Not every Camino day is a mountaintop moment. Sometimes it’s just asphalt, a nap, and the best dinner conversation of your life.
📊 Stage Quick Facts:
- Distance: ~22 km
- Time: ~5.5 hours
- Difficulty: Easy (Mostly flat, though with a long, very gradual incline towards the end)
- Terrain: Dirt and gravel paths running parallel to the main road, entering the region of Castilla y Leon
- Elevation: A long, gentle uphill stretch (+190m / -70m)
The Monotony of the Highway
Good morning, my fellow pilgrims, and Buen Camino! Just to remind you of yesterday’s gorgeous landscapes.
Now let’s move on with today. To be completely honest, it was another rather grumpy, overcast day on my journey. I had about 22 kilometers ahead of me to reach my final destination of Belorado, and the landscape wasn’t exactly making it easy to stay inspired.
For the most part, the trail today runs directly alongside the busy N-120 highway. Instead of the quiet rustle of pine forests or leaves in the vineyards, the soundtrack to my morning was the steady, unromantic hum of passing cars and trucks.
Walking next to a highway for hours can feel incredibly boring, but it taught me a valuable lesson. The Camino, much like real life, isn’t a non-stop highlight reel of breathtaking views and mountaintop epiphanies. Sometimes, it’s just about putting one foot in front of the other on a dusty path while traffic roars beside you. It forces you to look inward for your own momentum when the outside world offers zero inspiration.
A Quiet Town and the Ultimate Luxury: A Nap
I pushed through the miles and finally reached Belorado. After checking into my accommodation, the rest of the day turned out to be just as uneventful as the morning.
Belorado is a tiny, very quiet town, and try as I might, I couldn’t find anything particularly thrilling or interesting to visit in the center. But you know what? The Camino always gives you exactly what you need, even if it’s not what you planned. Since there was no pressure to go sightseeing or explore grand cathedrals, I did the best possible thing a tired pilgrim can do: I treated myself to a long, deeply satisfying afternoon nap before dinner.
Warm Hearts on Cold Evenings
The real highlight of the day happened when the sun went down. In the evening, I reconnected with some of my wonderful American pilgrim friends (Susan, if you are reading this, love ya, miss ya, my warmest regards to Key West, California (with our running joke about how I confidently mixed up two very sunny American states and how Susan confused Cyprus with Crete)). It turned out we were staying at the exact same place!
We all sat down for dinner together, and we had the most incredible, heartwarming conversation.
This is where the true magic of the trail hides. When the weather is grey and the town has nothing to show you, the Camino compensates by filling your evening with the warmth of amazing people. We started the day separated by miles of asphalt, but we ended it laughing around a dinner table, sharing our stories and re-charging our internal batteries together.
After a chill day and an evening of pure pilgrim bonding, I went to sleep happy and genuinely looking forward to my next Camino chapter.
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