Day 20 - 24 Kilometres

Pamplona to Puente de la Reina

This is the point where all the assorted roads to Santiago converge. For such a meeting pont, it is still a small village.

We are still somewhat in the rainshadow of the mountains, though the gold wheatfields are now occasional interspersed with grey-green olive groves, very green vinyards, and joy of joys, aparagus fields. The official harvest is over, and most of the asparagus has gone to seed, but the occasional tasty green stalk was good motivation to make it to the next patch.

We did cross another (much smaller) mountain today. At the top of which was my new favourite person. A brit who had done the Camino many years before and met so many great volunteers that he decided to become one. At first he volunteered in the Albergues (pilgrim hostels), but then he got the brilliant idea to buy a camper van, and park himself for a few days at a time at particularly difficult points around the Camino. So today, we crested the mountain, and there, waiting at the top, was a van spilling classical music, coffee, chocolate, cookies, first-aide kit, and walking sticks. All presided over by a storytelling, charismatic old Englishman.

It did wonders for our morale.

Cz is beginning to get his trail legs (maybe). Today we covered the 24 Km in just under 8 hours. Despite hilly and rocky terrain, he never landed on his butt once. Of course now he can barely walk, but hey, it´s a start. And the refugio we´re at now has the best, hottest, most massagey showers, so we have high hopes for tomorrow!