We stayed in the Dona Mayor Hotel, a modern 3-star hotel with comfortable bedrooms (where everything worked or wasn’t broken) and an honesty bar downstairs.

The view from my room wasn’t too inspiring, but I did sit on the balcony, before bed, with a mug of tea watching the storks on the nearby church.

Today was a relatively short day, mostly walking alongside the road, with the prospect of no rain at all. We started off walking through town with a good view of the main church, The Church of Saint Martin or Tours, and then past a rough paddock containing a grey horse and a black cow, before heading out to the trail. The old irrigation systems are still in evidence, but clearly no longer functioning.

We walked into Poblacion De Campos where there was a man doing sealing wax stamps for the pilgrim passports for a small donation – a nice way to earn a “tax free” income. We then crossed the Rio Ucieza, before continuing along the roadside path and into Revenga Dos Campos.

The trail may be been straight and slightly boring, but at least it was flat and the weather was very comfortable. Next up was the town of Villalcázar de Sirga where we stopped for a coffee and small piece of cake. After a quick visit to the Iglesia de Santa María La Blanca, Mike took the opportunity to sit down with a rather stoney faced pilgrim.

Just a few more kilometres on the roadside path and we entered into Carrion de los Condes with a slew of monasteries converted into Albergues (hostels). After a walk through town, we crossed the Rio Carrion, via the Puente Mayor, to arrive at our hotel in a converted Monastery.

We stayed at La Posada de Castrojeriz, a nicely appointed 3-star hotel not far from the centre of town and with a restaurant just 10 metres down the street.

There was a nice view from my room over the Meseta and the sun came out for a bit as we had a drink and some ice-cream before dinner. All weather forecasts indicated that today would be extremely wet and the clouds this morning led to a scenic sunrise.

A quick look back down our street and a view of the main church above us as we said goodbye to Castrojeriz, before heading along a path bordered by colourful fields towards the big climb of the day.

It was a steep climb up to the top of the Alto de Mostelares (c915m) which is the highest point of the Meseta – a plateau covering a large part of the Iberian Peninsula’s interior, bounded by the Sistema Central mountain range and drained by the Douro, Tagus and Guadiana rivers. Thankfully the clouds stayed high enough that we could enjoy the views back towards Castrojeriz.

The view in the direction of our travel was just as good – it’s hard to describe the vastness of the Meseta without seeing it first hand – the iPhone camera simply can’t do it justice. We descended down a steep concrete path until the ground levelled out and we were back to walking between the fields of crops. The Sainfoin field was particularly pretty and stood out amongst all the greenery.

We stopped at the Ermita de San Nicolás de Puente Fitero For quick stamp in our pilgrim’s passport and carried on to the ninth century bridge – Puente Filtero – across the River Pisuerga. The bird noise was so loud here that I turned on the Merlin app so make some sense of it – Wren, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Warblers (Cetti, Bonelli and Reed), Blue Tit, Serin, Nightingale, Swift, Chaffinch, Greenshank, Sparrows (Common, Rock, Tree and Spanish), Chiffchaff, Song Thrush and a Cuckoo were all identified in a 10 minute spell. Then, passing through Itero de la Vega, we spotted a number of Storks nesting on a building roof.

The hedgerows were starting to be filled with poppies as we headed towards the Canal de Castilla. We then walked alongside the canal for a while – apparently at one stage we were on the Acueducto de Valdecornete but we didn’t notice the canal leaving the ground at all. A nice series of ancient locks and yet another stork in its nest heralded our arrival into Fromista. For all the forecasts of heavy rain we only experienced some light rain towards the end of the walk.

We stayed at the Hotel Rural La Consulta de Isar, which comprised of a bar area, a small dining area and the bedrooms. Mine was spacious enough but the mattress was well beyond its end of use date (everyone else seating also mentioned this – their mattresses not mine!) and the shower screens over the bath were either missing or non-existent. Dinner was very nice and breakfast good but basic.

The view from my room was over a municipal area that was deserted, like the rest of the small village. After breakfast we were ferried back to Hornillos by the owner to restart our walk. As seems usual now, the weather was on the decidedly chilly side with plenty of dark clouds threatening to dump on us.

We had brief, warming, busts of sunlight as we walked along and enjoyed the rolling countryside. The wind turbines seemed to have multiplied since our visit as they sometimes filled the horizon on our left and right. It was lovely to hear the Skylarks singing as we walked along, these are “red” on the RSBP concern list due to the erosion of UK farmland habitat. The Skylarks were accompanied by Corn Buntings in an almost continuous symphony of birdsong.

At about halfway we arrived in Hontanas where, after a quick downhill, we stopped for a drink, a piece of cake and a Hola / Hello to all the folks we recognised from previous days. As we were leaving, it was “coats on” for the first rain shower of the day and then a steady downhill path towards the road into Castrojeriz. This was not the best path to walk on, in places quite rocky, in places flooded and sometimes just plain slippery. We passed through fields of Wheat, Oats, Peas, Vetch and ( a new one so far) Alfalfa. Alfalfa is primarily grown for animal feed due to its superior nutrition over other crops, it’s also used as a cover crop for soil improvement and nitrogen fixation. Humans consume alfalfa sprouts in salads (low-calorie, with vitamin K, C, folate) or supplements for potential cholesterol-lowering and antioxidant effects. We then passed beside, and under the arch of, the ruins of the Monastery of Saint Anton, built in 1146 but these ruins are from the 14th century.

There were a few more, heavy, rain showers, as we closed in on the town and passed a few colourful fields filled with poppies and sainfoin. We could see the Castillo de Castrojeriz on a hill above the town as the clouds rolled across, before checking into our hotel and enjoying a spot of lunch.

We stayed in the Hotel Silken (a nice 4-star!) for a couple of nights as we had a rest day in Burgos. The hotel was very nice, as should be expected.

Nice city and river views from my room, as we were all upgraded to “better” rooms which were comfy and spacious. On our rest day, we enjoyed a very nice helado in the old town and climbed a load of stone steps up to the castle for a great view of the city. In the morning, we took a self-guided tour of Burgos Cathedral; it is such an amazing place to visit. Our afternoon was spent watching Burgos host Almería in a La Liga 2 game, with promotion and play-off places at stake. As soon as we got into the ground, we were greeted by thunder, lightning, hail, and then torrential rain. By half-time, blue skies appeared, allowing us to dry out somewhat, and the game ended in an uninspiring 0–0 draw, but it was a fun afternoon nonetheless. This morning’s sunrise was a nice start to the day.

It was a chilly start to the morning as we walked alongside the River Arlanzon, with some nice views back to Burgos Cathedral, as the sun finally decided to put in an appearance. It was not a warm appearance, but if definitely was not cold any more – somewhere in between!

While the sun was out we enjoyed a nice walk through the predominately flat countryside and followed a convoluted path to pass through a set of busy road interchanges. We recrossed the River Arlanzon vie the El Arzibispo Bridge (Archbishop’s Bridge), which was rebuilt in the 17th century and where king Alfonso VI was said to have suffered a serious fall. Unfortunately we could see the sky darkening ahead of us, but for now, we were still staying dry. As we walked through Rabé de las Calzadas there were a lot of murals pained on houses and buildings, quite a few of which had bible quotes as part of the artwork. We then passed the little church where, 3 years ago was a lovely nun blessing each pilgrim – sadly she was not there as we passed.

We then had a long, slow hill to climb before topping out today at 922m. The clouds were rolling and the wind picking up, so even though we accelerated down the hill to Hornillos, the rain caught us before the dry safety of the bar. It must be the only open bar in Hornillos as it was packed with pilgrims escaping the rain. After a coffee and a (first) piece of Tarte de Santiago, our taxi arrived to take us to Isar where we are staying the night.

There are two starting out photos today, one in front of our hotel and one back at San Juan de Ortega after the taxi dropped us where we finished yesterday.

The Hotel San Anton Abad, a 3 star, is a very nice hotel with a great view from my, very comfortable, room. After settling in we were treated to a very severe hailstorm, accompanied by thunder and forked lightning. About 4cm of hail fell in an hour – we were very glad to have finished walking before that hit us. When we went downstairs to go to the bar, all staff were busy mopping up, and filling buckets, where the reception roof had leaked. The morning sunrise was a nice bonus start to the day before breakfast.

We started walking in about 4c (gloves required) via a brief walk up into the woods, before continuing along yesterday’s forestry path. A donkey appeared from the gloom, but as soon as it was obvious we weren’t about to feed him (probably unlike a lot of pilgrims) he lost interest and started eating the grass instead.

We walked through the village of Agés and a nice mural of storks on the side of a house. We did see one stork feeding in a field, but it was too far away and gloomy (the weather not the stork) to take a decent picture. We then passed a stone stone circle near Atapuerca which is a neolithic construction designated as an UNESCO World Heritage site. Humans have been living in the area more or less continuously for something like half a million years, with the earliest examples of Homo antecessor dating to 800,000 years ago. At the exit to the village, as we turned off to climb the hill, was a sculpture of one of the early inhabitants.

We had a slow but steady climb up to the Cruz de Atapuerca (1076m) along a very rocky path with a cordoned off military area on our left and woodland / fields of Asphodelus on our right.

As we then descended we had a view of the quarry that we had heard from quite some distance away. Bizarrely as we walked closer the noise abated somewhat. The birdsong was impressive again – I hadn’t heard nightingales at all in the higher elevations but as we descended they made their noisy reappearance. New birds heard today included the Common Firecrest, Greenfinch, Serin, Cuckoo, Iberian Chiffchaff, Cetti’s Warbler, Skylark, Tree Pipit, Bonelli’s Warbler, Woodlark, Garden Warbler, Melodious Warbler, Chaffinch, Wren, Spotted Flycatcher, Long Tailed Tit and Orphean Warbler. It is incredible what the Merlin app can identify. A long walk around the edge of Burgos regional airport ended with us crossing the Rio Arlanzón for the final walk into Burgos.

This walk into Burgos is an alternative to the published Camino way, which is largely through industrial areas – however it is not very well signposted and not very well known. We walked alongside the river for about 6km, watching duck families and listening to the birdsong and sound of the rushing river, before arriving at our hotel were will be staying for the next two nights as tomorrow is a rest day.

We stayed at the Hotel Jacebo, a 2 star hotel right on the main road to Burgos. The rooms were fine and they had a “terrace”, which was really a fenced off area of the pavement, that was a nice little sun-trap.

The view from my room was of the main road back the way we had come and I had a spare bed – useful for unpacking and providing a spare pillow. Acoustically this hotel is very noisy, from the road and from the cafe / breakfast area – not helped by 4 mountain bikers who didn’t know how to be quiet (at all hours).

It was a cold morning (about 6c) as we set off with the prospect of no sunshine but also no rain. The clouds were low in the sky as we followed pretty much the same type of path / scenery as yesterday. We crossed the river on a wooden footbridge beside the stone Puente de piedra “El Canto which was rebuilt by Santo Domingo de la Calzada, helped by the holy builder, San Juan de Ortega, in the time of Alfonso VI.

We stopped at the Ermita de San Roque to get a stamp in our pilgrim’s passport (we need at least 2 per day to receive our Compostela at the end).

We walked, briefly through Villafranca Montes de Oce, before heading up a decent sized, steep, hill through the forest. We walked straight past our hotel for the night as we will be getting a taxi back here at the end of the walk. The monument is the Monumento La Pedraja which lays tribute to the people shot and buried here by the forces of General Francisco Franco between July and November 1936.

From there it was a long walk, along a forestry track, continuing upwards for a little more, before evening out with a gradual descent down to San Juan de Ortega where we had a couple of coffees while waiting for our taxi back to the hotel. The sun made an all too brief appearance but otherwise it was cold – hence the coats. We start from here again tomorrow.

We stayed at the Hotel El Molino, a refurbished mill where each room was named after the grains that were processed. I stayed in the Quinoa room. Forgot to take a picture of the view from my room – it was over the hotel’s little courtyard terrace. One of the nicest one star hotels – the owner was like a Duracell bunny and the food was pretty good.

It was chilly but bright sunshine as we walked out of town. Nice to look back and take a photo of the main tower against a blue sky for once this trip. We walked past the Ermita del Puente – a modern church built in 1917.

We crossed the River Ora on the Puente de Santo Domingo and then started on what would be a long path mostly alongside the busy road. Plenty of Corn Buntings making themselves heard as we passed a tall chimney with a pair of nesting storks on top.

On we went, weather behaving and keeping the sun with us – so much nicer than walking in the wind and / or rain. We passed through the small town of Grañon, basically one long narrow street, before heading back onto the path.

We passed from Rioja into Castile y Leon, noticeable by each village having a map signposted outside and another map of the Camino route. Not too many photo opportunities as the path was straight and alongside the road – the only variations being some up and downhill undulations. At the end of the walk, Mike beat us to get to touch the church first and, as the sun was out, a couple of cold drinks in the town square before checking into our hotel.

We stayed at the Hostal Hispano. Despite being only 1 star it was very acceptable and the staff were super helpful, even turning the heating back on for a couple hours to dry our stuff out.

My room overlooked a disused building in the middle of a maze of small streets and cut-throughs. Today was promised to be dry so it was a little concerning that it started raining as we headed to breakfast. Thankfully this was short lived. It was dry but pretty cold as we headed out of town by crossing the River Najerilla.

It was uphill, as ever, as we walked out of town with some blue skies to motivate us. Mike tried to pull the sword from the stone – a commemorative one for the Battle of Nájera (1367) during the First Castilian Civil War.

Today was a day of walking mainly through fields of barley, whet of peas – not many vines or olive trees in sight. But the sun came out occasionally and the views of the rolling countryside were lovely to see. We saw a small Stonechat sitting on the grass (they are only 13 grams) – chatting!

The walk was a long gravelly path with a few climbs but nothing too strenuous. We stopped for coffee and cake at the top of the only lengthy climb before beginning the long descent into Santo Domingo. In the distance, on our left, some of the mountains still retained some snow.

As we had arrived pretty early we took some time to have a look inside the cathedral which was first opened in 1235. There are some fairly impressive mosaics in the basement and the last photo shows two chickens (real ones) – these are supposedly descendants of the two beheaded, cooked chickens resurrected (a miracle attributed to Santo Domingo) to testify in favour of a pilgrim wrongly accused of theft. We enjoyed some lunch a the short period of real sunshine before checking into our hotel.

We stayed in the Hostal La Numantina, on a busy street very close to the old town and the restaurants. The room was somewhat bijou but serviceable.

The view from the balcony overlooking the street and the Ramen Bar. Last night we paid a quick visit to Logroño Cathedral after dinner where we celebrated the end of day 7 and 100 miles walked.

While having a pre-dinner drink we chatted to a group of lads on a stag trip – the groom was the owner of this natty jacket, it seemed only right that Mike should model it for us.

We spent the first hour or so walking through Logroño, having to only make one course adjustment as a bridge into a park was closed, but other than that it was a pleasant enough walk

There is a lovely long pathway (and cycle lane) from the outskirts of the city right out to the La Grajera Reservoir when the local carp are conditioned to pilgrims (and probably locals) feeding them from a small bridge. After this was a fairly steep climb up above a vineyard where the vines are just coming to life with a good view back to the reservoir and the city. At this stage the sun was making a rare appearance and warming us up as we climbed the hill.

Nearing the halfway point of Navarette we could see some dark clouds in the distance but we’re hopeful they weren’t headed our way. We passed the ruins of a Camino hospital San Juan de Acre (from 1185) before heading up to the top of the town and a drink / cake as this would be the last opportunity on today’s walk.

As we left the town, looking back we could see some blue skies and looking forward heavy black skies. Not too long after it was time to put on waterproofs as the heavens opened and a thunderstorm pelted us with sleet and heavy rain. This continued for the best part of an hour, wherein it just turned to normal rain for a while longer. Thankfully this eventually abated leaving us to walk the last few kilometres in sunshine which helped dry some parts of us out. A lot of the paths were extremely muddy as a result of the rain and all the walkers stirring it up. A bit of a random meander through the town found us at our hotel for the night and the welcoming prospect of a nice hot shower. Tomorrow is a shorter day but the weather prospects mirror today.

We stayed at the Pension Los Arcos, very close to where we stayed last time. Bed was comfortable but that was about it. Shower broken and turned the bathroom into a paddling pool and heating not turned on (either to warm us of dry our clothes).

The view from my room was so unremarkable that i forgot to take a photo. It was a very grey morning (rain threatened for later) but with one last look back (also a pretty uninspiring town) and a young calf ringing his bell, we set off on what would be a very long gravel path.

The Camino is so much quieter than 3 years ago, maybe the post-lockdown factor then had something to do with it. The weather was perfect for walking, overcast and not too cold (or hot) with rolling hills still visible all around us. There were a lot of olive tree groves, and the occasional almond tree, among the large fields of wheat as we walked towards Sansol. A lot of peregrinos stayed here last night as accommodation in Los Arcos is so limited – this would explain why we met so few walkers early on. From Sansol it is a steep hill down to a river and then back up to Torres del Rio (sixth photo) with a great view back up towards Sansol.

More of the same as we plodded on towards a coffee stop in Viana. The path was quite undulating – some severe, some gentle, as we started to see more evidence of approaching the Rioja region. A few fields were planted with Vetch – which is either used as a feedstuff supplement or as a crop to revitalise the nitrogen in the soil.

A couple of fields of very old vines and then a very muddy / wet path as the rain, which had help off until our coffee stop, now started to pelt down on us as we walked the last 7-8km into Logrono and crossed the River Ebro via the Puente de Piedra. The Logrono bullring is just visible in the last photo. The rain stopped for the final walk into the town, where we enjoyed a nice ice cream before checking into our hotel.