A surprisingly green and pleasant walk today, ending at an incredible cathedral!

An early morning stroll through some poorly-lit forests, then as the grey day dawned the Camino led down to the hamlet of Agés and a really lovely spot of farmland walking both before and after. There was a minor patch of marginally dodgy highway margin walking but was over soon enough.

And the next town, Atapuerca, houses the oldest known human fossils in Europe! l Tough to get tickets for tho – turns out it’s like Glastonbury for paleontology.

Up a nice enough hill – with some knee-shreddingly sharp rocks along the path in places – and to a large cross at the summit. A small plateau leading into the first views of Burgos, still nearly 20km distant.

From this point, a multiplicity of path options, many poorly signposted – unusual on our Camino so far, which has largely followed a single clear route. I picked the greener option up along a ridge, leaving a short section of road walking before a gravel airport road (another option) which led into an amazing riverside stroll.

This river park led almost directly to the cathedral, which is hard to describe and impossible to fit inside a camera. From there, credenciál stamped, onwards to the albergue for the usual hot shower and laundry. In the evening, another special Pilgrims’ Mass, at the Chapel of St Mary inside the cathedral. Later, checked out one of the Easter processions that will take place all over Spain for semana santa / Holy Week.

And now – tomorrow, the meseta!

Stats for today:

• 24.9km
• 213m ascent
• 342m descent
• 3 diversions taken from the main-road route