Day 13 - Villafranca to Burgos - 32km (+8)

It was raining and cold when I left the albergue just before 8 in the morning, but I wasn´t cold for long. The way led initially up a very steep muddy track out of Villafranca. When this improved underfoot it still remained a long steep climb up the first hill and I was overheating under my poncho. Thankfully the rain stopped after a while and I was able to take it off. The path led through a nature reserve, a lovely walk through oak and pine forest, although the mud was still a nuisance in places. Unlike when I was coming down from Roncesvalles I now had my trusty staff to keep me upright.

Along the way I passed a monument to a group of local people who were executed in the civil war called Monumento a los Caidos (Monument to the fallen) where people were still evidently leaving flowers after all these years. I found once again that the hills, apart from the first one, weren´t as bad as my guidebook had led me to expect and once the weather had improved it was very pleasant walking along surrounded by trees, masses and masses of wildflowers and with constant birdsong to keep me company. I think I saw only one or two other people for the whole 12km to the next village. Incidentally, I also passed a pair of boots abandoned on the path, with some flowers in them. They must have either caused their owner too much suffering or been too heavy to carry any further!

I stopped for a coffee in that village, San Juan de Ortega (St John of the Nettle) - I wonder where that name came from - a small remote place but on the tourist map as two coachloads arrived while I was there (and once again I was an object of curiosity). The path went downhill after that and then levelled off, eventually joined a road and passed through two more small villages. Although there was an albergue nearby I decided to keep going after a break for something to eat since I´d only done 19km so far, still felt pretty good and my back wasn´t troubling me too much. According to my map there was another albergue about 6km further on which I felt I could get to by mid-afternoon.

I went in to a bar in Atapuerca to have a slice of potato tortilla, which I really struggled to eat. I was finding it increasingly difficult to eat during the day when I was walking as I just didn´t feel hungry. I had to keep reminding myself that I was "running on empty" and force a few mouth fulls of something down. Eventually I found that some fruit and biscuits were usually enough to keep me going and at night my appetite always returned. I was getting used to braving the small village bars, very smoky and with only male customers who tended to stare. It was either do that or go without a coffee or soft drink and an essential visit.

My way now led over the fourth hill of the day which was larger than I had expected. The signs weren´t very clear and since there was no-one in sight for several kilometers it wasn´t until I got down the other side that I was sure I was still going the right way. While I was coming down I startled a bird in the field beside the path. It must have been a skylark because as I paused it rose higher and higher singing its little heart out. Standing there in the sun in the midst of green fields, listening to that song slowly fade away was one of those moments that stay with you and keep coming back from time to time.

In Cardeñuela I could not find the albergue and being mid-afternoon there was not a soul in sight to ask. I wandered around for a while and finally spotted a woman who told me there was no albergue there but that I would find one in the next village 4km down the road. This despite my map and my guidebook telling me otherwise.

In the next village I was again told there was no albergue, only a "casa rural", a guest house which would have cost me four times as much. My options were to stay in the guest house, walk to the next village and stay in a hotel there, or instead of the hotel I could get a bus the last 8 km into Burgos. I already knew the last stretch into Burgos was through an industrial site along a main road, so the bus option won hands down. I was so cheesed-off by now that I set off at a cracking pace, too irritated to feel tired or any pain. By the time I reached the bus stop it was after five in the afternoon, I had been on the go for nine hours and walked thirty-two kilometers and I´d had enough. Luckily there was someone to tell me where the stop was as it wasn´t marked and although the bus was hourly I only waited a few minutes for it.

My luck still held in Burgos as I hadn´t a clue where I was in relation to the albergue I wanted when I arrived. While I was trying to locate myself a couple came up (fellow pilgrims out for a stroll) and asked me if I was looking for the albergue. When I said yes they took me on the fifteen minute walk to it as they didn´t think (and rightly so) that I´d find it on my own. Not only was there a bunk available that late in the day, but I got a bottom one again. So although my day had gone rather pear-shaped towards the end, it had all worked out all right.