Via Podiensis: To Burgos!

Once again up early in an effort to beat the heat. I was up and packed before 6 AM and out the door ten minutes later. 

San Juan de Ortega is a tiny village – really most of it is just the buildings of the old monastery – and so the street lights ended after less than 50 m from the door. The moon was nearly overhead, but even so it was dark. Still, the asphalt road out of town was brought and even, and the air was crisp. Perfect conditions if you’re going to walk in the dark.

Plus, of course, I had a flashlight. 

After the first curve in the road, the Camino headed back down a rough forestry road into the woods. As it was making the turn, on a whim I checked my tracking app, and sure enough it had glitched again. Fortunately I only lost a couple of hundred meters.

Just a little while later, I was somewhat alarmed to see large objects shambling out of the forest toward me. It turned out to be three horses, just grazing in the early morning darkness. But it certainly got my adrenaline going.

I passed several more as I continued walking. 

After just a few kilometers, the trees began to thin and then ended. I was, I presume, in some sort of agricultural land now. Through a brief dip in the surrounding hill, I could see the twinkling lights in the distance that I presumed was the great city of Burgos, my destination for today. As I got to the top of the hill I was climbing, I could see many little islands of light – villages and suburbs – spread out ahead of me.

I entered the village of Agés at about 6:50 AM. There was nothing open except an albergue slowly emptying of pilgrims. It seemed quite an extensive village, especially compared to where I’ve been staying the past few days. I was willing to stay the extra ten minutes or so until 7 AM to see if any of the cafés were going to open, but there was no stirring of life or light anywhere, so I kept going. I was warm enough by now, though, that I took the opportunity to remove my fleece.

As I left town, the Camino became a narrow gravel path paralleling a road. After perhaps a kilometer, the path ended, and it was roadwalking in the dark. I turned my flashlight to its brightest setting.

I entered the town of Atapuerca at about 7:25 AM. I still hoped defined someplace for breakfast. I found an open shop, and the fellow served coffee. Sold.

By now it was fairly well light outside, and the roosters were competing with a raucous chorus of songbirds, each apparently trying to be louder than the other.

The Camino turned from the asphalt road, and I was soon walking on a dirt and gravel road surrounded by farmland again. Some of it must have been pasture land, too, as it one point I passed a pretty big flock of sheep.

There was a breeze, but it was warm. An ill portent at 8 o’clock in the morning.

As I went on, the road became less and less of a road and more and more the idea of maybe there was a road here once.

The jumble of rocks pretending to be a path soon ducked into the woods – they appeared to be mostly olive trees. I gamely followed, and I was rewarded with about a 5° drop in temperature. I was honestly a little worried for the day, because out in the open it was already warm, and the sun was not yet above the horizon.

As I climbed the gravelly hill, the landscape opened up into a clearing. On one side were falling down fences and rusty barbed wire. The line of olive trees still stretched out to my right. There was a purpleish haze on the horizon ahead of me, where I imagined the city to be beyond the wooded hills. Behind me, the sun rose.

The very top of the hill was marked by simple wooden cross and a sign warning that beyond the rusted barbed wire lay a military zone. The road by this time had completely vanished. The route was marked out with signs every so often, and I was just basically walking from sign to sign as they became visible on the uneven tableland. 

Someone had built a large spiral series of stone circles at the top. The stones themselves were quite small, but the entire structure was immense. I’m not sure how you could get a decent look at it, except from the air.

I reached the end of the little plateau and began to climb down to the valley at the far side. Burgos in all its modern industrial glory spread out below us to the right. Even from this great distance, I could see the Cathedral.

The rocky scramble down the hill was not as bad as I feared, and once I was on level ground, the Comino began following a smooth gravel road that was apparently a railroad track at one time.

After a long, slow descent into the valley, the Camino turned once again to the asphalt road. Fortunately there was a bit of a shoulder to walk on.

I took the road into the town of Cardeñuela de Río Pico, arriving at about 9 AM. Finally, it was time for a proper breakfast. The queue at the café was crazy long. It was so long, in fact, that I wasn’t on the road again until about 9:40 AM, umbrella aloft.

Roadwalking continued through town and past it through the next village. Next, the Camino crossed a bridge over a busy divided highway, through some construction, and then back to the road into a suburban development.

And here, there was an inflection point

Several of us were talking last night about the alternate “river route” into the city. The main route goes through a long industrial area and then a long stretch of urban development before reaching the city center.

Supposedly, there was a way you could skip all that and instead head directly for the river and walk through a lovely river park into the city.

On a previous attempt to do this, I had completely failed to find one of two unmarked turn offs, the first of which was somewhere here. Several of us rendezvoused here and worked together to find the route, which followed a wide gravel road vaguely towards the Burgos airport through a wide shallow valley of agricultural fields.

This was the longest stretch of unmarked trail I had walked since I was in France. In this case I was rather more confident, as there were many pilgrims walking with me on this route.

I reached the airport fence at about 10:40 AM, and the road stuck next to the fence for a while as we went around the airport land. Funnily enough, when the road forked, there was an actual Camino marker.

By about 11 AM, the road finally pulled away from the airport fence and into the village of Castañares, where it became an asphalt street. There was a critical junction in this village somewhere, as well. One path would take us in through the city, and the other along the riverbank. Finding the right path was again a little tricky. I think this is where Eamon and I went wrong ten years ago.

It was further complicated by the fact that there seemed to be two different ways to reach the river route from the center of town. Tara arrived while I was pondering and took one way; I took the other. 

I almost immediately ran into the large group of South Koreans, one of whom gave me a ginseng candy “for strength”.

I don’t know what app or map the South Koreans were using, but every junction where I was befuddled, they confidently took the correct turn. After a while, I gave up and just started following them.

A gravel path took us on a lovely foot bridge over the river and into the park lands. From here, the path was dirt through tall grass and under a sparse tree cover between the river and a highway. Somewhere in here I passed the South Koreans.

Eventually the dirt path joined an asphalt trail under the highway. From there, the Way was well marked over primarily dirt tracks. It was a lovely greenbelt, with grasses and wildflowers and trees just beginning to turn yellow for the Autumn. And so many butterflies.

After a bit, I entered more formal parkland with a asphalt promenade with regular benches running just south of the river. I saw many, many locals (and their dogs) walking through here, but only a handful of pilgrims.

In places, the trees the trees thinned enough so you could see the city across the river. Eventually, I met up with Tara sitting on a bench, and together we walked into the city across the river.

We arrived at the plaza in front of the Burgos Cathedral at 12:36 PM. Perfect for lunch. Tara went to secure her space at the albergue, and I plopped myself, exhausted, in front of a café.

Note: since I am spending tomorrow as a rest day here in Burgos, I will give my thoughts about the city, and most especially the cathedral, in tomorrow’s post.

Date: 02 October 2023

Place: Burgos 

Today started: San Juan de Ortega 

Today’s Photos!