Day 4 : Pamplona to Puente la Reina

Steve: Pamplona – the best albergue so far…

Pamplona albergue

Just around the corner from the cathedral and 15EUR including breakfast.  Like most albergues that provide breakfast the host sets things up the night before and you help yourself to bread, jam, juice and coffee and let yourself out by 8am at the latest.

We’d had a good nights sleep…

A picture of a picture of the rather good beds. Reminded me a little of train travel in ye olden days.

…and it was raining slightly (and we’d foolishly sent our Rab rain jackets home the night before) so we loitered in the convivial kitchen talking to our fellow travellers from Korea, Australia and the US.

Pamplona breakfast

Around 9am we set off, hoping that Hamish’s ankle would hold up.  We’d decided to use one of the courier services that transport baggage from town to town and 5EUR got Hamish’s ankle a good rest (and I confess that Jen and I took advantage and we stuffed H’s pack as full as we could with all our bits and pieces).

The hills around Pamplona are covered in wind turbines, and, indeed, it was consistently windy as we wended our way along the 14 km or so to the top of the range of hills that lies to the west of the city.

Panorama around Pamplona #1
Panorama around Pamplona #2, no windmills – they’re behind us

Here we find one of the highlights of the trip, the monumento peregrino.

Monumento Peregrino

There was much rejoicing…

An inscription on one of the donkeys…

…reads “donde se cruza el camino del viento con el de las estrellas” which in English means “where the path of the wind crosses that of the stars”, a reminder that our destination is Santiago de Compostella – the milky way, or way of the stars.

The wind blows hard up here and behind us was the thrum thrum of many wind turbines.

Getting to this monument was something of an ambition of mine. Now I really was a peregrino. We were all suffering from CALS (Camino Adjusted Lachrymosity Syndrome – in which you, ahem, get all emotional over things that would pass you by in real life – more on this later…) so we shed a collective tear and moved on down into the valley beyond.

We’ve travelled from the Pyrenees, which look like parts of Switzerland to me, into Navarra, which looks like Tuscany. The sun was shining, the crops were bursting out of the ground and the whole thing looked like one of those paintings in the National Gallery.

Tuscany anyone?
mber waves of grain…

Hilltop villages with perfect churches were every few kilometres,

Church at Obanos

All this time we were watching the sky as the clouds gathered and we sensed that the afternoon might not go so well. Indeed, around 4pm the thunderclouds of judgement struck.

We hid in a cafe and contemplated getting a taxi for the final 7 km (aaaargh!).  The rain cleared somewhat and we set off to arrive wet and bedraggled at Albergue Estrella Guia, a second floor flat, in Puente la Reina. Our splendid host was an A-grade hippy.  The incense sticks were out and the flat was covered in inspirational messages of peace and goodwill.  Hey, if you can’t be a hippy on the Camino, where can you?

Albergue Estrella Guia

Day 4 : Stats

Pamplona to Puente la Reina

  • Steps: 37,694
  • Distance covered, according to Brierley
    • 23.8 km direct, 25.5 km actual walking
    • 686.8 km to go
    • 0.79 km overall vertical climb
  • Other Fitbit stats
    • 33.92 km walked (based on 0.9m stride length)
    • 335 ‘active’ minutes.
    • 5,257 cal burned.

Day 3 : Zubiri to Pamplona

Steve: The municipal albergue in Zubiri is a splendid place. We checked in and put the gadgets on charge (spare sockets are highly valued on the Camino) and did the laundry.

Camino life has this rhythm: walk, arrive, check-in, plug in the gadgets, shower, laundry, food.

Note to self: explain to our dear readers the mindset that allows pilgrims to leave literally thousands of pounds worth of phones, iPads , cameras and the like in an open dormitory whilst they wander off for a few hours of eating and site-seeing.

And so we set out to find some food.  Some veggie lasagnes and a pizza later, we stood in the river and cooled off.

Then back to the albergue to fight with wifi and technology to try and get a donations page up on this website for our non-UK readers (hello to you all…).

Early to bed. SNORING. Up at 5:30am and off we go.

Zubiri albergue at 5:30am
A quiet start, the road outside the albergue

The air was cool and pleasant as we set off up the hill out of town.  After about 3.5 km we were watching the morning traffic jam…

Traffic jam #1
Traffic jam #2

…when I realised I’d left my watch tied to the bed rail in the albergue. A very bad thing. So, as H and J waited at the side of the trail I walked as quickly as I could back to the albergue, passing bemused peregrinos as I went.  What a waste of 6 precious km….

Today’s trek was some 22km through lush old-growth woods.  Occasionally a green and pleasant view would appear in a gap between the trees.

But, but… all was not well with Hamish’s right foot.  He sprained it badly a year or so ago and it seems that his excellent Salomon boots weren’t sufficient to prevent a stabbing pain from returning.  Progress slowed considerably as various bandages and strapping were applied.

Bandages #1

The first town we arrived at (Illaratz) seemed completely closed up.  We were ambling down the main road when a man gesticulated that we’d taken the wrong path (this is very common, the locals are always correcting the peregrinos wayward sense of direction).  Following some Spanglish to-and-fro where we explained we were looking for a cafe, it turned out that he ran an albergue and asked if we wanted breakfast.  Coffee, toast and cake (always cake for breakfast) and we were on our way.

Bandages #2 in the friendly local’s kitchen

Eventually we limped into Arre, about 4km from Pamplona.  We sat in the square and ate every single vegetarian item that the cafe sold (all 3 of them…) and tried to come up with Plan E.

No matter what Plan E held, we still had to get into Pamplona.  That would be where the doctors were and the buses that might help up get to the next town.  It took H a painful couple of hours but he made it to an excellent albergue just a few streets from the cathedral.  And, as it happened, almost directly across the road was a physio/massage place offering discounts to peregrinos.  Hamish booked himself the 6pm slot and waited. J and I did the usual shower and wash clothes routine.  We also did the first bag triage.  Jen and I took my Salewa shoes, both Rab rain jackets and a few bits and pieces (books etc) around to the Post Office and sent them home to Britain.

Jen warned me about the literal pain of too much stuff.  She was right…  Travel light!

Around 7pm Hamish literally bounced in from his foot-doctor session.  Much joy.

To celebrate we awarded ourselves a slap-up meal of bread and cheese from a supermarket and sat in the square, watching what we think was the local literary festival.  You have to like a town that has a literary festival buzzing with people.

Bread and cheese in the square
Literary festival in Pamplona

Day 3 : Stats

Zubiri to Pamplona

  • Steps: 42,310
  • Distance covered, according to Brierley
    • 20.9 km direct, 22.7 km actual walking
    • 710.6 km to go
    • 0.36 km overall vertical climb
  • Other Fitbit stats
    • 38.08 km walked (based on 0.9m stride length)
    • 412 ‘active’ minutes.
    • 5,872 cal burned.

The Calculus of Snoring

Most peregrinos opt to stay in albergues. These communal unisex dormitories, packed tight with bunk beds, are part of the experience. Yes, you can do the Camino and stay in hotels but it’ll cost a fortune and the purists would argue that you’re missing out on something important.

That said, if you’re sharing a room with 20 people you’ll be extremely lucky if you don’t have at least one snorer (and, before you ask – no, it’s not us). Which, sadly, does not aid a spirit of benevolence towards your fellow pilgrims. By 3am you’d cheerfully kill them all in their sleep. (Which hints at a related question – how come the snorers always fall asleep first?)

Brierley lists the albergues in each town, giving addresses and prices. Also against each albergue are two numbers written like this: 45÷5, which means 45 beds divided into 5 rooms. So, for this example, 9 in a room on average. We’ve taken to assessing albergues on two criteria, firstly cost and secondly, beds-in-room average.

Our theory is there must be some optimum.

So, on average, what percentage of people snore loudly enough to keep others awake? The magnificently named esnoring.com says that 25% of adults are habitual snorers. Which means that in a room of 9 you will have, on average, two.

Basically the maths say that you can’t have community sleeping arrangements without snorers.

Best buy some quality earplugs…

Day 2 : Roncevalles to Zubiri

Steve: A day in Camino-speak isn’t in sync with real-world time, rather it runs from leaving one albergue to arriving at the next albergue.  So, from now on I’ll try and post, wifi permitting, in the afternoon after we’ve arrived at our destination, and we’ll decree that to be the end of the day.

We were a bit slow getting up and out of Roncevalles.  H and I are new to this and it took ages to collect our belongings and our thoughts together to actually make it out the door.  Jen, the old hand, has a stinky cold so wasn’t much better at it than us.

We dragged ourselves and rucksacks to the cafe next door and had breakfast.  That was so nice, we had another breakfast.

And then to the trail.  After a hundred metres we saw this frightening sign:

which does rather take the shine off things…

The sun was shining and the way was relatively easy after yesterday. And mostly downhill.  This part of Spain is very picturesque.

The rest of the day was a blur.  We arrived in Zubiri, another beautiful town, around 2:30pm.

Dear reader, a sudden wave of fatigue has overcome this particular author – so here’s Jen.

Jen: Upon arrival, we headed to the nearest albergue (the municipal one) and collapsed in a heap for a while before heading to the showers. I personally had a very long and tiring day. I’ve had the flu since Monday and it’s so bad that I need not even milk it.

The other two wandered out in front and I got chatting to a South African woman who was walking at around the same pace as me. She had done the Camino before, from Sarria to Santiago and was back to do the beginning piece with a few friends. I like the way the Camino mixes groups of people who would otherwise never mix. We’re yet to meet any Scottish people, but there are plenty of Brits about and lots of French people. It’s a different demographic this year compared to last.

Anyway, in Zubiri I sloped into the showers and scrubbed till I felt human again, and dad and Hamish milled about playing with this website. I was feeling dreadful but a shower and some food helped. We got some dinner (veggie lasagne – a rare treat!) and packed our bags ready for morning.

There was lots of standing in rivers today in an attempt to cool down swollen feet. Here is Hamish standing in a river.

A long day, so definitely time for bed. G’night all.

Day 2 : Stats

Roncevalles to Zubiri

  • Steps: 38,032
  • Distance covered, according to Brierley
    • 21.9 km direct, 23.1 km actual walking
    • 731.5 km to go
    • 0.25 km overall vertical climb
  • Other Fitbit stats
    • 34.23 km walked (based on 0.9m stride length)
    • 429 ‘active’ minutes.
    • 5,875 cal burned.