your bags taken ahead for you for €7 a day. What he was doing was akin to self-flagellation.

I knew we were staying in a hostel tonight but didn't realise we were in a room of 4. The other two were a Japanese bloke who didn't speak a word of English and an American woman. In fact there are only 4 nights out of 37 where we are sharing and this is the 3rd one. We had the communal 3 course evening meal, soup, pasta with slices of meat and then a custard dessert, it was all lovely.

There were a dozen people round a large table, at our end were the American woman who was in our room, an Irish bloke and an English guy. As people drifted away after the meal the 5 of us hoovered up the remaining part bottles of wine, then opened a new one that was on the side and continued chatting till it was all gone. It was now 21:30, lights out is 22:00 in these places and I still had stuff to do like finish today's post!! Which I have now done with 5 mins to spare.

Belorado to Atapuerca
Distance: 19.43 miles
Time: 6hrs 45min
Speed: 2.9 mphRead more