22.5 km – 13.9 miles

6:40am to 12:45pm walking time

200 meters – 656 feet elevation gain

It was another headlamp start to the day. The days are getting shorter quickly and even more so when the moon and stars are covered by clouds. I don’t love walking in the dark, especially alone, but I also know I need to leave early so I can make good time to the next town each day.

Someday maybe I’ll take the time to discover this UNESCO site where they discovered bone fragments of early humans from 800,000 years ago, but twice now I’ve just walked past this sign and continued on.

Once it started to get light out, I headed up the only hill of the day into the fog. It was very eerie, especially because at this point I had seen no pilgrims in front of or behind me. I had thoughts of being the girl in a horror movie that makes a bad decision to leave the group. 😂 But at the same time, it was beautiful.

Today was another day where the weather report indicated that I should have decent weather for the walk. Many of us pilgrims have decided that we can’t trust the weather apps or radar on our phones.

I had to dart under the eave between two buildings and I stayed there for 20 minutes waiting out some pretty major downpours. Yes, I have rain gear that I could have put on and walked through it, but knowing that I had a hotel for the next two nights in Burgos and was in no rush, I figured I could wait it out so I wouldn’t be miserable for the rest of the walk. Several others were doing the same around the corner or the building.

Once I saw the sun shining through the rain I figured the worst was over and I took back off on the way. Saw a hint of a rainbow just past the pilgrims in front of me. You can kind of see it in the photo below.

I’m taking a rest day tomorrow, so will get to explore Burgos along with getting to sleep in and not carry 20 pounds on my back for the day. Burgos is a fun city to explore so I’m looking forward to that. I learned over the past couple days that I’m missing out on two different geocaching friends (from Seattle and Australia) being in Burgos – one left this morning and another arrives after I’ll leave on Sunday. Would have loved if the timing could have worked out to meet up with both of those friends. Also reminds you what a small world this can be.

For lunch I found a Pilgrim’s Craft Beer Pilsner – couldn’t pass up a Camino beer!