El Camino Day 16

Today’s walk was from Atapuerca to Burgos. A walk we hadn’t done before, so it was all new for us today. A 22km walk for us with cloudy skies at the start. A much better outcome than the weather predictions we received last night from our phone weather apps. It turned into an enjoyable day as we made our way to the next big city on our journey, Burgos. Ron had discovered a new path that bypassed the factories and industrial area, although we did have to walk the perimeter of the airport, which looked a bit grey and grim.

After our carb heavy breakfast, we set out for the day’s walk with the skies looking very overcast, but thankfully, it didn’t rain upon us. The path led us up a hill next to a military fenced off area to a point where we could see Burgos from the top.

We came across this cross at the top of the hill. Ron and I had carried a stone from the beginning of the journey for another cross monument we were going to place it on but thought that this was the better option for us to set our stones which I’ll explain later in the post. It felt pretty lonely as there was nothing around but open green space and a barbed wire fence to keep us out of the military zone.

We passed through a few small quiet towns as we followed this road towards Burgos. The sun came out, which was a welcome sight from the gloom of the last few days.

It wasn’t long till we started to hit the major roads leading into Burgos with the surrounding factories and industrial areas. The official Camino path goes through a really boring industrial area but Ron had managed to find a more scenic route which took us around the airport perimeter fence to the river and into town that way.

Once past the airport, we cross through a small town and are led into town by a path that leads along the river—a much better scenery than factories and industrial estates.

We pass through the arch above and the cathedral is directly in front of us. Our hotel for the night isn’t far away either.

We must’ve arrived during siesta time as there weren’t a whole lot of people about. Just the one person in getting in the way of my photo above. Our hotel is up the stairs on the very left with a view over the cathedral from the room. Great to see the sun shining on the magnificent building. We’re planning on going in for a tour tomorrow to see the interior which I’m sure will be stunning.

So that’s it for today’s walk. It turned out to be a very pleasant day’s walking with the sun and its warmth shining on us.

Unfortunately this is our last day of walking in Spain. Due to the poor weather we’ve been having and reports of it being worse up and down the track with diversions in place because of snow and hazardous conditions, Ron and I have decided to let the rest of the walk go and return home. It’s been a great experience having done the walk from the start in St Jean-Pied-de-Port but we can no longer justify going forward from this point onwards. Tomorrow we do a tour of the cathedral and a few other things then jump on a bus to Madrid airport with our flight to Sydney leaving tomorrow night. Although we would’ve liked to have done the full Camino in one hit we’re happy having completed it in two stages over two years.

Thanks for sharing the journey with me and I’ll see you soon.

For stats and a map of today’s walk, you’ll find them here.

Buen Camino! 😊