Date: Thu 23rd May
Distance: 65 km
Temperature: Morning Cold/Afternoon Warm
Mood: Excellent
Left: Burgos 9:15am
Arrived: Frómista 6:15 pm
Santiago de Compostela: 435 km
Highlight: View from Alto Mostelates

A late start to the day due to a totally different packing regime of bike panniers vs backpacks. Hopefully we will get more efficient at it. The day started off as a typical cold, dull overcast morning, but by late afternoon we recorded temperatures above 24 on our bike computers!

WHO SAID THE MESETA WAS FLAT! Unfortunately Jenny had been sold on the bike stage due to the Meseta being flat! Well it wasn’t! Throw in a 65km ride with very steep inclines and severely rutted earth tracks and it becomes a very long day. The longest so far. And we have another 60km planned for tomorrow! A quick bit of research on the next leg shows that there shouldn’t be anymore surprises, but who knows! Lucky for us we weren’t doing this ride 3 days ago as there is no way we would have made the distance due to the amount of mud there would have been with the rain earlier in the week.

Anyways, the scenery was magnificent, particularly at the top of Alto Mostelates, the highest peak we rode/walked. Due to the cold start to spring and plenty of rain, the Meseta so far is still very green. The ride down the other side was bone jarring on the uneven earth track with ruts and rocks. One of us was heard to say they thought their poo was being shaken out of them. Expect another load of washing tonight!

We probably bit off more than we could chew and this ride would have suited Deb and Mark on their fancy monster truck bikes! (We could definitely see them over here doing the Camino on bikes, probably do it 2 weeks!)

Scored another Motel with a bath and bumped into our Irish friends for dinner who have finished their walk for this year. They will tackle yet another stage next year. They broke out in song after dinner and sung us Waltz sing Matilda. Good note to finish off the day!

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