Day: June 10, 2026

Day 15- Tardajos to Hornillos del Camino

Walked today: 7.2 mi. Camino’26: 102 mi.

We began our walk at 7:30 from La Fabrica wearing jackets in the 44F temperature air and passed through the town of Tardajos (originally a Roman city, Augustóbriga)

Entrance of the town of Tardajos.
A typical street on camino through Tardajos.
Storks perched in the tower of Iglesia fe Nuestra Señora de la Asunción of Rabé de las Calzados
The walk from Tardajos to Rabé de las Calzados.
La Fuente bar always offers generous portions of tostadas.
Linda outside of La Fuente de Rabé
The village square of Rabé de las Calzadis
Wall art work in progress in Rabé.
Wall art as we left Rabé
The path on the way to the meseta.
Arriving at the meseta with Burgos and the mountains behind us in the distance.
Our first look at the meseta in all directions ahead of us.
After walking for about a mile, the flatness of the meseta seemed to go on forever…
… but, only 60 paces later, our first village on the meseta appeared out of nowhere!
Once seeing this warning sign and viewing the steep slope ahead, a group of pilgrims seemed to be getting up their courage to continue.
Linda taking on “Mule Killer Hill”.
These hardy male pilgrims saw Linda, “just a girl”, charge on, so they proceeded to follow her down the steep hill.
The camino on its way toward Hornillos del Camino.

We arrived at Hornillos del Camino at 10:30 and stopped at a small grocery store. We were disappointed to see that the former owner, whom we had developed a friendship over the past 5 caminos had retired. We bought some yogurt to unite with our local honey purchased in Lorca and some nuts for a snack as we had done before, but we were saddened by the absence of our friend.

At 11:30, we walked a few steps to Meeting Place to check in, only to find that the innkeeper had failed to hold a room for us after confirming it in February on their website. All double rooms were booked and the alternatives she offered were not acceptable.

With the help of the innkeeper, we were able to find a double room with ensuite bathroom a few steps further into the village and were able to book it instead. The Meeting Place innkeeper contacted Correos for us to insure that our backpacks are picked up at the new place tomorrow morning instead of where they left them today at Meeting Point. Hopefully our backpacks will be delivered to our reserved room in Hontanas tomorrow after being picked up at the new place.

Realizing we were fortunate to find an alternative place to stay in this small village, helped us to look beyond the screw-up and make the best of the situation.

The new place had limited facilities for washing and drying clothes and no paella pilgrim dinner, a feature of staying at Meeting Point. So we put off the clothes related chores to the next stop and we had our main meal at a nearby restaurant which only offered a lunch menu, but both changes will suffice until we get back on plan, tomorrow.

Many, maybe most pilgrims don’t book ahead, so they have fewer expectations for places to stay and eat. Our pilgrim experience has evolved to a more structured and pre-planned one for the most part, so arriving at a location at the end of a walk without a plan would be normal for most pilgrims and potentially unsettling for us.

But after seven, going on eight caminos, we still firmly believe that the “Camino provides”.