Burgos is a fun city, especially for foodies… but our feasting there – sadly – had to come to and end.
Rather than walk the next two stages totalling 60.2km in two days, we decided to split them into three (21km, 19.7km, and 19.5km) – as we really didn’t fancy a 32km or 28.2km day when the temperature was getting close to 35°C 🥵!
Leaving Burgos saw us walk past its stunning cathedral, a fair few murals, and onto the start of the meseta. Personally, I’d say the “meseta proper” starts after the climb out of Castrojeríz, but I don’t make the rules 😀.
And thus it was that our next day’s stop was Hornillos del Camino – which I’m now told is pronounced “orny-os” rather than “horny-os” 😅.
Hornillos del Camino was much as we remembered it from our 2024 walk: a couple of hostels and not much else. However, last time we hadn’t really paid much attention to Bar Casa Manolo – other than to order a cheeky beer. This time, we discovered it was actually a full-on rock music bar with many cool guitars, excellent music, and a fairly extensive food menu (I’ve not seen beef short rib on the Camino anywhere else 🤤). Needless to say, we ate there rather than at our hostel and bar, which – as with last time – seemed to be a magnet for the town’s over-80 population 😅.
The rock bar also gave us shelter from the very loud (and close) thunderstorm. Most of us jumped when the lightning sound went off pretty much above the bar 😬.
After Hornillos del Camino came a just-over-10km walk with no stop, until we arrived at the “spa town” (well… there’s one boutique spa) of Hontanas. It was a welcome break as we’d had to get out our ponchos for the second time this trip due to heavy rain – presumably after-effects of the previous nights’ thunderstorm.
The break also allowed me to empty my boots, which had collected more stones in 10km than in the previous 16 days combined!
Arriving in our next evening’s rest stop, Castrojeríz, we caught the tail end of more rain… so – yet again – out came the ponchos.
We checked into our hostel and made for a shady spot at a local bar, only to discover that we’d arrived on the town’s festival day – and so were shortly joined by the entire population (split into competing factions it seemed) plus a brass band, all being hosed down by the barman to keep cool while they danced around us 😂.
Frustratingly, they kept going until around 5:30am the next day, and with a fairground (including dodgems) and speaker setup that would put most theatres to shame, we could feel the bass through the floor from a block away even with the windows shut. Not that we kept them shut, given the overnight temperature was in the high teens!
Today we started out from Castrojeríz with a short-yet-steep climb (either 104m or 130m, depending on whether you believe the guide book or a GPS-enabled compass). It took us 30 minutes for the ascent, and we were rewarded with great views behind us and in front of us to the aforementioned meseta that will be with us for the next week.
Other than a brief stop for a field breakfast of cheese and chorizo, the walk to Boadilla del Camino was pretty uneventful.
Tomorrow we head for the floral town of Carríon de los Condes (see our photos from their flower festival in 2024), although given we’re walking three weeks’ later than in 2024, we’ve probably missed the festival this year.
