Carrion de los Condes to Ledigos 24km

WORST DAY OF THE CAMINO... this was the day of tears, tantrums and blood! Horrible, no other way to describe it.

Although the land was flat, we set off early with no idea what was coming our way. Sore feet already, we were oh so pleased to find ourselves on extremely rocky pathes, and what turned out to be a 17km, completely straight road, with NOTHING, and meaning nothing, the whole way. No villages, no people, no bars, nothing. After 8km the pain was unbearable, we had a small break beside a ditch, and then continued on the brain numbing, foot stabbing path for a further 9km. By the time we arrived in a small village called Calzadilla de la Cueza we had decided we needed to purchase some hip flasks to fill with whiskey for any further days like this one.

Continued to Ledigos, another rather non existent village, the hostel was in the pub, as was the shop.. and nothing else in the whole place.

Had dinner, in the pub, removed bloody socks and made an escape for bed, decidedly over it and hoping for a better day tomorrow...

Fromista to Carrion de Los Condes 21km

RAIN RAIN RAIN! We thought we had escaped it but after a night of thunderstorms the raincoats were out again! Walked a straight road for 20km, rather boring and quite cold.. happy to arrive at a hostel in Carrion where we can warm up again..

Isabels ipod and camera both gave up the ghost after all the dampness, 24hours of drying and they seem to be back on form.. fingers crossed!

Castrojeriz to Fromista 26km

Beautiful sunrise to start the day... the only good thing about getting up early..

What a shock at 6 am to walk out of the village and be faced with the most unpleasant looking of vertical hills in front of us! Now not just a normal hill, we are talking `going up 200m in about 1km, VERY STEEP! After a few sighs at the bottom, we both found it to be suprisingly ok to get up, and without stopping that is! Impressed?! We certainly hope so!

Another very hot day, no shade, had a break at 19km and decided to continue. After a long walk along the canal we arrived at Fromista, a small town with a cheese museum that had Isabel very excited! Got 2 beds in a hallway of the hostel, but no complaints, they were beds and we slept well!

Hornillos del Camino to Castrojeriz 22km

Another extremely hot day with no shade, not very scenic and a lot of very hard roads! Feet feeling a little bruised from all the roads, and very hard mud.. very much looking forward to getting back on softer ground..

Passed through an ancient monestery that was built over the road..

Stayed in a very ´rustic´hostel in Castrojeriz, along with about 500 flies.. Tried to update blog here also but the internet took about 20 mins to open one page.

Burgos to Hornillos del Camino 20km

After being awoken by some crazy walkers leaving at 4.45am, we set off nice and early out of Burgos. Leaving the city was certainly a lot more pleasant than arriving, and we were soon back out into the countryside. Lots of steep ups and downs, with an extremely dry straight road. It seems to be characteristic of this region to have absolutely no shade - desert like conditions when you find yourself still walking at lunchtime!

Did a serious sprint on the last 8km to do lots of overtaking, knowing that there were only 30 beds available in Hornillos.. arrived to get the one of the last.

Headed to the nearby river and soaked our very pained feet for a few hours before going for a nice dinner in the one and only option being the local bar. Remarkably good compared to what we have gotten used to!

San Juan de Ortega to Burgos 28km

Very exciting leaving this morning knowing that by days end not only will we have reached Burgos which looks nice and central on the map, but we will also be under the 500km mark!

The day gets off to a very spooky start as we walk through an eery forest, a bit too Blair Witch Project for our liking. We pass through Atapuerca (home of a prehistoric man - well his remains anyway) and then on the way to the next village out of nowhere up pops this big hill, how rude. Some very rocky paths on the way back down, and along the way Isabel manages to get lost and ends up in someones farmyard, her adventure moment for the day.

Both back on track we set off to do the last 10km of the day which are the most scenic yet. To combat the pollution issue of this endless stretch of motorway we come up with an ingenius solution.

We eventually arrive in Burgos city centre and find ourselves staying in a very snazzy hostel indeed. just newly renovated and only 3 euro. Bargain.

A little sightseeing, (and yes,we took the tour bus as we couldnt walk another metre!) then off for an early night.

Belorado to San Juan de Ortega 25km

Today is the day of mountains..yes, more of them!

Lucky no one told us how many there was going to be before we left for Spain or we surely would have found an alternative route to walk!

We meet a lovely oldman from Sydney who very kindly shows us a topographic map at the beginning of one of stages. Turns out that we both prefer living in ignorance of whats ahead.

We knew we were going to over 1300m, however, we did not expect to be dropped back down to 700m no less that 3 TIMES, and have to climb back up every one of those 3 times to 1300m..

The scenery is very pretty though, as we get higher and higher there are some very steep ups and downs, before a never ending dirt track through a forest.

Suddenly we leave the forest behind and emerge into San Juan de Ortega which translates to St John of the Nettles. This turns out to be a very tiny little village with a church, the hostel and a bar to its name. Nothing else. Fun fun, afternoon in the bar we decide.

With absolutely nothing to do Isabel becomes increasingly distressed about these disasterous tan lines that are developing, and how to combat them...any suggestions welcome?

The hostel woman informs us that dinner is Garlic soup, a local speciality she tells us. yum. .

The onlyplace to buy food is a vending machine..

After a long search we thankfully find that the local B&B do some food - we dont care about finding it or walking there, the shoes are back on and we are two very happy irish girls knowing we escaped a dinner of garlic soup. Black pudding and salad.. very gourmet!

Santo Domingo de la Calzada to Belorado 24km

There are most amazingly bright green fields as we make our way out of the Rioja region and into the Castilla y Leon region. Pleased to be out of the Rioja region, an awful lot of smelly factories and motorways..not what you would expect!

The last part of the day is mostly along the main road and very windy, which actually makes for some nice walking, when trucks arent whizzing by you at top speed that is.

A lady is handing out leaflets for a hostel on the way into town , so decision made off we set. The town has a lovely community feel to it, everyone is sitting in the square from young to old, and very friendly too - especially with regards the state of our feet!

Azofra to Santo Domingo de la Calzada 16km

Another superbly early start..which we both seriously struggle with this morning..

Theres an anazing early morning sun as we leave Azofra behind and you´ll never guess what we spy on the horizon... yes, that oh so famous pillar, especially for you Dad - enjoy.

Second highlight of the day is the dead fox head that we practically trip over, which we duly photograph for posterity.

After climbing another ´delightful´ hill, we find the funniest English man plonked at the top with his caravan, and his first aid kit.. his life entails being at random spots along the 788km, and bandaging peoples feet and legs, just beingkind and jolly! A rather odd pastime, but Im sure appreciated by many!

When we get to Santa Domingo theres a big festival going on for the 900th anniversaary of its Patron saint, it really would be rude not to stay and celebrate.

After being told it was an entertaining one, we went on a visit to the church, revealing one of the strangest of local traditions, a live cockrel in a cage INSIDE the churh at all times. As you walk around the air is filled with the sound of him cock-a-doodle-dooing. Bizarre..

Navarette to Azofra 24km

Today we are the first up and we were so nice about it too, tip toeing around the room so we dont wake anyone.. unlike what we experience most mornings!

Starts drizzling as we set off, on with the trusty poncho/raincoat. Weather clears upshortlyafterwards..

Highlights of the day include a very cool gravel factory which Isabel was rather facinated by..

Arrive in Azofra to another ghost town, but the hostel is this fantastic chip board construction with our own room (no snoring tonight)! Feels very luxurious which is highly ironic considering the meal we are about to experience. I think we can both safely say it is THE worst meal, not only of the camino, but perhaps of our whole lives. We spent most of the meal torn between laughter and grimacing at just how bad it is.

Do a tour of the village, which takes all of 5 minutes but cant find this PILLAR that Daddy AK is insistant that we find...

Logrono to Naverette 14km

Today we started walking late, defnitly a mistake not to be repeated, as we found ourselves walking through the hot midday heat with neither a cloud or shade in sight.

We did have a gourmet lunch though. In this case I think a picture says a thousand words!

In true camino style we walked right AROUND a very large lake, though it was the prettiest part of the day. The next stage took us along a motorway where the fences on either side were adorned with hundreds of crosses from all manner of materials. çgot a little creepy after about a kilometre of this..

Tired and grumpy we arrived in Navarette and found our beds for the night in El Cantaro hostel. Following the recommendation of the hostel man we had a srcumptious dinner in Bar Deportivo with the jolliest cook/waiter woman ever. She rang this big bell when we left her a whole 1 euro of a tip. Tomorrow we´re getting up super early so not to have such a painful day!

Dinner...

We are both reeling after what we have both declared the ´worst meal of our lives´, yes, that bad. Think pasta with heinz tomatoe sauce squirted on top, beef sinue with a side of uncooked chips, and the most revolting yellow seethrough soup/broth concoction one has ever seen that tasted of metal...mmm. Photos to follow...

Torres del Rio to Logrono 21km

We set off today for Logorno which will be our last big town for a while.
A very steep start to the day with alot of ups and downs and ... well you get the point.
At this point, Isabel is now seriously considering a campaign for bridges.
The walk to Viana is quite pretty, we even find a stone hut to explore, that is until we discover the BIGGEST beetles/cockroaches ever. Disgusting.

We pass through Viana and onwards to Logrono. This part of the day; not so nice. Our first impressions of Logrono are some horrid smelly factories, motorways and a VERY circuitous route into the city. With no shade we cant wait to finally arrive.

A lady at a street side stall stamps our passports and only halfway through the whole thing we realise we are being filmed! The queue for the hostel is a long one but patient girls that we are we finally get a bed 2 hours later. We end the day with some exploration of the city a yummy pasta dinner cooked in the hostel kitchen, and the satisfaction of knowing that we are now under the 600km mark.

Villamayor de Monjardin to Torres del Rio 21km

After a nice breakfast in the hostel (never had before!), we headed off at 6am in the direction of Torres del Rio. After the previous day being quite strenuous we were pleased to find for the first time ever that the path seemed to find its way around the mountains, rather than sending us up and down!

The tracks were good, and weather nice, so we headed on to the town of Los Arcos as a good pace.
For the first time we were in overtaking mode, with some people even commenting that we were getting speedy!

Arrived in Los Arcos and found a little ´panaderia´ in an old ladys house where we bought some fresh bread to put in the rucksacks for breakfasts and lunches.

Heading on again we found our way across to Torres del Rio via a small town called Los Arcos.

Arrived at a hostel before 12pm and literally did nothing but rest our legs for the rest of the day.

Cooked some dinner at about 4pm and were tucked up and asleep in bed by 8pm!

Cirauqui to Villamayor de Monjardin 25km

We awoke in Cirauqui to a misty morning, setting off in the dark we presumed it was drizzle that was about to clear.. hoping for not too hot a day we had a little shock at what was in store for us..

As we travelled down an old roman road the rain started, getting heavier and heavier, torrential in a way we had never experienced before. With uneven rocky paths, decending steeply, slushy mud pouring down them it was a task and a half to get down in one piece. We continued on through flooded paths until we found an under road tunnel where we had a moments respite.. and a small picnic of stale bread and bruised pears!

We continued for 14km over very steep and hilly tracks, to the town of Estella. Entering it by the river we stopped for a lunch break before heading on to Villamayor. Weather had eased at this point but was still very overcast and grey. Clothes had dried out a bit and we were ready for a little more pain before bed!

After climbing a 2km hill out of Estella we found what can only be described as the BEST FOUNTAIN EVER! Located beside the Monastery of Irache is the ´Fuente Del Vino´. When we are used to filling our bottles with water from fountains, and drinking about 2 litres a day, we could only think we were hallucinating when we found a fountain that poured nothing other than delicious wine!!

After our little boost we continued on, the path sending us up and down many more hills, Isabel constantly pondering why bridges were not built! We arrived into Villamayor to a huge welcome in a voluntary hostel from a lovely guy called David. They were really hospitable and kind, even though we were about 60 people lined up in a converted cow shed to sleep!

We met some nice Australian guys tonight, so had dinner with them and went and visited the ´sights´ of this little hilltop town.