Spain: the further adventures

So what do you do when a family bikepacking adventure is equal parts agony and ecstasy? Why, you write a book about it of course! 

Tentative title: Camino sock wars

There was so many little things, so many details that happened during our trip in Spain while travelling to and along the amazing Camino de Santiago that it doesn’t lend itself to a quick blog post. Over the past 6 months when not just simply living the tedious moments of everyday existence, we have been jotting down all the details of our month in Spain, trying to suitably encapsulate the moments in words before the passing of time discolours the intensity and erodes the definition of our memories. 

The book is at least half a year away, so below is a brief overview of our time in Spain.

History is everywhere in Spain, as we are citizens of the new world, Medieval towns centres were entrancing.

Canals and their accompanying gravel roads provided a quiet link between town centres as we made our way across northern Spain toward the Camino de Santiago.

 

As good as online maps and navigation apps are, always question when a displayed route goes over blue water. This de-couplement of the trailer and stretching of legs occurred because we encountered a drainage channel when "navigating" a "road" through marshland beside a lake.  Please note the dear little valkyrie wearing the purple slipper shoes and the total abandonment of socks. It was un-seasonally cold weather for us Antipodean campers and this added to the severity and frequency of unhappy toddler incidents.

As we neared the Camino a colder front blew down from France. We missed snow by 25km. It may look nice and sunny in this Medieval church courtyard, but there were gales and sleety flurries around us as we headed for Pamplona. We would like to say that it was wonderful to reach Pamplona and to finally be on the Camino Frances, but we could only say that if we ignored the misadventures had finding accommodation, the bout of toddler food poisoning and the continued challenging weather. Oh! of note is how darn accurate those weather apps are in Spain. Rain fell within 5 to 10 minutes of the predicted time!

Much to the delight of other pilgrims on the Camino, we battled the unseasonal cold weather and pottered along the trail, noticing the snow flurries on the ridge line in the distance and seeking shelter behind the mountain peak from the blustery winds.

Some days in the middle of our jaunt where what we expected of Spain in Spring, and we were able to understand why the cold water of these ancient baths were enjoyed. Unfortunately this wasn't to last.

 Another bout of food poisoning for our dear toddler was just starting to end by the time this side road picnic occurred, and we recognised that a difficult decision needed to be made. We were behind our travel schedule and our dear little valkyrie needed rest time.

Our solution was to temporarily split up. The girls were going to bus ahead and I was to blast along 220km in two days to meet them in Astorga. It was mad for us both. I smashed out 160km in the first day trying the cover as much ground before the next wave of forecast rain hit, while "D" wrangled bike, unfamiliar trailer and our sick little one, all while searching for accommodation in new town.

Here by the medieval walls of Leon you can see that the forecast rains did indeed catch up with me. At times that day it was a down right bog-fest, but I soldiered on and met my dear ones in Astorga.

From Astorga we continued onwards in unseasonally cold weather to find crosses on mountain tops...

... Templar castles...

... and required a short day or two, due to frequent rain and I going into caloric deposit.

Yet we soldiered on and discovered mountain top monuments among the milling pilgrim walkers.

Finally, our destination, The Cathedral of Saint James in Santiago was reached in inclement weather.

In hindsight there are things that we could have done differently, yet there are things that we did that worked fantastically on our tykepacking expedition along the Camino. Perhaps the hard learned lessons to successful tykepacking needs to be the next post.

Don't worry Camino de Santiago, we will return... just perhaps not for a few years yet.