Population Zero

Laying in bed this morning I could hear the wind blowing hard. The forecast was for 20mph+ winds and rain from 8am, unfortunately the forecast was correct. It rained more on than off and the wind was pretty constant. The first time we saw the sun all day was the moment we arrived at the hostel.

We had left at 7am as we had an extra 3.5 miles today, as again there was no room at the suggested stop, Hornillos, a one horse town with a population of 70 people. So we spent the evening in San Bol, in the middle of the Maseta, population 0. The place consisted of one building, the municipal hostel, run by a lady who comes in at 2pm, books people in, cooks the communal meal, goes home and in the morning comes back and cleans, goes home then comes back in the afternoon and does it all again. The instruction before she left in the evening was for the last person leaving in the morning to lock up and put the key in the post box. A rather trusting set up.

Only two other people decided to spend the night here, a 25 year old American lad and a 30ish year old Dutch girl. They knew each other having met at a previous hostel, she definitely had a thing for him though he seemed to play it pretty cool. So in lieu of much else to do, with no signal or WiFi, we spent the afternoon until dinner at 7pm drinking a few beers and getting to know each other, just like you used to do before the days of mobile phones.

After dinner we climbed up the hillside to catch the sunset but the point at which you could see it just seemed to get further and further away. So we just took some photos from there against the backdrop of the setting sun, the light was amazing.

Burgos to San Bol
Distance: 16.5 miles
Time: 5hrs 48min
Speed: 2.8 mphRead more