Atapuerca

Today started off with a nose bleed.. not ideal, but definitely preferable to it happening once I’d got going.
Breakfast, I have to admit was a little bit disappointing this morning, or maybe I’m just becoming a bit fussy 😬 the orange juice was amazing, but the toast, a couple of bits of toasted baguette was so unbelievably hard that I couldn’t cut it and was terrified i might break a tooth.. that is my biggest fear of happening away from home 😱
Breakfast challenge accomplished and nosebleed stemmed, it was once again time for the off!!!
The first 4 or 5km were fab, with an amazing sunrise, which is always behind me and I often miss!
After that though, it was a really boring walk, the majority of which was alongside the main road, with none of the fabulous scenery I’ve come to expect.
Due to this, it was actually a much quicker walk over the distance today and I arrived in Burgos relatively early..due to my struggles at breakfast, first stop was a cup of coffee and a bite to eat. This accomplished, I set off for a wander around for a couple of hours.
The weather today was decidedly chillier, probably due to it being pretty cloudy and windy, I didn’t get warm enough to take my long sleeve top off, and so had to put my coat on too whilst wandering.
Then the inevitable happened.. beer time!!! Only one little one today as they didn’t have my 2% daytime option 😬
Before settling off wandering, I had checked out where I was staying, so that i knew where to end up when I was done..
Time to go check in.. I could feel the desire for a “Nana nap” coming on…. An hour and a half later..,,😳..must have been due to the church bells ringing every hour throughout the night ( I woke up every hour!!! ) .. well that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!
Opening up my bag to find a leakage from my shampoo wasn’t ideal, but, anything that can leak is in a ziplock bag.. ( I’ve even brought spares! ) so crisis avoided!
Some things I learned today… if you’ve already packed up and forgotten to put your glide stuff on your rubbed heel, toes etc., then lipsol will do the trick.. just make sure you keep that one as emergency foot glide and have a fresh one for your lips!! ( fortunately I have loads of them! )
Hairdryers in the hotel ( yep! It’s a posh stop tonight ) are fab for drying your socks and removing the creases from your cardi..,
Let’s go see if the posh hotel will have vegetable with dinner!!!Les mer

This was going to be a long hard day so left the hostal at 6 - but I might as well have left at 4 as I had almost no sleep as our dorm was noisy! Despite a headache it was a fab mornings walk until we stopped after 12km at Villafranca for coffee and tortilla.
The next part of the walk was steeply up but not as hard as I had expected and then the most wonderful stroll through woodland with beautiful birdsong (including Bonellis warblers, tree pipit, firecrests, and short toed tree creepers). Then there were the butterflies - thousands of them following me along the trail and all over the flowers. Also a hummingbird hawk moth - one of my favourite insects.
It was a truly magical day and once the headache went, thanks to paracetamol, I was in heaven! I’m sitting here in an 8 bed dorm writing this with a cuckoo still singing outside. I feel I may not get much sleep this as there is already snoring and coughing :(
Wonderful meal at a local bar in Ages almost next door to the hostal - the owners only spoke Spanish but I managed to communicate and had a great vegetarian meal - with Caroline, Rachel, Roz, Paul and Nick.
Burgos tomorrow for two days!!Les mer