day 37 – draft Wednesday, 11 October 2017 Burgos to Hontanas

day 37 – draft
Wednesday, 11 October 2017
Burgos to Hontanas
31 km today - 295 km on Camino Frances – 1,001 km from Le Puy - 489 to Santiago

This is a big day for me.  Not the distance as such, although 31 km in this heat is not a piece of cake: it is something I often achieved in my training.  Rather I am returning to the town at which, 18 months ago I broke down, both physically and emotionally and was ambulanced away from. I wish to meet the owner and give him a small token of appreciation I have brought from home.  The route breaks rather nicely into three segments, each of about 10 km.
I have been awake for hours and by 07h are dressed, pack shut and in the breakfast room.  And on the road by 07h30.  At the western outskirts of Burgos the track leaves suburbia and so do a lot of pilgrims.  The first break, Tajardos, is just before 10h (a bit slow) and, after loo, coffee and tortilla, I am on the way again by 10h30.

At the start of the descent into Hornillos del Camino a pilgrim calls out my name: It is Nigel from the albergue in Estella, more than a week ago, and he has something he wants to tell me.  We agree to catch up in the town ahead.  And we do along with his companion, Ian, at a cafe. What he wants to tell me is that his wife is arranging for the Estella newspaper for last week to be sent to her.  I reply that I have an electronic copy of the articles written at the albergue and can I email to him, which I do.  It is about 12h30 and I decide to stay here several hours to avoid the heat of the day before moving on.  And so I meet Polly, Grainne (Gertrude in Irish Gaelic),    and    all from Ireland.  A fresh bowl of sangria was prepared as I arrive and needs to be sampled.  This must be a different recipe from that I was used to in Burgos, just 20 k  away.  But I muster my senses and push off just before 16h.

I arrive safely at Hontanas just on 18h.  The owner and I recognise one another and he gives me a six bunk bed room with ensuite all to myself.  I tell the owner I have s small token of appreciation and would he join us as dinner ends.  Dinner follows shortly after and there are 12 of us at the one long table: I get to be dad.  It seems three at my end are walking together, plus the husband and wife from Newcastle, Australia I met last Thursday at Santo Domingo Cathedral.  It is a merry bunch and a good community meal.  After dinner I have the owner join us and he puts his arm around me: for the benefit of all I quickly recite the facts as they happened at Hontanas, describe the koru pattern on the merino beanie and present.  The Australian takes some photos.

And so to bed.

day 37 bis (b) – draft Tuesday, 10 October 2017 Burgos stay put

day 37 bis (b) – draft
Tuesday, 10 October 2017
Burgos stay put
00 km today - 264 km on Camino Frances - 970 km from Le Puy - 520 to Santiago

I wake quite early, do some of my outstanding blogs and go for breakfast about 09h.  I’ve sorted what I will send on to Santiago to lighten the load, in addition to my tent. At the principal Correos (Post Office) for Burgos I land a teller who speaks English.  I suspect my pronunciation of “no hablo Espanol” (I do not speak Spanish, literally I have no Spanish) is a bit of a giveaway. We do the business and my pack will be lighter by just over 1 kg.

Then across the road to the Museum of human evolution.  Entrance is € 6, and with a pilgrims passport € 4.  So I am ready.  The receptionist says I am free!  Seeing my confusion she asks ‘Are you retired.  If so ...”.  There are four floors.  The bottom floor focuses on the diggings near Atapeurca, a village some 20 km to the north east of Burgos.  The displays are well laid out and with some thoughtfulness we are taken back several million years graphically and then brought to the present showing how the land forms and what was under them more especially were formed.  In short, several of the oldest Eurasian human fossils have been found at that site.  The next floor has, for me, fascinating displays about the various hominid (human related) species: the displays cut to the chase with life sized models of each.  I learn that a common feature of most is social cohesion, communal care of the sick and elderly and funeral customs.  The top two floors had stuff about Darwin and other more general material.

I had back to the hotel for a siesta.  After which I wander up a major boulevard to the north east about 2 km, then down about 1 km south west towards the Rio Arlazon and then west back towards the hotel.  My route is a bit like a wedge from a wheel of cheese.  And my two fold purpose is to look for bananas and mandarin for my pack tomorrow and to observe the tenement housing and other buildings on my route.  I succeed in the first but only once, and as I pick up my selection of two mandarin the shopkeeper talks to me very loudly: as I don’t know what practice I have run foul of, I replace the fruit and walk out with a cheery wave of the hand.  My hotel is at the eastern edge of the old town and my route encompasses buildings that look to be from the last 40 years.  Nothing spectacular except for the great sense of spaciousness: wide radiating boulevards with double carriageways in each direction separated by wide grassed areas and with generous connecting streets.

For dinner I decide to look for Menu del dia place closer to the hotel: and I find it.  It is dark and just after 19h and I am the only patron but the only person grunts and waves down to a connected sandwich bar (with an entrance to another street.  The young woman pleasantly points me back to the restaurant: this is some internal issue I cant resolve so leave.  And a few moments later find a hoke in the wall offering Doner Kebab, just as I would find in Courtenay Place and for a lesser price.

Within the hour I am soaking in the bath at the hotel, dreaming of a hot tub I know of at 15 Aotea Drive.

And so to bed.

day 37 bis (a)– draft - Monday, 9 October 2017 Burgos stay put

day 37 bis (a) – draft
Monday, 9 October 2017
Burgos stay put
00 km today - 264 km on Camino Frances - 970 km from Le Puy - 520 to Santiago

A well trained choir is piped through to us from 07h.  A good breakfast is provided and I am gone by 08h.

And I am going to check in to an hotel, and not any hotel but the one I stayed at l8 months while resting before removing to London.  First business to understand why the Orange internet service I bought in Estella nearly a week ago stopped working on Sunday afternoon.  I don’t understand what I am told in fractured English, but I do get the impression it was a known problem.

Then to report to my travel insurer a fall I had last Wednesday, the invisible effects of which do not seem to be moderating.  I had taken what looked to be the path but which led to a dead end.  As I turned about, tablet in hand and looking at others on the real path about 50 metres away, I stumbled on some vegetation underfoot. The only outcome was pain in a small area just to the right of my left armpit.  And then only when I coughed or blew my nose or, I discovered that night, when rolling over. There were no visible marks or bruising.  The area is where the shoulder strap sweeps down the side.  And where I have a shoulder strap pouch stuffed with a pair of thick gloves. Oh well.  The only good aspect of reporting the incident to the travel insurers is I get the name and address of the hospital they want me to use.  Foreboding sets in: it is the same hospital I went to last year.  Then they took one x-ray shot and diagnosed Osteo-Arthritis.  Whereas the NHS hospital took multiple shots and said no to that.  Oh well.  I go anyway and encounter a local who also speaks enough English to get me through admission.  I go to the waiting room and hear some announcements.  But it is not my name.  Wrong.  But my new friend scurries back and sets me on the right path to room Triage 2.  From there I am taken to area Control B and put in quite a full holding room with beds and wheel chairs, other like me and supporters.  Many announcements, and, remembering the first waiting room experience, I check my place in the queue – five ahead.  I have all the time in the world, but don’t want to stuff up their process.  After a while someone comes to the doorway, looks at me and says “Alan” – no mistake.

The doctor has a good approach and some English: we do well, nice focussed exam and she orders some x-rays.  Three this time.  For one I have to put my hands above my head: it is painful to start and then eases off – have I found an exercise?  There are no break or fractures: take things easy and lighten the load. Oh, and paracetamol.  I had arrived about 15h30 and leave about 18h.  I am content with the process, unlike the rushed and, I thought, very superficial experience 18 months before.  Different to the ED at Wellington Hospital where you are taken to one of 18 cubicles when one is available and as the urgency at triage determines and where you can still wait some time.  Here the waiting was to be taken to the nearby doctors room for the consult.  Compared to Wellington it somehow seemed more efficient with respect to the scarce resource: a doctor.

Nightfall is about an hour away and I decide to walk the 3 km directly back to my hotel along a wide boulevard.

I freshen up and go looking for dinner.  This should be a Menu del dia (fixed price) with English so I can order in confidence.  After a lovely stroll though Plaza Mayor (Main Square) I find myself just to the west of the Cathedral and outside the place I found 18 months ago.  After a while a German with an English menu sits down and we talk: he is cycling to Santiago from the French border and expects to do about 40 to 50 km a day.

And so to bed.