Rest day,then on we go!

Rest day – Pamplona (10 kms)

Rest day in Pamplona starts with a huge buffet breakfast during which we pack a contraband lunch!  Intend to do some laundry but local lavandaria is closed – it is Sunday after all!  So it’s off to the Cathedral to see if we can find the place to get our Credentiale stamped…no, but we do find the entrance to the Cathedral and spend time absorbing the atmosphere and admiring the architecture – gothic, in this case – and the carvings, stained glass, etc.  It is a rather special place. 

Still looking for the stamp office, and obviously looking vague, we are asked by a local man passing by, “English, French, German?”  We say, “Australian,” he says, “I’ll speak English.  What are you looking for?”  He gives us directions to the Jesu & Maria Albergue nearby.  It is closed, with a queue forming outside for the best beds when the door does open.  We meet  some Dutch peregrinos, just arrived and looking for coffee and bread.  Surprisingly, we are able to give them directions to both the albergue and mini-mart where bread and maybe coffee is available. 



City Wall Pamplona



We decide to walk around the city wall from the Cathedral.  At the City Gate we meet a man who speaks no English, but we find out that he has family in Chile and Melbourne.  He gives us directions as to how we can follow the wall almost around the entire city, and still get back to the hotel.  A fantastic experience for us to test our comprehension of Spanish and make ourselves understood with our very limited vocabulary.  We part from our new amigo with a cheery wave and set out on our circumnavigation of the city.

From the top of the Wall, we look down and see paddlers on the river, families, sometimes 3 generations, with the kids on bikes or scooters, the “Running of the Bulls” holding pens, and people generally taking the air.  In the gardens we find a ‘children’s farm’ tucked away between two of the ramparts – goats, deer, ducks, chooks, geese, guinea fowl, swans, peacocks – spectators look down on the animals from about 7m above. 

We have our lunch on a park bench in these beautiful gardens, and then make our way back to the hotel to create our Chinese laundry. 



Then we set off on another adventure to the train station to book our tickets from Santiago to Madrid at the end of our Camino.  Once again our amazing grasp of the Spanish language enabled us to do this, albeit with some reliance on the good humour of the man in the ticket office.   A moment of panic as we leave the station, look at the tickets, and think that he has sold us return tickets instead of one way…again his good humour shines as he explains that everything is OK and we don’t need to return to Pamplona!  While at the station we are approached by a lady who wishes us “Buen Camino” and explains, in a mixture of Spanish and French, that she has done the pilgrimage and shows us her silver shell necklace and tells me I must get one in Santiago.  What a good idea!!  



Plaza de Castilla



The Jesu and Maria alberge should now be open so we make our way back there for our stamp, on the way finding a restaurant in the Plaza de Castillo with a Menu del Dia for €13 which we decided to sample a bit later on.

And we do…our dinner is amazing – 1^st plate of spag bol…a full Aussie serve, followed by 2^nd plate of cordon bleu/steak with chips, postre (sweets) of caramel custard/icecream, accompanied by bread and bottle of red (plonk!)   In retrospect, the plonk was not a good idea – can’t be bothered packing tonight and also can’t remember when we two have ever polished off a full bottle of red! 

Day 5 – Pamplona to Puente La Reina (24 kms)

Still feeling alcohol lassitude, ie the effects our bottle of plonk, we make our way through the suburbs of Pamplona and out into the countryside.  Spanish people love their dogs and because so many live in small apartments, dog walking is a major activity.

We seem to always start the day with a climb of some sort – today it is not very long but quite steep up a walking/cycle path and then onto a minor road to Cizur Menor.  Not much shade so we take a seat in a bus shelter to have a drink and a dried apricot.  Here we meet a lady from Bulgaria who is now living in Spain and speaks about as much Spanish as we do.  We have a lovely ‘chat’ and we move on before the bus comes.

Now for the real climb of the day…long steady climb past the Guendulain castle ruin which sits in the middle of ploughed paddock. 

After this exertion, we find a shady spot beside a sunflower crop for our ‘elevenses.’  No sooner was the stove fired up, than a huge tractor and trailer came thundering up the path.  John has to move his pack out of the way – fortunately the stove is safe.  The man parks the tractor and trailer in the sunflower field then comes walking back down the path.  We have our cuppa and are just picking up our packs to move on when an even more thunderous noise approaches.  This time it’s the same man driving a huge harvester which would have completely wiped out our picnic and us as well!!  We leave him to his harvesting and move on up the hill.

Private enterprise is alive and well in the village of Zariquiegui where a couple of  Dutch ladies have set up their camper van alongside the track, complete with plastic chairs and a table with thermoses and cups to serve refreshments to peregrinos who are panting their way to the top of Alto de Perdon, still two and a half kms away and getting steeper as we go.  The ridge tops of both sides of the track are lined with wind generators – we think they are electric fans purposefully put there to create a breeze to keep us cool…well, whatever works for you!

Joining the Pilgrims

Fantastic 360 degree views from the top and life-size steel silouhettes of peregrinos across the ages…a great opportunity for silly photos!!

And we have just about sweated out the last vestiges of last night’s plonk!!

The descent to Uterga is steep and rough with lots of loose stones making our footing unstable at times.



Local transport



Caught up with Maggie and Mary at the drink machine where we introduce them to the joys of ice cold Nestea.  From there we move on to Muruzabal and Obanos, where the heat of the day has really kicked in and we find it necessary to sit in the shade of the beautiful old sandstone church and eat icecream from the only shop we have found open today. Fortunately there are fairly frequent fuentes (water fountains) for us to replenish our water supply, especially on hot days.

All the villages we walk through seem to be almost uninhabited during the day.  The shutters on the houses start to go up about 10 in the morning…don’t know what happens between then and about 6 pm, but at that witching hour, the whole village comes alive.  People emerge from houses, shops open, children play in the street while the adults sit in the plazas outside coffee shops and bars and all talk at once while enjoying a drink or three!

3 kms down the road and we come to Puente La Reina.  We don’t even have to stop walking to find our Albergue – just walk off the track and into reception which is a little kiosk on the side of the track.  Accommodation is basic but interesting is the fact that in the bathroom, we are provided with shampoo, shower gel, 2 shower caps, a body sponge and 2 combs, but only one small bath towel and a hand towel! John finds both the shower cap and the comb extremely useful, but would trade both for a larger towel!!

After last night’s feast in Pamplona, we decide to eat light so John goes shopping for a baguette and ham as well as Powerade to try to up our hydration – it’s really hard to keep up with just water.  The other reason for eating in our room is that dinner is not being served until 8.30pm by which time we are more than ready for bed. Tonight…it’s been a long, hot, hard day!

Day 6 – Puente La Reina to Estella (25 kms)

Puente La Reina Bridge

An 8.00 am start to the day, walking through the narrow streets of the village where unusually, some of the small cafes were open and serving breakfast to hungry peregrinos.  John is in stone bridge heaven so far, and the bridge at Puente La Reina does not disappoint…we walk through an arch leading to the bridge and then across to the path along the Rio Arga which we follow for a couple of kms before bidding this particular river farewell...we kept it company for the last few days.

While climbing up the very steep track towards the highway, we meet a German couple who have already completed 2000km on various Caminos in Germany, France and Spain, and all in the same boots!  This provides some light relief… there isn’t lot to smile about when all you can do is breathe!!



Cirauqui



After a rest at the top, it’s on to the tiny village of Maneru, then across to Cirauqui (a Basque word meaning ‘nest of vipers’) and aptly described by Lonely Planet as ‘compact and labyrinthine.’  We climb up through the village to the top and then, not surprisingly, down the other side!  We meet ladies with shopping jeeps on their way down the hill to buy something somewhere and then presumably climb back up to their house – and not one of them was puffing!!

Out of Ciraqui, we move onto the best preserved section of Roman road and 2 medieval bridges on the Camino. We follow this road off and on until we get to Lorca.

It’s getting quite hot so the sunscreen comes out and we find a spot for elevenses under one of the few trees near a restored medieval bridge.

On another steep climb, this time up to Lorca, there is absolutely no shade but once we reach the fuente in the village there is shade aplenty.  Here we meet a man whose wife is travelling ‘with’ him but by car.  She meets him where she can and provides lunch from an esky, tends to his feet and makes everybody envious!!

From Lorca we pass by broad acre fields, ploughed and  stubble before reaching Villatuerta where we find a lovely shady, green picnic spot to have a second luch, joined by Lisa from NZ and Anna from Spain.  Thunder and rain threatening, so we hurry on towards Estella, our destination for today.  Hot, dusty, tired and emotional, we are a little miffed to find that, for the first time, our hotel is well off the Camino.  It’s not hard to find, but we definitely have tired legs by the time we arrive.  Maggie and Mary are also staying here so we enjoy dinner together.