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Day 18 - Camino Francés: Atapuerca to Burgos · WCBH

• 0:26
  Good morning. It's day 18. It's March the 17th.
• 0:30
  We have just started our walk for the day. I suppose we're probably a kilometre or so in.
• 0:37
  We're leaving Atapurka, heading towards Burgos.
• 0:42
  Burgos is one of the large stops that we have.
• 0:46
  I think you'd probably classify it as a city rather than a town or a village
• 0:50
  city of Burgos last night's accommodation was actually outside Atapurka we,
• 0:59
  we couldn't online secure what we were looking for one of the accommodations
• 1:07
  that we contacted in Atapurka said look they've got another house it's outside
• 1:11
  of Atapurka you can stay there we'll drop you we'll pick you up from Atapurka
• 1:16
  and drop you back in the morning so that's what's happened
• 1:19
  We were picked up from the cafe in Atapurka yesterday afternoon after lunch,
• 1:24
  and we were dropped back at that very spot.
• 1:28
  So zero effect on metres that we need to walk, kilometres that we need to walk.
• 1:38
  But it was a nice house in a very small village.
• 1:43
  The owner said about 25 people live in the village.
• 1:49
  I think it was called Fresno de Rodilla, and in fact, it occasionally does get
• 1:57
  pilgrims walking through it, but not on the French Way.
• 2:02
  There is a northern path that comes from France into Spain.
• 2:09
  It started in France and St John, but this one comes more from the north, from the coastal area.
• 2:17
  And goes through Fresno Rodilia and then that's link up in Burgos.
• 2:22
  You probably can be panting a bit because just like the song Golden we're going
• 2:28
  up up up again seems to be the last couple of days day one good morning not
• 2:35
  day one day whatever it is day 19 18 it just starts off with by going,
• 2:43
  walking up the mountain, up a very rocky path, nearly getting to the top,
• 2:51
  blue, sunny day.
• 2:53
  In fact, when I woke up, I checked the weather for today, and at that time it was three degrees,
• 3:00
  but the max today is forecast to be 20 degrees, so that sounds really nice.
• 3:11
  I've got just a T-shirt on and an athletic long sleeve.
• 3:16
  I've still got my big jacket over the top of that. But as I speak,
• 3:20
  I'm getting hot. I'm getting sweaty.
• 3:23
  I'm going to take the big jacket off very soon.
• 3:26
  I've already ditched the gloves for the day.
• 3:29
  So just having the long sleeve athletic shirt and the T-shirt should be enough.
• 3:34
  It's interesting just how much the weather can fluctuate here from day to day.
• 3:41
  You know, we come from a place in Darwin, you can set your clock to the weather,
• 3:46
  it's just so consistent around wet season, dry season build up and what you
• 3:52
  can expect the temperature to be, etc.
• 3:55
  But not here. Our host did actually say the winds, if you watch the wind turbines,
• 4:01
  and depending what way they're facing,
• 4:05
  indicating which way the wind is coming from, they can usually predict the weather
• 4:11
  as well. There's a lot of wind turbines in this area.
• 4:15
  And chatting with our host last night, this small town, 25 people,
• 4:20
  had a lot of playground, park, gym resources out in the sort of the open space, like a park space.
• 4:29
  That were paid for by the wind turbine, the electricity companies.
• 4:35
  There's this sport that they play sort of in the north-east of Spain, in the Basque region.
• 4:42
  It's a bit like, I suppose, not what we would call handball,
• 4:48
  not European handball where you throw the ball into the goals,
• 4:51
  but almost like a squash tennis-type game that you use your hand,
• 4:57
  but there are some variants where you use a racket and it's played in these big concrete,
• 5:02
  like the old concrete squash courts it's played in something a bit like that
• 5:07
  you know this town of 25 had one of those it had what i took a photo of which
• 5:12
  which i love it's like this little combo between i think it was glass or a very
• 5:17
  thick perspex and a cage but with a synthetic like soccer turf,
• 5:21
  so you could play tennis and or futsal had one of those.
• 5:26
  It had, I'd say, easily 10 to 12 pieces of exercise equipment.
• 5:34
  You know, you could have the whole town out there and you wouldn't have to wait
• 5:38
  too long to get onto that circuit and use all the equipment.
• 5:42
  There were slides and swings and other things that Chan enjoyed.
• 5:48
  And apparently this has all come from kickbacks from the electricity companies with the wind turbines.
• 5:54
  So that's nice to see that the small village is getting something.
• 5:59
  But the big question we did ask was, oh, so is your electricity powered by the wind turbines?
• 6:07
  And do you get that power...
• 6:10
  For free or at a discounted rate, but no, they're not on power from the wind
• 6:16
  turbines. That goes elsewhere, and they're on whatever they're usually powered by.
• 6:24
  Anyway, not to get too much into the local energy markets, but I thought that was interesting.
• 6:29
  You've got facilities paid for by wind turbines.
• 6:33
  You've got wind turbines all the way around, but this small village of 25 people,
• 6:36
  which you could probably stick up one wind turbine down the street and maybe
• 6:39
  even run the whole place, wasn't actually powered by one.
• 6:43
  Just as we continue to climb, coming up to this big cross at the top of this
• 6:49
  mountain, timber cross, lots of rocks around the base.
• 6:55
  Sherilyn, is this the one? I don't think this is the one, is it?
• 6:58
  This isn't it? This is A cross, but not the cross where you bring a rock from
• 7:02
  home and drop the rock at the base.
• 7:05
  But it is impressive nonetheless someone oh they must be australians who've
• 7:10
  done this have tied some shoes together by the shoelaces and thrown it up at the cross that's a,
• 7:15
  seems to be an australian thing isn't it anyway i just wanted to to quickly
• 7:19
  run through i suppose the different types of accommodation that we've come across
• 7:23
  so far because there is a range,
• 7:27
  i suppose at the lower level bed in an albergue dormitory we've stayed there
• 7:33
  one night That was Ron Cervales.
• 7:37
  So that's where you book or you turn up early, pay your money,
• 7:41
  you get a bunk bed, shed facilities, et cetera, go out and eat your meals outside.
• 7:46
  You might be able to, at best, you know, some basic facilities like a kettle,
• 7:52
  maybe a microwave, not a whole lot.
• 7:55
  So that was fairly dysfunctional, eat your meals outside.
• 8:00
  Then I suppose other, you know, hostels, albergues, hostels,
• 8:03
  but a private room, and we've stayed in a couple of those so far.
• 8:09
  So there's the dormitories there, but you've got your own space.
• 8:15
  And own bathroom as well. You know, that's key for us, own bedroom,
• 8:20
  own bathroom, et cetera.
• 8:22
  So sometimes the bathroom has been shared.
• 8:27
  So there might be a couple of private rooms that are shared the same bathroom.
• 8:33
  So that was sort of albergue hostel.
• 8:36
  Then there is, like you're staying in someone's house, but you get your private room.
• 8:43
  You may get your private bathroom or a shared bathroom, not with the sort of
• 8:47
  the guest family, but with the other pilgrims that are on the way. We've stayed in those.
• 8:53
  We've had your typical hotel room. So small room, couple of beds,
• 8:59
  private bathroom in the room, etc.
• 9:02
  No real facilities. They're not a fan of putting kettles anywhere here.
• 9:06
  But yeah, you're at your hotel, so, you know, there's a counter,
• 9:10
  a kiosk where you check in.
• 9:11
  There's been apartments as well, and I suppose have been my favourite is getting
• 9:16
  an apartment where you've got a couple of bedrooms. You've got a kitchen.
• 9:21
  Sometimes you get a laundry in a washer, not so much a dryer.
• 9:27
  So we've had a few different types of accommodation here. and the apartments
• 9:32
  are not always the more expensive.
• 9:34
  That's what surprises me, thinking that the apartments are going to be more
• 9:38
  expensive because there's more rooms and more facilities doesn't always line up.
• 9:43
  Interestingly, the smaller the town, it seems to be more expensive.
• 9:48
  And the bigger the town, more value for money. I suppose that's just the economics
• 9:54
  of supply and demand, greater supply.
• 9:56
  And we're early in the season, so the demand is here, but it's low.
• 10:02
  So we're getting good prices there. So yeah, a number of different accommodations available.
• 10:08
  And we're still just booking them a few days in front.
• 10:11
  Mention washing you know we're going for the wash one wear one approach that's
• 10:16
  working well occasionally you sort of get to a place where you've got access
• 10:20
  to a washer and a dryer bang just do everything that you've got just wear whatever
• 10:26
  you know a pair of shorts and a t-shirt,
• 10:29
  just while the wash and the dry is taking place that's
• 10:32
  nice other times it's you know you're washing
• 10:35
  things in the sink or you might have access to a washer but not to
• 10:38
  a dryer if you come across a heated towel rail that's gold
• 10:42
  heated towel rail wash things in the sink put
• 10:45
  stuff on the heated towel rail but the the washing wear is going well you kind
• 10:49
  of mix it up a little bit if it's muddy you might wear you know the same pair
• 10:52
  of long pants a couple of days in a row and and have that as your mud pants
• 10:55
  and then after you've had a shower in the evening you've got your other pants
• 10:59
  that you'll keep clean until you sort of the weather improves or you come across better facilities.
• 11:05
  Anyway, looking forward to this hot, sunny day.
• 11:11
  So we've made it to Burgos. Burgos
• 11:13
  is one of the largest cities that we'll come across during our walk.
• 11:17
  In fact, when you get to the edge of Burgos, you've probably still got more
• 11:22
  than a five kilometre walk from the edge of Burgos through to the centre of
• 11:28
  the town where the cathedral is and where our accommodation is.
• 11:34
  Our host advised us to take an alternative path from Atapurka to Burgos,
• 11:41
  showed us on the map. We checked the app. We had it all sorted.
• 11:44
  In fact, while we were walking along from Atapurka, a number of people stopped
• 11:49
  us and advised us to take this alternative route.
• 11:53
  It's basically walking along the river, a nice garden park, a nice picturesque entry into Burgos.
• 11:59
  And essentially the instructions were go over the overpass, go down and around,
• 12:04
  then turn off to your left.
• 12:05
  And then you walk along, you hit another town, take that left,
• 12:08
  and that will put you down onto the river.
• 12:11
  We missed the turnoff to the left. I don't think there really was much of a
• 12:16
  sign. I don't think there was any sign.
• 12:17
  I think there was about a car park, which didn't really look like it went anywhere.
• 12:22
  So we kept walking. We hit the Burgos Airport.
• 12:26
  And then by the time we realized we'd missed the turnoff, it would have been
• 12:30
  adding a good number of kilometers to our journey to go backwards to try and
• 12:35
  pick up this alternative path.
• 12:37
  So we ended up taking the traditional, the yellow arrow signs into Burgos,
• 12:43
  got to the outer edges, industrial area, worked our way through,
• 12:48
  stopped off for some lunch on the way into Burgos.
• 12:51
  And it's quite amazing when we hit the cathedral and then discovered that our
• 12:56
  accommodation, which is a loft apartment with skylights and everything, is a stone's throw.
• 13:03
  We're talking 50 meters max between us and the Burgos Cathedral.
• 13:09
  Tomorrow is a rest day. Really looking forward to that. I think we all need a rest day.