Burgos to Hontanas

What an awesome day we had!  The longest walk yet, under cloudy skies with many sunny periods, and a stiff cool breeze blowing in our faces all day long.  But we made it, and without our feet slipping - as this morning's psalm said - thanks be to God!

We left the city of Burgos at 7:30 after a hasty buffet breakfast that I found hard to leave behind.  I was not able to do it justice...oh well.  We soon sound ourselves on well treed paths on university grounds...

...and before you know it we were out in the country again, with pastoral scenes such as these...

We decided to make hay while the sun was shining, so we did not stop in the first village we came to, Tardajos, nor in the village of Rabe de las Calzadas, though the next 2 shots are of this second village.  Notice the yellow arrow in the photo below, which is the most common signage of the Camino.

And it seems that every little place has a water fountain such as you see above.  Since I love trees, I had to take a shot of this lonely and gnarled sentinel...

We finally stopped for coffee at the 21 km mark, in the town of Hornillos del Camino, but were determined to have a picnic lunch once we had hit at least 25 kms.  We were constantly awed by the wide vistas and beautiful cloud formations and fields of grain...

The photo above was our picnic stop for the day, for which we splurged and bought a chocolate bar and a small bag of chips along with the usual baguette and cheese.  Somewhere along the way some poor soul had to abandon one of his soles...

Finally we arrived at our destination.  Even when we were within 500 metres of the village, there was nothing to be seen.  Then we came over the last rise, and nestled into the valley below was the sight we were longing to see at the end of almost 32 kms...

See how happy Diane is above?.

We enter the village of Hontanas and are grateful to find our little hotel half way down the main street...

After we showered, we attended a mass in English in the local church, led by a fellow pilgrim, Ken, a Franciscan priest.  We celebrated communion with people from many different places and heard a message based on Acts 14 and John 15 that was  simple and meaningful as it relates it to the various journeys all of us are on.   Afterwards we had pizza for supper and ice cream for dessert.  Now we look forward to a good night's sleep!  Rain is in the forecast tomorrow....

Distance today: 31.8 kms

Time on the road: 8:00

Total distance to date: 321.7 kms.

Walking days remaining: 22