my playlist for Camino 2022

Back in 2007 there were songs going through my head so loudly I didn't need to carry any music with me. The landscape stimulating the brain and I was off.

This year I've got my headphones for the communal sleeping.

In some albergues it's essential but for most of our time we will sleep not in dorms but in hostals or pensions.

Santa Fe at Cardenuela Rio Pico is one such place.

The dorms are small, 5/6 beds and are 10/12€. The rooms on the other side of the hallway are a double for €40 a twin for €50 and a single for 30€. All are ensuite and if you were to design a bar/ restaurant albergue this would be it.

Miryam is the perfect host and her chef is a wonderful woman cooking great simple tasty food. It always amazes me how good a night out it is when I stay here and it's why I always come back.

We are generally the only English speakers and I think the Swiss, German and French we've met here over the years must have had a tip from a guide book!

After you climb over from Atapuerca you descend to a flat if curvy road into Burgos. It's easy to walk on by as you chase Obanos and then Burgos but settle down and chill.

When we were here in May we'd rented an apartment in Burgos for a week so were bussing out and walking back toward Burgos eland getting the bus back. The first day we got the bus back in from Santo Domingo and the second day we got the bus back in from just after villambistia. I always forget the name of this pueblo but the albergue had just changed hands so we will stop there this year. That then means we can have a short walk to Villafranca Montes Des oca and climb the hill after breakfast.

That with any luck means we will have Saturday night here and so a 30km walk to cardenuela or possibly Friday here and have a nice easy day to San Juan or Ages.

Ideally if we get to Cardenuela around 1pm we can get the washing done and a siesta before it's then dried etc. There is also a nice pub crawl in Cardenuela up the hill and back to the start of town.

All these plans of course go out the window as the hands of St Jacques and the fates dictate. You plan a laundry stop only to find the washing line is full or under torrential rain. The best part of the plan is the fact you had an idea from which you can change or as our north American cousins would say, pivot.