Day 18: Burgos to Hornillos del Camino

I´m not sure why, but I threw up a few times overnight... for the first time in years. We had a healthy home made dinner last night -- just a salad. Staying at a hotel (we do that on rest days ´cos the albergues only allow you one night´s accommodation in each town), our only cooking tool was a pocket knife (not even plates or cutlery) so a salad was our only real option.

I was a little concerned about being sick, because we found out yesterday that a Canadian we´d been travelling with has spent the last few days in hospital with gastro and a fever of 40ºC. Eeeek.

I´ve got a cast-iron stomach, so by morning I was fine and we headed to Hornillos del Camino, 19kms away. This town is barely a blip on the map, and according to the guide book only has a single albergue with 32 beds (compared to 100+ in most towns). We started later this morning, so we knew there was the possibility of missing out on a bed tonight.

About 5 minutes from the destination´s albergue, a tourist bus pulled up a few hundred meters in front of us, and out jumped about 15 fresh people with backpacks and walking poles... all headed towards the albergue.

Now, normally we´re not competitive at the end of the day. Everyone is tird and some people are walking with open raw blisters and wrecked knees. There´s no way we´re going to rush past people like that.

But, here was a huge group of tourists dropped off by a tourist bus, about to walk for 5 minutes compared to us walking for 6.5 hours in the freezing cold, after throwing up all night. Was I going to allow them to take the beds? No. Fucking. Way.

So:

• deep breath: check
• walking poles enabled: check
• determined look: check
• adrenaline boost: check
• stunned tourists eating our dust: check
• beds for us tonight: check

Now, let´s find an nice sunny field to thaw out in while I write this...