Santa Domingo to Belorado, Spain - September 18

Sunita, Olga and I left RoomConcept Hostel in Santa Domingo before first light to begin our walk to Belorado. We joined a large group Peregrinos as we left town. In the dark, the lead group missed a turn and like all good lemmings we all blindly followed them. Eventually a local farmer let us know we had missed the Camino path and so backtracked about a 1/2 mile to right our course. Definite “herd mentality” at work 😂

We witnessed a beautiful sunrise as we continued toward Grañón - about five miles ahead. And the last village we would visit on the Camino in the Rioja Region. We stopped for a quick break as we crossed over the Oja River as the sun burst over the horizon.

When we arrived in Granon we stopped for coffee at a cafe on the edge of town.

Sunita had been having issues with her boots causing blisters and pain the past few days so she opted to try walking in her sandals this morning. It didn’t work out very well so she opted to take the bus instead of continuing. I decided to go with her. We couldn’t find the bus stop in town. When Olga asked one of the locals for help she directed us about 3/4 of a mile back the way we had just come. Sigh…..

Other than the bus being about fifteen minutes late we had an uneventful ride to Belorado. We had coffee and breakfast at a cafe/bar near the plaza and then went to the hostel to line up for check-in. Olga finished the walk and arrived by early afternoon. We settled into our room and then headed for diner.