Camino de Santiago, Day 18: Ages to Burgos

Without a doubt, this was the worst stretch of the Camino so far.  Rain again.  And cold, freezing wind.

Leaving Ages, I walked along the road to Atapuerca.  This is where discoveries have been made of early man. It is a UNESCO world heritage site and one that I wanted to explore further but I had to move on.  I knew that I could visit the museum in Burgos that displays the discoveries of the archaeological dig there.

Leaving Atepuerca, there was a long walk uphill on a rocky path.  The rocks might as well have been buttered, they were so slippery.  At the top, there was a cross and further on a view of a mining operation of some sort.  More walking on the road, through two small towns.

Then hours and hours of walking on the paved road with Burgos seemingly forever away and not coming any closer.  The walk included miles skirting the perimeter of the Burgos airport, then miles through an industrial, factory area before arriving in Burgos proper.

I stopped for a coffee and got an email from Jamie that indicated he was also in Burgos.  Cool.  He’s safe (he didn’t have wifi the night before).  I thought I was close, but no.

Once in Burgos proper, there were still many kilometers to walk to reach the hostel.  It was full.  Many “pilgrims”  had bussed their way from Villafranca (before all the mud I experienced yesterday) to Burgos and checked themselves in to the municipal hostel.  Great.

I was able to determine that Jamie was there in the hostel but could not get to him as I was not allowed upstairs.  A staff worker went looking for him but could not find him.  I booked myself into a cheap hotel and through the magic of wifi was able to connect with Jamie and meet.  We ended up in an Irish bar sharing our experiences of the past few days.  It was good to see him.

Overall, I could have skipped most of the walk today and been quite happy with life.  I stopped taking pictures when I was walking into Burgos because it was so ugly.

But we must take the bad with the good.   And so I did today.

Today I walked 22 kilometers or (almost 14 miles).

Photo Gallery: