Wild Camping on the Camino with Full time Vanlifers

25th - 26th August 2021
Find this incredible Pool : http://www.hontanas.es/bares-y-restaurantes/piscinas-municipales-de-hontanas
What3Words Link : https://w3w.co/gulfs.vents.emblem

For our last 24 Hours before boarding the ferry back home, we headed back over the border to Spain. Petrol and Diesel are much cheaper in Spain than Portugal so our first stop was to fill up at the most crackers service station we had ever seen! Along with fuel, and snacks, this service station had a huge display of knives and guns!!  

From the service station we headed to a tiny village called Hontanas, about 40 mins west of Burgos. When I say Hontanas is tiny, I mean there are only 70 permanent residents. You might be wondering why we would choose to spend our last evening in such a tiny village? The answer is friends.  We were there to meet back up with Alex, Amy and Sen, and meet their good friends Kieran and Marielana.

Kieran runs the large municipal swimming pool on the edge of the village and Marielana runs a beautiful hostel in the village square. We spent much of the afternoon swimming, and chatting before moving the van to it’s overnight spot.  Rather than just park up, we asked a local family if we would be OK to park near them, not only did they give us their blessing, they also brought us the tastiest tomatoes I’ve ever eaten. In exchange we gave them stickers ;-) 

That evening we took a 2 minute walk into the village square and spent one of my favourite evenings of the whole trip drinking wine, chatting with our friends and meeting pilgrims staying in the village. Kieran and Marielena are fun and fascinating. They travel in their van for most of the year, and return each summer to run the pool and hostel. This seasonal work funds their travel and explorations.  You can follow their adventures on Instagram, they are The Slow Lane

​The slow pace of our time in Hontanas was the perfect end to the European Leg of our summer trip.