Overnight - Municipal Albergue
I'm winging it somewhat today. I have a booking in Burgos tomorrow, and a couple of 30+ kilometre days after that, but tonight will be a mystery. Burgos is about 35 kilometres from Villafranca so I'm thinking of doing around 25 kilometres today followed by a restful day's stroll into Burgos tomorrow. Meaning a welcome return to an albergue somewhere tonight.
The walk itself was excellent for the most part, with lots of shaded paths and a couple of challenging hill climbs - the second as the heat really started to make its presence felt.
For the first time, I also managed to get lost, missing the fairly obvious track after stopping at the quite poignant 1936 memorial to a civil war atrocity. As I walked down towards a wind farm, I realized I hadn't seen one of those magical little yellow arrows for a while so I stopped and checked the guidebook. All in all, I probably lost a kilometre or three, but no harm done. At least I managed to get a close up look at one of the wind turbines that dot the landscape around here.
I had a break for breakfast/brunch at the small town of San Juan de Ortega and another at Atapuerca for a lie down in the shade before tackling the second big hill of the day.
After a long, exposed roadside walk, Cardenuela Riopico suddenly appeared and I decided I'd down tools here and stay at my first municipal albergue. As it happened, I was the first one there and had my choice of 16 beds in the dorm. And when I headed out for the pilgrims dinner at the cafe at around 6:30pm, after a long lie down with a few naps, I was still the only one there.
My naps meant that I missed what turned out anyway to be the not so important next stage of Le Tour. I’ll get back into it tomorrow.
Weather - Today's forecast was 34 degrees, and it sure felt like it out there. Albeit, I'm extremely proud of my walking shirt which seems to offset a lot of the heat on the track. Regular soakings of my hat in the fountains along the way worked well too.
Health - All good. Nothing other than a bit of fatigue at the end, although not as bad as yesterday given the couple of stops I had along the way. The backs of my legs are getting pretty badly burned with the constant east to west morning walking, but I put lots of sunscreen on today. I must have gone through about 2.5 litres of water today too.
Food - Gel; Ham and cheese empanada (cold) + Cup of tea + 250g packet of biscuits at San Juan de Ortega; Can Coke Zero at entry to Cardenuela; Gel; Pilgrims dinner at Cardenuela café (a sensational big salad, grilled chicken with hot chips, bread rolls, pots of black tea x2, bottle water, mini yoghurt tub)
Expenses - Accommodation - 5.00; Food/Drink - 16.90 Total - 21.90
Walking time - 6 hours, 20 minutes (start 7:25am, arrive at accommodation 1:45pm)
Brierley distance - 24.6km (total 272.1km)
Daily Steps - 40,071
Total Camino steps - 442,701
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