Today we walked 11.6 miles (18.7 km) in about 6.5 hours including breaks and lunch.
New landscape today! Our view suddenly changed after Pamplona, from mountain forests to rolling hills covered in fields of wheat and flowers. The trail is now mostly small dirt roads with lots of rocks, although it seems like we walk on every surface imaginable at some point in the day.
We still had a few quick, light showers today, so the pack rain covers are still on — they haven’t been off since day one actually. But otherwise we had mostly nice weather, alternating from warm in the sun to cold and windy in the shade.
We started the day with a steep hike to the top of Alto de Perdón, where we saw the pilgrim statues featured in the movie The Way. The statues were another thing I’ve really been looking forward to seeing so I was especially excited about it.
Then it was a very steep downhill over lots of big rocks, which my right knee didn’t appreciate. So I finally broke out the knee brace I’ve been carrying the whole time, and it made a huge difference right away. I didn’t have any more problems the rest of the day, and I’m hoping tomorrow I won’t need it at all.
Today also marks our half way point for this year’s section of our Camino. I can’t believe it’s been a week since we left Dallas — every day feels like a week full of sights and memories. The Camino has been everything we hoped for and more, and we can’t wait to see what the second half brings.
Lots of photos today! We started with a noticeable lack of trees!
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And our friend Victor, who’s from the Basque Country we’re walking through, was right — we’re seeing a lot of fields of yellow flowers now.
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And lots of wheat fields as well.
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Looking back at Pamplona in the distance as we climb the hill to Alto de Perdon.
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The Camino provides everything. ;-)
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We started seeing wind turbines up on the ridge that we were headed to.
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And finally, the pilgrim statues at the top of Alto de Perdon!
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Then a long, steep hike back down, on large rocks.
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An impromptu rock garden, apparently. :-)
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Walking through lots of little towns.
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More wheat fields.
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We’re staying the night at the great Albergue Jakue, which is the first thing you see as you walk into Puente la Reina. The albergue is actually connected to a hotel, so it has all the amenities like WiFi, a restaurant, a washer and dryer, etc. We even had a massage, to untie a few knots in various muscles. Absolute heaven.