I waited out the rain that had been pouring all night and left the hostel just after 8 a.m. I left slightly hungry — not to maintain my waistline, but because the so-called “included breakfast” was a sad joke, and since I was relying on it, I hadn’t bought anything else.
It was cold in the morning and didn’t get much warmer as the day went on. Past Burgos, the landscape opened into the meseta—relatively flat terrain with vast stretches of agricultural land. Pretty boring, to be honest. A couple of times I was tempted to take a shortcut to today’s destination, but the Camino signs were right there staring me down like a disapproving parent. So I stuck to the path, out of guilt and possibly a mild case of Camino-induced Stockholm syndrome.
Though really, I shouldn’t have. For one, the road cycling route already follows the Camino quite loosely, full of detours and shortcuts, so one more wouldn’t have mattered. And two, it would have saved me about an hour and a half of misery. It was cold, very windy (yes, I’m mentioning it again), and during the final hour it rained three times—just for a few minutes each time, but hard enough to get soaked.
I arrived sometime after 3 p.m., tired, wet, and angry with myself for ignoring my instincts.
Once I got there, I cleaned and lubed the bike. Poor Greengo’s been through a few rainy days and some rough dirt tracks and started showing signs of distress—like gears not shifting properly. Hopefully, that TLC will get him going. And hopefully there’s no more awful weather ahead. (Though, even I don’t believe that.)
Oh—and today marks the halfway point. Not necessarily by distance, but definitely by time. So… yay?
Today in numbers:
92 km – distance cycled
60 — residents of small village of Hornillos del Camino host over 5000 pilgrims per year, supposedly
10% — of pilgrims quit after Burgos