Camino detour

Along the Camino are various detours or side trips listed in the guide books. Today I made my own….

As mentioned in the previous post the phone alarm ninja got me started early today. And with a desire for a day off in Burgos I wanted to find a quiet place to sleep.

Some Albergue’s have private rooms with two beds, but none on today’s route offered that; so about noon while on the trail I dug out the phone where I had some coverage and fired up the Booking.com app. Low a behold a nice hotel popped up for 36 euros. Pretty good deal, and it looked to be on the Camino…. after all it was named the Camino del Santiago hotel.
With a foggy brain from walking since 5 AM, I impulse booked it. About 10 mins later I realized I did not remember seeing the town the hotel was in on today’s route. Oh ya not to worry that is tomorrows map, flip the page and ut oh…. it’s 5km south of the Camino route. So I try to cancel and since I booked it today, no dice without just forfeiting the rate.

Next idea, I’ll just take a taxi from the nearest town. One problem siesta time.. no shops open, and since I don’t speak enough Spanish, I did what any guy would do, whip out the phone and Google Maps.

Hey look I can just get there by following this route. Cool only 5 km, no big deal I’ve walked 35 today what is a few more…. 😎 So off I go… up hill again…. Hey this road turns to dirt… no problem Google says it’s on the other side of the hill… on I go…. Hey, look there are some signs on either side if the road saying military zone keep out…. oh no worries the road goes through…. what? Google lady you want me to follow that tractor road…. are you sure.. ” it’s the fastest route” OK, trust the Google…..how wrong could this be…. hey this does not look like a tractor road, it looks like tank tracks…. oh great now there is a mud hole to negotiate… those are definitely tank tracks…. ah trust Google, trust Google… oh nice the road is a road again…. oh wait is that a military base below… @#$%@& Google…. rerouting…. tromp, tromp, reroute, reroute….

So dispute tromping across a military tank practice area, I managed to skirt the base, and make it to the hotel… a little weary.

I only took one picture of the tank road figuring if I got picked up by the MP’s it would be best not to have too many of the surrounding area. 😁 Sorry about the fingers in the photo… it was a long day….

Thus ends my Camino detour… tomorrow I will taxi in to Burgos and take a day off exploring the city, and pick up the Camino again on Wednesday.