Today was one climb of 150m in height but otherwise a long downhill to the city of Burgos. We are at an altitude of 1000m and it is common to get mist in the morning. This is exactly what we got as we headed off after our gourmet picnic breakfast. Cool and crisp in pine trees and scrubland before coming out on to open pasture.

Lots of wild flowers again, orchids, daffodils, buttercups and many we didn’t recognise. Also for the first time saw a flock of sheep out in a paddock. They were skinny with black and white faces, sort of elongated panda faces. And they wore tinkley bells.

We stopped for a coffee and chocolate croissant before tackling the final steep part of the climb. The coolness had evaporated, we were above the mist and the sun was beating down as we passed a large wooden cross on the top of the Atapuerca Massif.

In one of the caves that riddle the massif archaeologists found the oldest human remains in Europe. The fossils, discovered in 1994, are of early humans dating from 127,000 to 1,000,000 years ago. Some of the bones seem to come from a previously unknown subspecies of hominid, Homo antecessor, who may be the common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans.

From the summit we could see the city of Burgos, far off and blurry in a brown smog. The traditional route skirts around the right hand side of the airport and goes through about 10km of noisy and dirty light industrial and commercial suburbs. A new alternative route has been developed on the left hand side of the airport and then following the River Arlanzon through parkland right into the heart of the city.

We decided on the latter but fuelled up with bananas, strawberries and muffins before heading off. It was now about midday and we expected a very hot three hours. However St James was looking after us and a nice cooling summer breeze followed us all the way. For two hours we walked along the security fence of the airport. So tedious! We saw the control tower, terminal, hangers, planes on the ground, but in two hours not one single plane landed or took off. What’s with that? Maybe the airport has an early siesta.

The walk along the River was great. Under the trees all the way, at first on clay but then on a wide, sealed walking /cycleway.

I should have mentioned in yesterday’s post that Barbara saw a snake on the path. We see lots of skinks and geckos but this was the first snake. It was mottled green, about 500mm long, as thick as two fingers and had a lump about halfway along it as if it had swallowed a mouse. It was too fast and I was too slow to get a photo. It was probably a grass snake. The snake story was repeated several times at dinner last night over a couple of glasses of wine. By lunch time today the snake was now 2metres long, as thick as your arm, had eaten a rat and was one of Spain’s deadly venomous vipers.

Such is the way that legends are born on the Camino.

Ipod theme tune for today: Summer Breeze by Crosby Stills and Nash

Summer breeze makes me feel fine,
Blowing through the jasmine in my mind.