Day 18 21/4/12 Burgos - Hontanas 31km (glass room)

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We were up early eager to get going...one day not walking was enough.....all the washing had dried...packed our backpacks and went down for breakfast.....we were fairly close to a university and a lot of the students came over for breakfast.....We took a couple of extra yohgurts for the road....seems like everyone does a little bit of pilfering when they can....It was all you can eat after all.......

We started walking by 8am ...quite a few on the track......met up with Patrick as we were going out and ended up walking with him off and on all day......He was a great guy to walk with.....took us quite a while to think of the name of the actor in Shaw Shank Redemption....Tim Robbins....that is who Patrick reminded me of.....He has a quiet stroll about him......I never told him that tho...

I lost my other bandana out of my pocket about 5 min into the walk....I just hope someone picks it up and uses it....I am a slow learner thats how I lost the last one.....glad I bought the scarf

Called into the first pub we came to for a coffee and coissont. We thought we were in the movie deliverence.....expected the banjo's to start playing......10 oclock in the morning and men lined up at the bar drinking...dead animals monted on the wall....the guy sitting behind me was eating something black from his plate and drinking something red from a glass jar (the guys home would smoke something from it) it was that sort of shape.....Have know idea what either of them were and dare not ask......We were happy to drink our coffee's and leave while we could....strange place.

Left town and walked for quite a few kms with a gentle andulating climb. The sun was out which made the walk pleasant. We stopped for lunch with some fruit bread and yoghurt we had bought in Burgos and aquired from breakfast. Just settled down ....about to eat when these verrry black clouds came out of nowhere and dropped their load.....we had to rush behind a building pullout out raincoats pack up our food ......then it stopped and the sun came out .....fickled weather.....

Headed off...nature called.....none of the towns have public toilets the only place to go is in bar's........... some of them have signs up saying need to buy to use the toilets ( funny those signs were in english) if no sign we just felt abliged to buy...so we buy a coffee use the loo just so that next town you need a toilet so then another coffee is required.....or else there is always a tree or bush.....they have a lot of wild bramble bushed with thorns.....We have learnt not to squat right down cause the extra weight of the pack upsets our sence of gravity...once down very hard to get up, as I found out one day......every where I put my hands to push myself to stand was a thorn, Jacqui was to far away for me to call out.....it was touch and go as to wether I would make it. I did ...lesson learnt dont squat all the way down....as you will see on one of my photo's there was another way......A couple of days ago when we were walking to Ages and we had stopped for our coffee 5km before.......I went to the toilet and couldn't open the door to get out ......I rang Jacqui to come and let me out.....no answer.....her phone was on silent...... after about 5min I finally worked out that I had to pull not push the door......Its had been a long day....another touch and go situation......did make me think...why would Jacqui have her phone on silent in the middle of the bush....and I wonder how long I had to be locked in a toilet before she would realise maybe something was wrong....obviously longer than 5 min. All the toilet are either missing toilet paper.....paper towels to dry your hands or a toilet seat...once the seat is broken it is taken off and not replaced and we never go to the toilet without tissues.

Anyway we took our raincoats off and kept on walking. The sun was shining but we were walking into quite a strong head wind....Had walked for about 5km and the clouds started to get black but there was a combination of black clouds and very white ones with the sun shining through them.....quite a sight....nature can be so beautiful and she has certainly shown us a lot of her beauty on this walk...picture postcard views every day. It started to rain...I was in front of Jacqui and I looked back to see if she was trying to put her raincoat on, as we had to help each other, and she wasn't so we kept on going.....We were walking in very heavy rain, cold with sun shining on one side of us and a very strong head wind but because of our merino clothing we weren't cold....we walked like this for about 10km.Told Jacqui it was just a passing shower.....took 10ks before it passed but it did.... Because of the head wind our packs didnt get wet as our bodies were protecting them and the wind kept drying out our clothes ...it was mainly our hair that was soaked.....We have walked in some crazy weather as does everyone on this walk.....when we get to our destination and we talk about todays conditions...can pretty much guarantee....most people will say "wasnt that a great walk today"...something about walking everyday out side in the elements....Its great.....

We arrived at Hontans at about 3.30. It was one of those little villages that had the narrow footpaths/road all in one.....We found a great albergue to stay in half way down the road.....Majority of the albergues are on the Camino route, some may be of the road a little but they are well signed. It use to confuse me when we first started walking, we follow the yellow arrows as well as the shell. The shell will always have the base pointing the way that we have to walk. To an albergue they will have the arrow and the shell but pointing the opposite way. Many times we headed up the wrong road because of it.

Met up with Patrick ...he was staying at the same place so after our showers we all went and found a place to have a beer.....The sun was out and we sat outside in front of the bar on the footpath/road. Nicole turned up and had a beer with us. She said she had walked through earlier today but decided to turn around and come back cause it seemed like a nice place to stay.....not sure what that was about....pilgrims don't normally walk back always forward.....

We had tea at the same place as the restaurant opposite us was full. We were in bed by 10pm has been a long day. Woke up cold during the night but a hot flush soon sorted that out.

Jacqui is still coughing quite a bit during the night and is making her tired.

In most albergue's everyone sleeps together....there are a few that will have male and female rooms and the same goes with the shower /toilet arrangement......the showers never have enough room or hooks to put everything in them as we always take our bum bags with our passport etc. with us all tho am pretty sure they wouldn't get touched so a lot of juggling is always done ......people respect your space and I would be very surprised if anything got taken …..everyone is also very aware of people having a sleep after a walk and are always quiet.

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