An eventful day! Snow! I left the hotel after 9.00 a.m. and immediately heard from several people that it was snowing on top.. I met a young couple coming down the steep track wearing capes and shorts that were already wet with sleet. They said they were going to catch the bus into Burgos! I had on all my waterproof gear, including pants, so I pressed on higher and higher to the first landmark: “Fountain for wetting bread” and a small covered rest area.
Monument to the Fallen
I got out my camera for some wintry shots. The snow on the pine trees looked amazing. It was like walking through a winter wonderland. I hadn’t seen any snow for years! I passed a monument to the Fallen of 1936, then on and on through the pine woods, snow falling steadily for 2 hours, then gradually stopping.
On reaching San Juan de Ortega at around 12.30 p.m., I discovered that the Hotel (with only 10 rooms) full – booked out by a party of Irish. I met Mary, the American whose luggage from Sto Domingo had still not arrived after 2 days. She was despairing of seeing it again, having agreed with a smaller lesser known company to deliver it. I had already given her my pyjama top the day before and didn’t want to part with anything else as it was really cold! Her mini day pack was not waterproof and she was trying to dry her gear around a puny little fire in the bar. I gave her one of my sleeping pills so that she could get a good night’s rest and told her to wait till the bar was quiet and get the barman to help with phone calls. I had observed a queue of pilgrims waiting for the albergue to open at 1. 00 p.m., and didn’t fancy staying there, so I pressed on to the next village (downhill, now).
The albergue at Ages had no more private rooms available, so after a beer I went on to Atapuerca. This proved to be an extremely good move. I found the new Albergue El Peregrino with dorms on one side of the garden and private rooms on the other, each side with a small kitchen. After a cup of tea and half a bar of choc from my emergency rations, I went to wait for the special minibus that took visitors to the Atapuerca archaeological site at 4.40 p.m. every day.
With a young and enthusiastic English speaking guide, who switched rapidly from English to Spanish, we went to a site where human remains from 1 million years ago had been discovered in layers of sediment that had been washed down by the river system, as well as remains of many wild animals including lions and rhinos; also evidence of cannibalism of children whose bones had been scaped clean with hand axes. The site had been discovered when an English company had cut a railway line to an iron ore mine. This was never developed because it was uneconomic, but the subsequent archaeological finds were amazing, and proved the existence of humans in Europe much earlier than had previously been thought.
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