Logrono to Burgos - the abridged version

ok, so I've been very slack with ny posts for the last week or so, mainly due to a total lack of computer facilities. but here is the brief run down of my adventures...

I last posted in Logrono, where I met up with Olaf, a guy who has walked from his house in the Netherlands. We decided to cook dinner together and had grand adventures trying to find basic stir-fry ingredients in the world's largest supermarket. I couldn't buy carrots because they only came in 1kg bags, I couldn't buy soap because I didn't need 4 bars. When we got back to the albergue, Jerome and Eric had arrived. I had met Jerome a few times in France and the three of us had eaten lunch together that day. He suggested we all eat dinner together and so my stir-fry joined forces with a provencal egg and tomato dish followed by some egg custard dessert things. Happily fed we went to the dormitory to sleep. Well, we tried.

There were about 24 bunks in the dormitory and I was on a top bunk in a group of 8 beds separated by a wall. The man below me started to snore. And I do mean SNORE. It was deafening. At one point I leaned over the edge and looked down at him to make sure it was real. The other people in my group of bunks were all awake and every time one of them turned over all the beds shook. Then one of the guys started kicking the wall to try and wake up the snoring guy. At about 5am I gave up and went out to the kitchen to find Jerome who'd been there since 4am. One by one, bleary eyed pilgrims emerged.

I headed off intending to walk around 28kms. I gave up from exhaustion after 17 at a place called Ventosa. It was cold and a bit rainy and time to stop. The albergue was lovely, with a fire and an Italian hospitaliara called Romina. I slept, ddi laundry and recovered. A few hours later, Jerome and Eric arrived. This was the beginning of my new Camino family. We cooked dinner together... ok they cooked and I ate. But I washed up.

The next day was glorious, sunshine after almost a week of cloud and rain. I cannot really describe this day but suffice to say that my Camino changed here, and it became something much greater than a walk. I stopped that day in Santo Domingo de Calzada, a town built by Saint Domingo for the pilgrims. I mean he built everything - the bridge, the roads, the hospitals, everything. It is the oldest pilgrim hostel on the path. The day after, I ddi only 6kms in the freezing rain and wind and decided to stop in Granon. I arrived at the albergue at about 11am. We slept in the old bell tower of the church and this was one of the most special places for me along the way. We all sat in front of the fire and played cards, talked, read, drank tea and relaxed. After a beautiful meal the hospitaliros took us downstairs for a prayer session. Everyone read something in their own language, we spoke about the meaning and the spirit of the road, and we wished each other buen camino.

When I woke up the following morning the weather had made a serious turn for the worse. It was blowing a tempest and it was actually hard to walk sometimes. But as someone said to us, if it is sunny, you walk, if it rains, you walk. So I walked.

Skipping forward a few days and we found ourselves in Atapuerca, where they found the oldest known remains in Europe of prehistoric man. We were given food by some German people staying nearby and a Spanish guy taught us the rules for Spanish dominos which made the game much more interesting.

Burgos was the next stop and for me the most eventful part of my time there was my trip to the Commercial zone to buy ski gloves. Yes, it is that cold. I took a bus to this HUGE area with nothing but a carpark surrounded by HUGE shops. It took me about three hours to gt out there, shop and back and all I needed were gloves and coffee. Going to supermarkets and shops is so interesting because I realise I just don-t need all this stuff. Less is absolutely more.

After Burgos we started the meseta, 200kms of barren, flat, treeless fields and plains. It sounds dull but it has honestly been one of the most powerful and beautiful parts of the road. Today we walked for 17kms before there was a town with a cafe. 12kms of that was along an old road that just went straight ahead, no turns, no bends. Time seems to stop and it feels as if you will never reach anything until you literally fall into the village. We have another 3 days until Leon where I think I will take a day off. I last rested on the 12th of October, so I think it might be time.