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Pamplona to Puente la Reina

After having some fun sight seeing in Pamplona on Sunday we were ready to head back out into the countryside. The problem was that we had sent out all of our clothes out to be washed and dried and had not received them back yet. They were promised in the morning but had not showed up by 9 am. Now Savanna can pull off the gym shorts and tshirt look while hiking down the Camino trai but I definitely can not. With my West Texas rancher's tan I look like a black and white two tone 1956 Chevy. And I don't mean the nicely restored one either.

We finally got our clothes back and started walking by 10:30 am. It took us a while to work our way out of the city. 

It is a beautiful place but very spread out. We finally left it behind us and started climbing again.

I knew it would be a day of steady uphill walking because I had looked at the elevation graph the night before. We were in for the second highest climb of our trip. The highest being the one over the Pyrenees Mountains. We worked our way steadily higher through the villages.

We are now passing through fields of wheat and other grains and can see vineyards and orchards in the distance. The deeper we go into Spain the more we are seeing bright red Poppies growing among the wheat.

So far we have been lucky and managed to avoid being rained on but today we got caught in a shower and had to quickly put on our pack covers and ponchos. We found refuge in a tiny bar (cafe) in a small village.

By the time we finished our cafe con leche, the storm had moved on and we saddled up and started climbing again. We knew that we would probably miss being in a village during lunch time so we had stopped and picked up some ham, cheese and bread to take with us. We found a nice bench just before we reached the summit and stopped to have a bite. The view was awesome.

Fueled up on ham cheese we headed for the summit of the mountain. On top is a metal sculpture of pilgrims on the Camino. If you have ever seen the move "The Way" you will recognize it.

This is where "The route of the wind crosses that of the stars". There are also wind generators on top of the mountain. This was the highest point for the day so we started heading back down the mountain. 

As we descended we saw the stacked rock cairns along the way. 

We found this statue of the Virgin Mary outside the village of Irunbidea. On the first Saturday of each month, the village comes there to pray.

Savanna and I are not the fastest of the pilgrims but we are not the slowest either. Every once in a while we manage to pass something on the trail. 

One question I have been asked is where we get our drinking water. Many of the villages have spring fed fountains like the one below that have been supplying pilgrims with fresh water for many years. Even thought the villages haverunning water in their homes, I still see some filling water bottles at these fountains because the watter is so good.

In one village the trail leads right through a metal sculputure of a walking pilgrim. I thought it might be kind of a pilgrim strainer that only let certain sized walkers through. Looks like I just made it.

We see amazing churches every day. Almost ever village has one. They seem to follow several different syles and all of them are hundreds of years old.

Many of the covered areas in front of the churches have designs created from small rocks laid on edge. The time and patience it must have taken to do this.

We came across this Crucifix in the center of a small village just before we made it to Puente le Reine. 

After such a late start we finally made it to our destination for the night by 7pm. We were more than ready for a rest. Our feet were hurting and the packs were getting heavy. Tomorrow is another day. Until then Buen Camino!


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