Day 16 - Off to the races

Day 16 - off to the races

Belorado to somewhere (Agés)

Day started early as usual. First people getting ready at 5am, I managed to doze again till 6 when my vibrate alarm (on the Fitbit) went off.

Was able to get ready quickly and be upstairs in time for 6:30 breakfast. Really wasn’t too bad; had a couple of sausages, some bacon, a little cereal, toast that had been totally dried out and some juice. Yolanda joined me for most of breakfast which was pleasant.

Then at 7:20 it was off to the races, although not before a German man told me that I was (apparently) snoring loudly through my nose.

I left no knowing where I was going to stop. Basically it was going to be either Villafranca 11.9km, San Juan 24.1km, Agés 27.7km Or Atapuerca 30.2km. I put it down to how I felt about where I was & how I was feeling.

The first hour of the walk was bitterly cold, a mere 4°C. I’m glad I put the fleece on and had one buff covering the top of my head and the other covering nose & mouth. Just my poor hands that were left freezing. The sky though was a beautiful clear blue.

Like the last couple of days I was able to set off walking quickly doing the first 11km at 11min/km … or in other words I walked 11km in 2 hours.

I briefly talked with Yolanda on route when I bumped into her, but I wanted to walk alone today, so left her.

The walk itself was pretty bland with long stretches of not really seeing anything (certainly a good chunk of the 12km to San Juan). Some up hills the slowed me down, and an annoying one where we go up, then nearly immediately down, and then back up again … I mean come on!

Tried to go to the church in Villafranca but it was sadly closed, the place itself didn’t really speak to me so I carried on to San Juan.

There were some interesting little quirky bits along this stretch, people had written bits with stones along the path, including I love U, and there were some sculptures of sorts one of which with tons of direction arrows.

I found San Juan a little odd (arrived about 12:20, left around 12:30), had a wonder in the church and sat and ate some crisps I had with me. Reviews of the monastery put me off so I carried on to Agés.

I found this little 4km stretch quite pleasant and it too had some “art” with stone spirals with balanced stones in the middle, and then later I got to walk through cows grazing.

Started talking to a New Zealand couple who had both taken a year off from their life & jobs to travel. Doing the Camino and then some other things.

We didn’t get chatting too long as I bid them adieu and opted to stay in the tiny (65 people) village of Agés.

I walked up the street and arrived at what I though was the Albergue I wanted … but it turns out that was next door slightly further up the street … doh.

No real harm, both are the same price … although I feel the municipal albergue would have shut the guys up by now.

Ended up In a room of 5 bunk beds, but only 6 of us in this room. Which is actually pretty nice.

Partook of the washing machine & drier (3€) to do the clothes fora change, grabbed a tasty and large bacon & cheese baguette & wine at the other albergues bar before wandering around the village.

Church was pretty run down in comparison to others, but pleasant enough, there isn’t really anything else here.

After the washing was done I spent the rest of the evening just reading in the room. Didn’t feel like even attempting to mingle or seeing if there was anyone I knew about.

Couple already asleep by 21:15, it’s now nearly 22:00 and I’m shocked anyone in the room is asleep with the noise going on above us. People are chatting REALLY loudly, and possibly the floor isn’t thick enough to mask sounds.

Anyway tomorrow Burgos, and I want to do a post of stats, pull some stuff I wrote on FB today into a post.

A tease, In the last 23 days I’ve walked 472km, roughly 346 of the since I started the Camino.