Bikepacking - Burgos to Carrión de los Condes

Day #

51

State of Legs

:-)

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	Distance (miles)	Distance (km)	Ascent (feet)	Ascent (metres)	Punctures
Today	57 miles	km	1624 feet	metres	0
Trip Totals	2326 miles	km	100847 feet	metres	0

Today's Route

Route So Far

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Travelogue

I'll start today's report with a confession. Nothing juicy, sorry.

I confess that.... over the last few days, I've been feeling a little negative about this part of Spain. The Camino de Santiago, at least the real part of it (imho) intended for walkers following in the footsteps of the pilgrims, was a disappointment. Generally, not good to cycle. In fact, impossible to cycle at times. And average scenery at best (but the bar for scenery has been set really high on this trip!). 

So, to avoid the off-road walking trail I adopted the N-120 road as my route of choice instead. My first day on the N-120 involved a horrendous headwind and quite a lot of traffic with probably half of it large lorries. Never dangerous because of the wide hard shoulder available to me and the careful way the Spanish drivers behave, but unpleasant and noisy. And hey, the Camino de Santiago walker's path runs right by it for mile after mile!

And of course even before I started on the Camino de Santiago, I had my first bike problem with a broken spoke. Not Spain's fault but it is perhaps a factor in the way I was feeling. 

So, I'd been looking forward to finishing my westward journey across this part of Spain, following if not actually cycling on the Camino de Santiago and turning north instead.

But today was a very good day. I really enjoyed the cycling, the weather was (eventually) excellent and the scenery enjoyable.

The weather was eventually good but it started off cold and misty! I was told the temperature had dropped to 10 degrees and I find that easy to believe. I was wearing three layers for the first hour and a half and was still feeling the chill. My usual cycling jersey with a long-sleeved winter jersey over it and finally, my waterproof, lightweight rain jacket. And the scenery? Well, you couldn't really see it.

There are hills over there.... but you can't see them

Ditto

 On the plus side, this part of the N-120 was pretty much empty of traffic. There's a motorway follows the same path across the large plain and I guess most traffic uses that road instead. So, I had a high quality cycling surface all to myself. Excellent!

I stopped for my usual morning coffee, by which time the weather had dramatically changed for the better. The mist had gone, the sky was blue and for the rest of the day, the sun shined but the temperature never got too high. Perfect.

So, I settled in to some really enjoyable cycling on a very quiet road, in excellent weather conditions with some very nice Spanish scenery to look at and the occasional village to visit.

Spot The Mule if you can

Today's destination was the wonderfully named small town of Carrión de los Condes. It's roughly halfway between Burgos and my next port of call, León.  I found the first, perhaps only grocery store and followed my rule that I would eat whatever they sell! Meaning, there's no way I'm cycling elsewhere to find whatever it is that I crave. And the shop didn't really sell much, so I really had to follow that philosophy today. I bought some bread and a big piece of cheese that was recommended by the woman serving at the cheese counter. She mimed something and showed me a picture of what I think was a sheep so I believe she was telling me it was made with sheep's milk. Or something else. Who knows and who cares! It tasted really good. For dinner, the selection was even more limited with none of my usual tomatoes or any other fresh fruit or vegetables. But I shall not starve :-)

The campsite has some scathing, one-star reviews on Google alongside an equal number of five-star reviews so I did wonder what was in store for me. The one-star reviews seemed to be people moaning that the place was "shabby". And it is. But who cares? If your primary concern when rating a campsite is the state of the paintwork then perhaps you shouldn't be camping? The showers are powerful and the water hot. I've got plenty of space to camp in, amongst trees which will provide shade. There's a café on-site to buy drinks at, eat your lunch at, to charge devices and to sit and blog. What more could you really want?

And the place is almost empty!

Lunch

Blog central

The guy who checked me in and showed me to my pitch explained that tonight was the "town party". Yes, another one. Do they do anything but party in Spain?! :-)

So, it's going to be noisy. There's a park over the wall I'm camped by and I think he was explaining that a lot of the partying will be there. And he told me to lock my bike up as it's generally a "crazy night". Oh my!