Day 3, Belvorado to Villalcázar. Camino Santiago.

belvorado to Villalcázar.

Now covered 400km in total. The day started great. We paid 3 euros for a breakfast consisting mainly of bread, it was cack but milky coffee on tap woke me up. I then took on the task of getting back into very wet clothes. Not nice. A few of the walkers had set off before us and were on the outskirts of town as we passed. Already drenched. We started the climb to Burgos. With 40ish km’s to go and a climb of 6% in places we just got stuck in. I’d started to have problems with the wet clothes as the water running from my front made my leggings rub on the thighs. This went through the skin and started to bleed the night before. So I split down a plastic bag and covered each thigh with it under the shorts, meaning hopefully no more rubbing and it would get a chance to heal. It did work but i had to keep checking to see they hadnt shifted. My waterproof socks worked. So much that the water hitting my calves ran down my leg and into the top of the sock. With no where to go the water pooled until my foot was swimming. Only at night was i able to tip the water out. The water soon warmed to the temperature of my feet anyway. So i left it.

Into Burgos was nice, greeted by a roundabout sculpture of the Camino shell and the usual Spanish mix of new/old and concrete jungle architecture. We stopped for dinner at a bar which had a pavement enclosure with seats in a plaza near a beautiful old church. It meant I could keep an eye on the bikes, a security conscious state of mind which I’ve explained a dozen times to the bemused over here as because I come from “Manchester”. “Ah…. No further explanation needed…” Warm meal was like a ray of sunshine and the Sunday back drop of a procession going passed beating drums was pleasant but because we were still outside my core temperature dropped. It wasn’t then until the outskirts of the city and the massive climb that I stopped shivering a little.

So we plugged away. Set ourselves a goal of another 100km and as we reached the border between Burgos/Leon the rain stopped and the terrain flattened out. we realised it would be doable. My jacket dried a little in the wind (though everything else remained soaked, all on the washing line outside now, no sounds of rain either which is promising!) anyway we reached a bridge which is featured in all the guidebooks (I’ll update later) and stopped at a little Camino seating area and monument. So Glen grabbed his toilet paper and ran into the woods (think like a bear) and Miles and I took photographs of the old bridge, each other, the bikes, In fact anything just to celebrate being able to get the cameras out again in the dry, I even tried to find Glen but he was too well hidden (think like a bear) and we pedalled through very different countryside right up to the 400km mark. When I slammed on the brakes. Right outside an Albergue. Which is within a hidden courtyard. The “Manchester” in me has made me lock up the bikes. The Camino in them meant there are no keys and the doors are unlocked. I need to chill.

Hunger woke me up. And numb fingers. This area is the start of the pilgrim tracks or “pilgrim autopistas”! And we’ve seen them run alongside the road already. Hoping we’ll make some distance today. After seeing the renewed figures yesterday we’ll need at least 150km per day to stay on target. And the highest climb at Ferro de Cruz is yet to come…..