Thursday 4th May 2023
Distance 24.4km (15.2 miles)
Villafranca Montes de Oca – Cardenuela Riopico
I had read in the guidebook about the steep climb out of Villafranca but despite this I set out with renewed energy and purpose. I felt the benefit of my almost rest day. It was a fine morning and took the opportunity to take photos of the beautiful sunrise, and pause for breath.
I was walking through beautiful forest for the first part of this day. It was beautiful walking and I was amazed by the variety of wild flowers along the path. It was a day for birdsong too especially the cuckoos which have been a regular part of the soundscape over the past few days. Once I’d done my initial climb the walking was less demanding and I could relax more into my rhythm. Walking like this always gives me a chance to let my mind go free.
I paused at a civil war monument and began reflecting on the particular horrors of a civil war where you are not fighting and killing strangers but perhaps neighbours and those who in the past you would have considered friends.
It isn’t just a memorial, it marks the shallow graves of 300 who were shot and buried the. Such horror in the midst of beauty.
I then came to the village of San Juan de Ortega. If I had done a ‘complete’ stage yesterday this would have been my destination. There was a large church and attached parochial hostel. It all looked so idyllic. It made me think again about my lack of faith/trust in going for a booking yesterday rather than risk not getting a bed. Today though it was just a break for breakfast of a coffee and tortilla. As I left the village I passed another cross – which somehow calmed me.
The forest gradually changed to scrub as I walked on to Atapuerca.
The village of Atapuerca was quite a touristy place because of the nearby archaeological site of some of the earliest human remains in Europe. For me though it was just a short break for a cool drink before I tackled the next climb.
It was an interesting section of today’s walk. On the right of the picture above past the rudimentary barbed wire fence was a military training ground. So rather than the birdsong of earlier my accompaniment was gunfire.
The crosses on the way – of which there are very many, never cease to remind me that I’m not here just to walk, however enjoyable that is but that I am on a pilgrimage with a higher purpose.
Once I got over the brow of the hill I could see all the way to the City of Burgos in the distance. It felt weird that it wasn’t today’s destination but tomorrow’s. Just a shortish distance more to walk before my stop for the night.
This was a day when I was trusting God to lead me to the right place to stay. That kind of sounds more spiritual than it really is. The fact was I hadn’t booked anywhere so I would take what I could get. I was aiming for the Via Minera hostel at Cardanuela. I got there quite early so I was one of the first to arrive. This was I place where I felt my lack of Spanish language very keenly. Check-in was quite chaotic, first he wanted to wait for his father then he checked me in anyway. A few more people arrived and I was sitting on the terrace looking over the valley when the hospitalero beckoned me to follow him. My first thought was that there was something wrong but he ushered me into the dining room where his wife and his father were eating and made me a sandwich with some fresh bread and the meat which they were eating. I gathered that it was venison which had been hunted locally. It seemed that no-one else got this treatment and I felt very privileged at this random act of hospitality and kindness.
I had signed up for dinner and breakfast. The communal dinner was very convivial and got chatting with other pilgrims. I met some young French guys who weren’t staying at the Albergue but sleeping out in the open as they journeyed. The chat continued afterwards. I got talking with George from Liverpool and a couple from Perth, Australia as well as renewing my acquaintance with Alex and Sally from New Zealand. I also met a lovely 70 year old who I first saw doing yoga stretches which blew my mind.