On the camino towards Burgos

Route: Embalse de Irabia – Aribe – Pamplona – Puente de la Reina – Logroño – Burgos

The weather was terrible, crossing the border in to Spain.
Rain.
Lots of it.

I was riding along the embalse (reservoir) de Irabia which I passed ten years ago in 2014 as well, riding the Transpirenaica.  I hope I had better conditions back then.  I stop for a while, climb a fence and try to shelter under a tiny awning of a deserted building.  It’s so tiny that it’s uncomfortable and as it doesn’t look like it’s going to stop any time soon, I just ride on.
Drenched, I arrived in tiny Aribe.  there’s a small Carrefour supermarket here, where I buy some stuff and eat it under the porch of the church.  I eat slow, go back in the supermarket to buy a chocolate milk, go back to ‘my’ porch, look at my maps, at the sky, at the forecast….

This is no fun, and it’s not going to get any better anytime soon.

There seems to be no affordable paid accommodation in the vicinity so I decide to change my planned route, which was going via smaller roads towards Lumbier, Callahora and Soria towards Burgos into something completely different.  I will ride towards Pamplona, with plenty of accommodation options, and within reach today, If I want. 
Heading out of Aribe, I’m still full of doubts.  I actually want to ride the route I prepared.  I stop, several times, check more weather forecast at different places, hoping for a miracle. 
At the junction of the Na-140 and Na-2040, I stop again.  This is where I should turn left.  But the weather is just too bad.  The only clever option is to continue on the Na-140, towards Pamplona, so here I go. 
After a while I arrive at the junction with the N-135, the main road from France to Pamplona. 
I don’t like main roads. 
I go to the side.  
Here, just around the corner, I could go left again, on the Na-1720 which goes nicely along the Rio Urrobi and then further on, after Uriz, I could go….. no….. this is ridiculous.  Just stick to the plan, and go take shelter in Pamplona. 
Be smart. 
With heavy legs, I continue on the N-135. 

After about 5 kilometer, I’m once again on familiar ground.  this is where I joined in 2023, when I cycled from Belgium to Spain.  That time, I left the main road again just before Erro. 
Now, I continue. 
The road is safe to ride on a bicycle.  Before entering Pamplona, I take the camino Frances along the Rio Arga.  The accommodation I booked wasn’t nice.  Banging doors at night, so I left the next morning, and booked something for a few other nights, south of town in Casco Viejo.

On the third day, it cleared out again. 
I followed a small road, a lesser used option of the camino Frances via Etxauri and further along the Rio Arga towards Puenta La Reina for lunch.  Plenty of ‘pelegrinos’ here.  I keep following the camino Frances, which is very much ok on the bicycle, this time of year.

Next day, I pass through Logroño, another major stop on the Santiago route, but I just continue and wild camp a bit after Navarrete. 
I meet several people hiking towards Santiago that I see again and again, day after day.  Probably because of my habit to get up and start late, and theirs to leave at the crack of dawn.

After beautiful Santo Domingo de la Calzada, the weather turns nasty again, with very severe winds and lots of rains. 
In this open land, it’s not easy to find a spot where you can sit it out unseen a full day and 2 nights in your tent, and be protected from the wind as well.  I put all my hopes on a small forest I see on the map, just after Grañón. 
It appears to be brilliant. I pitch my tent right on the border of La Rioja and Castilla Y Leon. Rioja is the smallest of the Spanish autonomous regions on the mainland (the Balearic Islands are the smallest region of them all), Castilla Y Leon the biggest of the seventeen Spanish autonomous regions. 
If we look at population, La Rioja is the smallest with about 324.000 people, 0,66 % of Spanish population while with just over 5.000 km2, it is  1% of Spanish territory.

I listened to the strong, aggressive winds for 36 hrs.  Next day, I saw some large wooden info boards for the camino were blown over.  Under still threatening skies, I continue my journey, passing one beautiful village after another.  Camping spots are not always easy to find, and I’m a bit careful, because I could understand locals are not fond of it, with the thousands of pelegrinos passing, most of them sleeping in bunk rooms in albergues of course.  That’s why I rode a bit away from the official route, a bit downstream along the Rio Oca, to find a good spot for the night.

The next day I met another Belgian cyclist in Villafranca Montes de Oca.  Mattis will continue all the way to Santiago, and probably a bit further to Portugal.  We continue riding together today, along more beautiful trails, meeting more hikers I know from the last few days.  They continue hiking, while I stay put when the weather is bad, so we keep meeting up.

I share a room in Burgos with Mattis, right next to the cathedral and take some time to have a look again at this beautiful town from where almost all travellers turn west towards Santiago.  Me, I go southeast along the Camino del Cid, back to Valencia, but that’s for the next chapter….