Another great day’s walking following a very nice stay in the Hotel San Anton Abad!
We had slowly ascended from 770m in Belorado to 950m in Villafranca yesterday and today completed the ascent of the Montes de Oca to just over 1100m, most of it in the first couple of kms. A very steep climb!
In complete contrast to the last couple of days, most of today was through forest, mostly oak but some pine. After the steep ascent, we passed a monument placed by the families of around 300 people who were executed in the first days of the Spanish civil war. From there we walked at or around the 1000m mark to the tiny hamlet of San Juan de Ortega, where we had our first real break of the day, just over 12km from Villafranca (we had stopped for a couple of minutes for Al to get some stones out of her shoes).
The Montes de Oca, the second and lowest of the mountain ranges we will cross our now behind us!
After a bocadillo and a couple of coffees, it was a gentle descent down through the lovely village of Agés and onto Atapuerca, where we were picked up and taken to our hotel, Camino de Santiago, in the modern village of Los Tomillares, about 5km as the crow flies from Atapuerca.
Atapuerca is the nearest town to an archeological site in which fossils and tools have been found that date back to between 1.3 and 0.6 million years ago, attributed to the oldest hominin residents in Western Europe.
It’s also near the site of the battle of Atapuerca in 1054 between two brothers with competing claims to the throne, and there are some upright stones that mark the location on the way into Atapuerca.
Conveniently, a new alternative route for the Camino has been developed between San Juan and Burgos that runs right past our hotel, so we won’t be going back to Atapuerca to resume our walk tomorrow but will simply leave from here. Should be in Burgos in time for a Sunday lunch!
19kms by my watch today for a total of 267 – the route video is here.
steelewalking 