Day 19. Burgos to Carrion de Los Condes. 58 miles

Day 19. Burgos to Carrion de Los Condos. 58 miles.

Navigating through Burgos was straight forward for me on the bike, and would have been for Brendan except that part of the road had been closed by the time he came along, for a marathon. No diversions in place, so he had to try several side roads. This meant that I got to Olmillos de Sadamon, our agreed meeting place before Brendan. A small village with enormous church and a ruined castle. I ate a sandwich here then moved on to Villasandino where we coincided. Lunch was in Melgar de Fernamental, a small town with a charming central square. There were loads of cafés and restaurants, but almost no customers. Maybe because it is Sunday today. Melgar is just off the autovia, so maybe during the week it picks up passing trade.

I was amused, when stopping for a swig of water and an oatcake (yes, there are still some left) to be overtaken by a huge convoy of cyclists, complete with motorbike outriders, cars with full headlights on, ambulance and support van. I seem to be managing with just one support person and vehicle.

By the way, I cycled the whole way along the N-120 road, now dead quiet due to the parallel motorway, which itself was dead quiet.

Near Osorno la Mayor, the Santander to Palencia and Burgos to Leon motorways crossed at right angles, amid a clover leaf of slip roads. The N-120 wove its way through this intersection. But I seemed to be the only person using the road today. The simple fact is that round here there is a very low population. The land is a gently rolling upland plain, probably quite dry in the summer. There are vast fields of wheat wind sunflowers, but hardly any villages, and no isolated farms. At one point I noticed that I could see no houses and or cars. In the far distance to the north are mountains with snow patches still on them.

Weather today was sunny with some cloud giving shade during the morning. Moderate wind from the north east i.e mainly behind me. By mid afternoon, the wind had strengthened and it took both of us to get the tent up, me holding on to the guy ropes while Brendan did the pegging. Normally, the tent can. Be put up by one person.

Good site though.

A cafe in Carrion de los Condes

Day 18. Santo Domingo de la Calzada to Burgos. 46 miles

Day 18. Santo Domingo de la Calzada to Burgos. 46 miles.

Although the Parador hotel in Santo Domingo was lovely, I didn't get much sleep. Partly I'd had a coffee after my evening meal at a small cafe that did a €10 menu, and partly because of the clock tower in the cathedral square just outside our window which struck the quarters as well as the hours.

The breakfast was a huge buffet including cold meats and fish, salami, bacon, eggs, fish,  2 kinds of tortilla, fruit, breads, pastries, yogurt, cereals, etc. A great foundation for a day on the bike.

It was cooler today, and ideal cycling conditions. My route, following German guide book veered off the main road and was mostly flat and straight and took me past a village where they specialise on growing pimentos, and pasta huge sodium sulphate mine. I think that is gypsum.

We met at Belorado where my loop road joined back into the main N-120. Despite being a road that is in process of conversion to a motorway, the traffic level was similar to a Country B road in the UK, a gradual climb as far as the village of Villafranca-Montes de Oca. Turning a corner I was faced with a sign saying gradient 16% for 3 km. similar to the Pyrenees but shorter. The summit was at Puerto de la Pedraja at 1150 metres, so a bit higher than Scafell  Pike. But remember the area round here is mainly at about 800-900 metres, so 1150 isn't that enormous. Brendan had found a delightful picnic spot just past the summit, opposite a ruined chapel, and next to an ancient well with water spouting from a carved sheep's head.The picnickers seats were built from old stone kilometre posts, I read somewhere.

The rest of the route to Burgos was gently downhill and I managed probably 30 mph most of the way. Great campsite. But then the ideal day disintegrated. I could not find my Pilgrim a Record. That's the wee booklet which I got from the Confraternity of Saint James to record my journey by having motels, churches, campsites, ECG, stamp it. A phone call to the hotel revealed that I'd left it in our room. So back to Santo Domingo in the car to pick it up. I was very relieved the book had turned up. I was also relieved to know that the section of the main road I'd bypassed had quite a few hills on it, so probably I'd made the right decision.