| I immediately got lost in Belarado after leaving the albergue in a dim light when I didn't see a marker partially obscured by a car. By the time I got turned around and on track again it started to look like rain, mostly in the hills to the north where it was accompanied with some rolling thunder. I don't mind rain or thunder but lightning always make me feel extremely vulnerable. On Seacycle in open water it definitely is one of the few things that can give me a "There be Dragons" moment". In the end the bark was worse than it´s bite and it cleared up as the morning unfolded. It was a pleasant pastoral walk to Villafranca Montes de Oca an old town with origins dating back to 700 BC and located at the bottom of the valley sheltered under the Monte de Oca. The Mercado(supermarket) was off the trail a few hundred metres and I had already started the 1200 foot climb by the time I realized that, but I hate going backwards in anything so I kept on upwards and was soon at the top with a great view of the valleys and mountains to the east. It was then a twelve kilometre walk along the ridge through a pine forest with the trail bordered with purple heather. It was still cool enough for lots of birdsong. By the time the heat comes up you usually only get insect buzz as even the birds seem to take a siesta. About half way along just before one those steep down and then up climbs there is a monument, the Monumento de los Caidos a memorial to victims of the civil war. There are few such monuments to the era, at least that I have seen and even this one is in a quiet area of solitude. The whole subject is rather touchy. Only a generation away and within memory it is an issue the Spanish are still coming to grips with. Regional autonomy issues are huge here with many local dialects and customs being proudly preserved and defended. As a Canadian it frames the whole French and English Canada issue into perspective. As you come down from the ridge you enter the hamlet of San Juan de Ortega built by San Juan a follower of Santo Domingo. San Juan was a major player on this section of the pilgrim's road building churches, hospices and bridges for the camino. His life was dedicated to the pilgrimage trail. The hamlet here has its own legends about white bees which gave it a reputation for fertility and helped it gain patronage. I stopped at the small cafe and had lunch watching the other walkers come in including three on horseback. Deciding it was too early and again with a crowd starting to build I headed down the road towards two small villages, first, Ages and then Atapuerca. Atapuerca is now a designated UNESCO World Heritage site. Between the 1970's and 1990's excavations here uncovered human remains dating back 800,000 years putting it's discoveries into missing link territory. Most of the important finds are now in Burgos at a museum but there are organized tours to the site. I don't do organized if avoidable so that visit was a pass. I came into Ages and at the first albergue found a bed in a clean and very well organized setting. Bushido was already there giving me a smile while on a mat doing some sort of yoga like stretches. The dorm was above a cafe and I didn't quite suss to the implications of that but immediately did my routine of shower and laundry before heading down to the bar for a cold beer. While quietly sitting nursing my drink and soaking up the atmosphere there was a sudden slam at my table as a book came crashing down and standing there with a big grin and pleased at his ambush was Gontranh waiting to pick up our discussions from the night before. to be continued |
Be smarter than spam. See how smart SpamGuard is at giving junk email the boot with the All-new Yahoo! Mail
No comments:
Post a Comment