{"id":90650,"date":"2025-09-28T11:27:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T11:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/90650\/"},"modified":"2025-09-28T11:27:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T11:27:10","slug":"three-sets-of-underwear-a-wounded-comrade-and-the-truth-about-the-most-daunting-stretch-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/90650\/","title":{"rendered":"Three sets of underwear, a wounded comrade and the truth about \u2018the most daunting stretch\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first time I set off to walk the Camino de Santiago<\/a>, my mother gave me some advice. Take your time, she said. Stop and look around. Sometimes the best views are the ones behind you. And for God\u2019s sake, don\u2019t write about it. <\/p>\n

That was May 2023. Since then, I\u2019ve returned eight more times, walking stretches of the Camino with friends and on my own. In July 2025, before wildfires closed part of the route for a period in August, I set out on my ninth and most challenging mission yet: walking 180km alone from the city of Burgos to Leon. <\/p>\n

This route, known as La Meseta, is notorious as the longest, flattest, driest and most challenging section of the popular Route Franc\u00e9s. Even in mild weather, many pilgrims tend to skip it. I elected to do it at a time when temperatures would soar to more than 35 degrees daily. <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how it went down.<\/p>\n

Day 1Burgos (population: 174,000) to Hornillos Del Camino (population: 70)<\/p>\n

Distance:<\/b> 21km <\/p>\n

\"TakingTaking a berak in Hornillos <\/p>\n

My alarm goes off at 6.45am. It\u2019s 17 degrees in Burgos. Only the sanitation workers have hit the streets before me. In a city park, I spot my first fellow pilgrims. They\u2019re carrying full-length backpacks and their calves are bronzed. <\/p>\n

That means they\u2019re doing the entire 780km Camino Franc\u00e9s to Santiago de Compostela. Pilgrims with half-length backpacks, like myself, are incrementalists who pop in and do a week here and there, as work commitments allow. <\/p>\n

I arrive in today\u2019s destination of Hornillos just before noon. I sit on a bench in the shade drinking a can of beer from the local tienda as a stream of sweaty pilgrims stomp into town, shake the dust off their boots and introduce themselves. This is the pick-up crew I\u2019ll be walking, eating and socialising with for the next few days. <\/p>\n

One of them, Caolan Barry from Baldoyle, has been on the road since St Jean-Pied-de-Port in southern France. Whenever things are tough, he tells himself: tomorrow will be easier. Tomorrow will be all downhill. <\/p>\n

The sun will come out tomorrow? <\/p>\n

\u201cOr better still,\u201d he replies, \u201cthe sun will stay in tomorrow.\u201d <\/p>\n

Day 2Hornillos del Camino \u2013 Castrojeriz (population: 803)<\/p>\n

Distance:<\/b> 20km <\/p>\n

\"CastrojerizCastrojeriz in Burgos, Spain, along the Camino de Santiago. Photograph: Xurxo Lobato\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

The guidebooks suggest day two is when the vast emptiness of La Meseta \u2013 the wide open skies, rolling wheat fields and long, straight dust paths \u2013 overwhelm the pilgrim and begin to induce some form of inner reflection. <\/p>\n

But I haven\u2019t time for that right now. I stayed in Isar last night, which means my new friends have had a 3.3km head start on me. Still I\u2019m confident I\u2019ll catch up. <\/p>\n

This is partly because my backpack weighs about half that of the average pilgrim. I\u2019m a ruthless packer. Including what I wore on the plane, I\u2019ve brought: <\/p>\n