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LIVE from the Camino Camino home to home, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024

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Well, my friendly wine shop in Logroño is closed because of Saturday afternoon. Booooo !!
 
Day 341 - - Logroño

I am in bed !!

But I am completely exhausted, so there's a good chance that I will need a rest day tomorrow.

I am so tired that I couldn't even keep a bit of tortilla de patatas down, my body just craves sleep and nothing more.

I am in the Parroquial, and if I do take that rest day, it will need to be in the Municipal instead. Which is fine.

The walk itself wasn't hard, nor even that tiring in itself. It was another wonderful sunny day, and I was mostly in my t-shirt, but I did need the cape, for a chill in the air. I came across about ten pilgrims on the way, and there are two of us here.

The walk around the lake seemed quicker this time, but that long stretch between there and the city, then through the parks and so on was as "exciting" as usual.
 
J Willhaus said:
There was a lot of road construction between Navarette and Logrono last summer. Heavy equipment and dust. Hope they are finished up for your walk tomorrow.
Click to expand...
They are a long way from having finished, but the bridges and other connections between the existing roads are basically done, so from the Pilgrim's perspective, it's more or less back to normal.

One sad change is that one of my favourite spots to stop for a rest, under a large tree with a good view of Navarrete is now on the wrong side of one of those roads, and so no longer on the Camino.

It's probably marginally shorter now, otherwise.
 
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Slept for ten hours straight, and have been in bed for twelve, but I still have too many aches and pains, so that I definitely need that rest day.
 
I've said it before a couple of times in the thread, but this is the kind of occasional bad pain, when I get it at home, I just stay in all day unless forced out by no food in the fridge.

It's no big deal, just an ordinary part of the disability, and it doesn't normally stop me from walking on like this.

But it has been compounded a bit by the food restrictions business, so that it will need to be a day of cerveza, charcuterie, and cheese.
 
Hope you are able to get moved as needed. I know they are pretty strict at the parochial about consecutive nights. I have not personally worked there, but have other hospitalero friends who have. Interesting that they are open in the winter as that has not been a winter volunteer option for us in past years. I know the priest did allow Phil to stay overnight in December one year on his way to serve in Grañón, but they were not officially open. Are there HosVol volunteers there or does it seem like locals who are filling in?
 
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Hope that your pain will be eased by the long sleep, a day of rest & good food.
Thank you @JabbaPapa for taking time to share your heroic, epic journey, especially for those of us who now must reconcile ourselves to being only armchair pilgrims but who travel with you vicariously, of course without the trials of pain & nights without a bed under a roof. Ultreia !
 
Not really volunteers as such, in the normal Camino sense, but locals involved in Parish work for the church, though I think in Summer they may also have some Camino volunteers too.

If I had been in a worse state than I am this morning, or if it had been the only Albergue in town, I might have asked, but I'm not, it isn't, and so wouldn't. It's the sort of Albergue that really does need to be more strict, as it is a likely target for freeloading pseudo-pilgrims, including the tramps.

But I think it is normally open all year, just in December of 2020 and/or 2021 possibly it may not have been.
 
The other pilgrim there last night, the Belgian Antoine, is also dealing with a handicap, though his is cognitive more than physical. His sense of direction in particular is completely out of whack.

We actually walked a few hundred yards together, and I showed him the way out, but now I am warming up in what's turning into my usual bar, with cerveza. Had the coffee at the Albergue.

I have found out which supermarket is open this morning, only because it's near Christmas, so that's good.

If the next Albergue had been a short 5-7 K away or something I would go there, but the 10K or so to Viana is that much too far - - the pain is there even sitting down. A lot better than last night though, so it will calm down.

It is possible that chick peas have joined the ginormous list of foods I need to avoid, and that the last of the beans that I can take without direct harm is the coffee one.
 
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Well, fortunately neither coffee beans and cocoa beans are legumes except in th colliquial sense. They are each in a different family, and both beneficial in their own ways.
phenolic compounds and methylxanthines from coffee and cocoa can trigger an attenuation of inflammation
Click to expand...
 
D**n. The 90 or 99% is bitter medicine, but could be less irritating to whatever is being irritated? Lindt. All the medicine with none of the other stuff.
 
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Day 342 - - Logroño

And I am in bed again, Hooray !! Municipal this time. And I had forgotten how pokey the dorm is here. But it does have heating.

Good, because it is rather cold today.

The other pilgrim got the best bed for plug sockets, but I have second best on the other side.

Not budging now 'til morning, I had a salchichón, beers, have more beer, wine, and even a camembert.

Pain still up a bit, but gently receding. Will be OK in the morning, and the next two walks are just about a 10K each, as far as I can tell.
 
From time to time there have been some hints of condemnation on this thread, towards your very honest posts about how you manage your pain and inflammation. You answer those with considerable dignity.

What strikes me is that despite your handicap, you persevere. You’ve figured out what works for you and you adapt. Many people might have surrendered to their limitations and bemoaned their lives, but you have mastered your body’s contrariness and you forge onward to fulfill your dreams. And shown that it can be done.

i applaud you. Ultreia.
 
Excellent news. And two 10k walks sound not bad. The first will be much easier than the second, but it looks like good weather tomorrow at least. The next day...grf.
 
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It's the dietary requirements that some people just don't understand, but without the change in diet, I would certainly be in no state to walk a Camino, but instead I have spent periods of months basically bed-ridden, and many more just stuck in the house, and thinking that my walking days were completely finished.

But switching to the predominantly carnivore diet massively reduced the inflammation, I was able to experiment with short walks - - just a few hundred metres to start with - - then longer, until I began to think that to at least attempt to get back into sufficient state for a Camino might be possible, and really that attempt at a Camino project became a means for improving my health and strength generally.

It took a year of non-stop training to manage it, beginning 2013, and that was how I got back onto the Camino, from Lourdes, in 2014.

But having said that, if I hadn't had any previous experience of long-distance hiking, I think it would have been unfeasible, because it's a discipline that teaches you what your limitations are, and how to make do with them. Overcome them when necessary, keep strictly within them otherwise.

Do what you need to do in relation to them.

It's not really that much different with a disability, it just takes a lot longer to walk your stages.
 
I am at the Hotel cafeteria exactly at the point where I joined the Francès last year from the Camí Catalàn/Ebro Way, so I am about to head back into the "unknown" - - though I have already walked the Logroño to Viana stretch, on my hitch-hike back in 2014, as there is no good hitching spot until the other side of Viana.

Also that year, I did walk from Puente La Reina to Logroño, but I'll see what has changed and what I have forgotten since then.

Pain is back to normal, so all good !!

I have come far enough East that dawn is back to being at about 8AM.
 
Second antiinflammatory is just about kicking in, and I'm just about ready to head out. By contrast, yesterday I needed three just to enable some limited hobbling about town.

Weather is also better, yesterday was cold and damp.
 
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eh, and I have finally found an actual cheap bar in Logroño, on the other side of the Ebro, so I'm getting ham and eggs. Very nice too.
 
Day 343 - - Viana

I am in Navarra !!

After I finally got out of Logroño, it wasn't bad. Good walking weather, even a bit of blue sky in the afternoon. Only met one pilgrim on the way, but I hear that there were four others in Viana the night before.

There were three of us last night, with French as a common language, including a German peregrina who is on her way back from Santiago - - though not walking the entire route.

The landscape has started its slow shift into looking like France, though it has a long way to go for that.

I slept longer than usual, my usual shift to dozing at 3-4 AM took place at 6-7 instead, and I'll need a while more to wake up properly. I am out of the Albergue anyway, and with cerveza number one.

I had a menú last night, was OK but nothing to write home about. The steak was good though. I would have looked for something different I think, if the place hadn't been so conveniently located next to the Municipal.

Pain's not so bad this morning, though I did need a second antiinflammatory, but it was worse yesterday morning. I suppose that some extra need for recovery caused that longer sleep.

The German peregrina said she thinks an Albergue at Sansol is open, which would not just be cheaper but would get me 1K closer to Los Arcos, where the peregrino that I met on the road had stayed, so I suppose that something should be open there too.

Less than 150K to the border !!
 
I am starting out of these places later and later.

No big deal, but it is a bit annoying.
 
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It's also generally hard to leave Viana specifically, as I do rather like the place.

Sad news though, which I was beginning to suspect last night, which is that Navarra is not currently publishing my favourite Camino map. I do have one copy of it again, thankfully, thanks to the lovely hospitalera at the Betania Albergue in Frómista, but I really would have wanted some spares.
 
Though also, there are just some unexpected realities of a Winter Francès.
 
I am almost always disappointed with the steak in Spain. Looks like something might be open in Torres del Rio, too? La Pata de Oca?
 
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pfffff I am being tempted by the idea of staying a second night, mainly because I am getting hungry.

Steak does vary in quality in Spain, but the best of it is quite brilliant. I think my favourite cut is chuleta, unless I am hungry enough to want a chuletón.

Best I have had was IIRC a ribeye chuleta in I think Redecilla del Camino last year.
 
Ah, yes, I lived on a farm for 20 years and we raised our own beef, pork, chicken, and even our own lamb, rabbit, and turkey some years so I am pretty picky. Wherever you stay tonight, hope they have a wonderful bar nearby with you favorites on the menu.
 
My most memorable steak meals have been at Le Polidor in Paris, multiple times, once at Le Train Bleu, probably the best train station restaurant in existence, and one absolutely amazing Fiorentina in a grotty side street place in Florence, a full kilo of delicious tender meat.

I can report that the place opposite the church has far better food than the one near the Albergue. For €1 extra.
 
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Just can't move on, and they are making noises about the one night only rule.

No real difference, and if I end up sleeping outdoors so be it.

Clearly, I have had an accumulation of inflammatory causes. Inside or out, staying put is a necessary.
 
So I am staying another night in Viana. I really would have preferred to move on, but oh well, and clearly I have more fatigue than I I imagined.
 
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Well, bigotry and prejudice is a lot of fun.

Some woman in the Albergue decided that she didn't like me, complained, and the woman in charge sided with her and forced me out into the rain.

So I am sleeping outside after all.

What I'm worried about is that the people here are awful gossips that might wish me further harm going forward.

It's the attitude of the peregrina that disappointed me most, resentful and selfish, keen to see me out in the rain for her own self-satisfaction.

Oh well, hopefully I can find somewhere sheltered from the rain.

Some people along this road have not love in their hearts.
 
It's been a long time since I have come across this degree of bigotry along the Way of Saint James, but well, I am getting closer to France.

And closer to Christmas.

Of course you are going to be pushed out into the rain !!

Why expect any kindness or anything else ?
 
And yes, well, the judgmentalism is lovely too.

Can't wait to get to Roncesvalles, where there's more of it than anywhere !!
 
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This is an extreme example of the general misunderstanding that people have of what I need to do to keep my pain under control.

Though I cannot excuse this woman's bigotry.

They have no idea at all that my pain is this bad, nor what I need to do just to keep it vaguely under control, for example to drink more than these bigots might personally approve of.

But well, put me out into the rain, that's perfectly fine.

What a fantastic hospitalera she is !!
 
Well, cold and damp, but I will have somewhere to sleep.

I said to the barmaid, that hospitalera is a complete < censored > and she agreed.

Still, throwing pilgrims out in the street, that's a very special type of hospitality.
 
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Several pilgrims have reported on the forum this year of having had negative experiences in the places between Los Arcos & Logrono, I am sorry that you are having this experience. Other albergue hospitaleros have respected you and the long pilgrimage you are making. To put a pilgrim out in the street because another objects to their presence is contrary to the spirit of the Camino, to do so in the rain is dishonourable & earns that hospitalero a badge of shame in my opinion.
 
Last time I was here in 2014, I would have been out in the street as well, if the priest hadn't intervened on my behalf. They seem to have very little consideration for pilgrims generally. Except the Parrochial, which is excellent, even though some pilgrims don't appreciate it.

As to that peregrina, she really does need to comprehend the difference between an Albergue and a hotel, and perhaps also to be a bit more considerate towards other pilgrims.

Our conversation last night - - where are you from ? < grunt > Which country ? < silence > Where did you start ? < grunt >

Real Camino spirit.

Pain is bloody awful again, but not enough to prevent me getting out of here. If it were, I'd rather get a bus than stay here any more.

Wasn't that cold though, so it could have been a lot worse, though the whole thing has put me into a really ghastly mood.
 
I don't really worry about the attitudes of most people, because it is obviously hard to understand that the pain relief from the beer is such a necessary for me, but they only see things from the outside.

Though lack of tolerance is something else.
 
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Good morning @JabbaPappa, today marks the winter Solstice & the point at which the days start to lengthen. This always lifts my spirits here in the grey, dreich days of the Scottish winter and I hope that it may do the same for you in Navarra.
 
Good thing though, I seem to need less beer than usual to get started. Worst is that I really need a shower now, and was prevented from having one.
 
SEB2 said:
Good morning @JabbaPappa, today marks the winter Solstice & the point at which the days start to lengthen. This always lifts my spirits here in the grey, dreich days of the Scottish winter and I hope that it may do the same for you in Navarra.
Click to expand...
Dawn has already started to get earlier from my Easterly progress, but yes, this is definitely something that I have been looking forward to and thinking of. And as I start to head back towards the Mediterranean after SJPP, better yet.
 
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There has come a point on every one of my Caminos when I have just had my fill of Spain, much as I love the country, and I think I'm getting there again. Love the place, but definitely could not live here.

The massive chunk of Portugal in the middle of it this year definitely helped, but I really am looking forward to being back in France.

Unless that's just black dog talking. Except on this part of the Francès, I always had Logroño and the meseta to look forward to, and yet those are behind me now.

Weather is clear and bright though, and there is Estella to look forward to. And SJPP. The Camino fatigue is real though.

Oh well, keep on going and Sus Eia and all that sort of thing.
 
JabbaPapa said:
....
Weather is clear and bright though, and there is Estella to look forward to. And SJPP. The Camino fatigue is real though.

Oh well, keep on going and Sus Eia and all that sort of thing.
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JabbaPapa,
At least the sky is clear and bright. Do remember that all who follow your extraordinary camino on line are hoping that your next days will be better. Do take care. Ultreia!
 
JabbaPapa said:
Weather is clear and bright though, and there is Estella to look forward to. And SJPP.
Click to expand...
Clear and bright is good news.
JabbaPapa said:
The Camino fatigue is real though.
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I bet it is! You've come a heck of a long way. Fortunately from now the days are getting longer, which lifts tte spirits.

Today is Sansol? Hoping the albergue is open. May that climb involve the least pain possible! And may you land someplace where you can have a long hot shower.
 
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Please don't take offence, but I feel it needs to be asked:

Could it be that she found anything in your own demeanour offensive in any way and does it make her any less of a pilgrim or less worthy because she chose not to engage with you?

Several disparaging posts about your alleged mistreatment at the hands of both the peregrina and the hospitalera along with some posts in support of you, but where is their voice?

Some balanced perspective would be nice.
 
Day 345 - - Torres del Rio

I'm in the Hostal San Andres in Torres del Rio. I definitely would not have made it here yesterday if I had tried.

Wasn't sure if I would be eating or not, but dinner is in about twenty minutes.
 
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JabbaPapa said:
Day 345 - - Torres del Rio

I'm in the Hostal San Andres in Torres del Rio. I definitely would not have made it here yesterday if I had tried.

Wasn't sure if I would be eating or not, but dinner is in about twenty minutes.
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Glad you made it and hope it is something you can eat!
 
The weather today turned out to be changeable. What seemed bright and clear from inside the town turned out to be strange and beautiful ; white sunlight brightening a late morning mist - - though it then cleared up into blue sky and warm Sun, and so several hours in just jeans and t-shirt again - - then strong wind, and then it clouded over.

I came across six pilgrims today, plus the peregrina sleeping at the opposite side of the dorm.

The Hostal is closed, except for pilgrims, though I don't know if that's because it's their weekly rest day or something else.

I did have to force myself to eat something to an extent, I didn't really want to, but I realised I needed it.

I ate about half of a vegetable soup, the steak and some of the chips, the melon bits, most of the wine, and quite a lot of water.

The beds in here are comfortable though, and greatly superior to both sleeping arrangements in Viana. They have those warm duvet blanket things, and a pair of them is cosy indeed.
 
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The peregrina moved out before 7 and I only barely heard her (nice change from all those smartphone alarms), then I got out at about 10.

I have a bit of pain, not bad, but enough that I need cervezas. That I have found at the little tienda in Sansol, with a coffee, where the guy has set up a pleasant little area of outdoor tables and chairs.

It's another beautiful sunny day, maybe some wind later, maybe not, but I'll put the woollen jumper away, and walk out in jeans and t-shirt. The cape is already strapped to the backpack.

I would definitely recommend the San Andres place, good for all sorts of pilgrims - - as apart from the pilgrim dormitory, there are single and double private hotel rooms, as well as a swimming pool, that obviously I had no benefit from. But that adds up to one of those increasingly rare places where pilgrims of diverse financial means can congregate and exchange.

I've remembered what the Camino is like between here and Los Arcos, and that it's dead easy, even uphill, and I will be going down. I remember it well, for the peculiarity that I was completely alone on the section on my 2014, in Summer high pilgrim season, a complete luxury.
 
And I think that I have decided that I will indeed be accelerating my Way after Lourdes and towards home with occasional forays into motorised public transport, maybe also some hitch-hiking. More time hiking than anything else, as this still needs to be a Camino not just travel, and the route that I have decided on via Carcassonne, Béziers, Montpellier etc is clearly the right one, but increasingly it's time to get home - - including because a primary goal of this Camino, outside the three major pilgrimages to Fátima, Santiago, Lourdes, losing fat and gaining muscle mass, has not much more room for continued improvement at this point.

Not through hiking anyway.
 
JabbaPapa,
Great to read that you had a good night. In nearby Los Arcos there are several good 'watering holes". The resto Mavi, C. la Serna, 2, was always my favorite filled with hungry locals. Carpe diem!
 
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mspath said:
JabbaPapa,
Great to read that you had a good night. In nearby Los Arcos there are several good 'watering holes". The resto Mavi, C. la Serna, 2, was always my favorite filled with hungry locals. Carpe diem!
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Great to hear you had post one million.

Years ago, on a different forum, with completely different purpose, I was the beneficiary of a topical prize as well as being a very active contributor, so that I know how that feels, and I am so glad that you have been the winner of this one.

May your Camino guide book lead you to good destination.
 
Needing more cerveza than I supposed just to get going, there's still a damp in the air, but start is close.

Clouded over a bit too, so no t-shirt hiking sadly.

Since starting again this year, I simply have not returned to the point of having a normal 5K to 25K range, although on the other hand, my 5K to 10K days have more often been closer to 10K+.

Nearly ready to get going again.
 
Day 346 - - Los Arcos

So it was another jeans and t-shirt walk after all, because whilst it was a little windy, it would appear that it might have been the very northern edge of a Sirocco, in any case a warm, dry wind. The Saharan anticyclone is still dominant, which is of course what has precipitated all of this Iberian drought. Temperatures are right up anyway.

And it's the right season for that particular wind.

I met one pilgrim on the way, a Frenchman who was happy to speak some French for a change (I was told later that his English and Spanish are both very good), and who is doing a Camino in stages, ending this year's in Logroño today.

The other two in the Albergue were the rest of the group that the Frenchman belonged to. All three are very good people, though I spoke most with the Californian rather than the Korean, who was already asleep when I got in.

Gary from California and I thought about getting out for a dinner, but instead we both just fell asleep, I guess the bedding was just too comfortable.

So I did have a good long rest, and as a result, I am up much earlier than I have been recently. Just had coffee and a beer at a bakery.

So I don't know if I can make it, but I can at least try to get to Ayegui. Though I do need some resupplying, so I can't just head out immediately - - having already been once in Villamayor de Monjardín in the off-season, can't remember how nor which year (it was a slightly difficult spot of hitch-hiking though, until I reached Estella - a good-natured but eccentric local took me up from about Villamayor to there, and made sure that I got some breakfast stuff into me before letting me continue on, which was one of the better events on that journey, and gave me a good lift to the spirits), I know in advance that everything there will be closed, including the little shop.

Sadly I have reached the point of Navarra where they engage in price-gouging, this place is selling little bottles of cerveza for €3, which is grossly exaggerated.

Well anyway, French bars are also pricey, so in this too, the landscape is shifting towards being more like France ...
 
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Camino Way markers in Bronze
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The cost of groceries is rising rather dramatically all over; you may be just witnessing that.
 
Day 347 - - Ázqueta

So I could not make it to Ayegui.

I am staying in La Perla Nera, where the hospitalera, who is a lovely person, is giving me a bed for just the sleeping price, and will give me the dinner for free.

She has given me the downstairs bed in the living room area, which is fine.

The walk was fine but a little difficult for me from the elevation. The landscape is gorgeous of course, and mostly in sunlight, and I was in t-shirt and jeans again for about half of it, woollen jumper for the other.

I came upon 4½ pilgrims along the way, one here, and another is incoming I believe.

The ½ pilgrim was a local from Estella, training for a home to home Camino from there and back with friends.

Probably the most annoying closed in Winter place on this stretch is the Municipal in Villamayor de Monjardín, because whether you're coming or going, it's atop that climb, which naturally gives you a wish for a bed - - but instead you either sleep outside, as I have done previously, or you struggle on.

Well, Estella tomorrow anyway, as there are good stopping points along the way, not excluding a certain wine fountain !!
 
NorthernLight said:
The cost of groceries is rising rather dramatically all over; you may be just witnessing that.
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That's true, but this was beyond that. It's a beer that would cost about €1 in Portugal and nearly always between €1.50 and €2 in Spain.
 
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The veggie dinner was OK, because either by accident or by design, it was mostly things that I can eat by exception, rather than being what I must avoid at all costs.

Eggs and beetroot, a soup with VERY well-cooked cabbage and courgettes and so on (and so with the fibre broken down), with chick peas.

Great place.
 
Well, the wine at the wine fountain in Irache is significantly better on a day like Christmas Eve than it usually is, though I would suppose that similar would be true at Easter, at the local Parish Saint's Feast Day, and so on.

First time that I have ever gone for a second refill, though to be honest this is also the first time I have ever been here with a very short hiking day ahead of me.

As to the wine, well, it's still just a table wine, and a young one, nevertheless better realised, a better expression of the underlying fruitiness of the Irache, less dry though dry regardless, but I think the dominant quality of it is in its more faithful provision of what the local grapes taste like when gathered by pilgrims along the Way of Saint James in this part of Navarra. These are the sorts of qualities that I have found in some local French wines, from similar overproduction and so alternative means of provisioning, in the Var, Bourgogne, Bordelais, Languedoc, and elsewhere - - though most notably, in the Chianti region in Italy.

There is a particular quality to local wines made primarily for locals that only the best commercial vineyards can ever equal or surpass.
 
I would add that its savour is persistent, easily dominating that of the cerveza that I have right now. It is very good wine.
 
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A French pilgrim is here, having walked from Chambéry, and having slept until here nearly always outside.

So, exhausted, he is snoring away with great content in the comfort of this place and inside his warm duvet sleeping bag.

The Camino provides.
 
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JabbaPapa said:
I am supping on my chorizo and my remains of the Irache wine. A proper feast !!
Click to expand...
Best wishes for a peaceful Christmas J.

I wonder if, as light relief, and a counterpoint to the ultra-light adventure-racers amongst us, you might one day give an overview of the clothing and equipment which has allowed you to walk further than many could imagine possible?

I suspect it would be a lesson in simplicity.
 
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Waking in England on a cool Christmas morning, I have been thinking of you. I suspect I am one of many silent followers who are in awe of your perseverance and determination.
I hope the season and beyond brings you peace, comfort, warm shelter, good tinto and fine meat.

God speed.





The image is from Santiagio Cathedral
 
Merry Christmas! I would be interested to know in which church Mass was held? When we were there in 2019 as hospitaleros, we attended Mass at San Miguel higher on the hill where they did a pilgrim Mass, but other times for what seemed to be regular Mass it was down the hill off the Plaza at the church nearer the business district. Hope you had a good rest day. We are just arising to Christmas here. Awaiting kids and grandkids for a few days of fun.
 
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Days 348 and 349 - - Estella

The Albergue Curtidores is a very comfortable place, though it seems that I was in more need of a proper rest than I thought, because I simply did not budge from the bed for about 36 hours, except toilet and shower, which were both in the dorm itself.

No Christmas Mass then, sadly, but I just couldn't.

And after the French pilgrim went off at about 7:30 on Christmas morning, I was completely alone until starting to move out this morning.

There were a few pilgrims, not sure exactly how many. I saw about a handful ; though some may already have moved on by then. I gave some advice to a French peregrina about places to stay.

It's an easier stretch today, and I am in Villatuerta at the moment, in a watering hole.

That I ended up fasting was a little unusual, but I simply wasn't hungry, in fact still am not, but it is not entirely inappropriate for the day. I did have some little stock of cerveza and tinto though. Nothing exaggerated, but it did help with the fasting - - which in turn helped with the resting and getting the inflammation down.

It's another beautiful sunny day, and I am in t-shirt again, but still the cape as well.
 
Basically my ordinary clothes plus the specific hiking kit, and extra clothes in the backpack to change into.

2 black cotton t-shirts, +1 black long-sleeved.

Started with 3 pairs of jeans in 3 sizes, now just have the smallest pair left.

3 pairs cotton boxers, plus one pair of sports shorts that can double as swimming trunks.

3 pairs 80% wool military socks.

Leather belt.

UK size 14½ French army boots.

Stetson cotton hiking hat.

Gold cross, scallop shell.

Backpack, formerly inflatable mattress, French military sleeping bag, massive credencial, hiking gloves (think I need leather ones instead), bag of medicines and toiletries, small towel, two now very diminished blocks of savon de Marseilles, one basic olive oil for clothes, the other lavender for me.

Some books, maps, Camino sundry.

Food sometimes, usually a drop of water, usually enough beer to get by through the pain.

Windows Phone, plus an Android "hand-held device" being used basically as a mini-tablet plus chargers.

Ash hiking staff.

Great big black pilgrim cape.
 
Interesting. This is from San Bento church, which fronts onto the Plaza Cervantes, and is very similar.
 
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Day 350 - - Cirauqui

It should have been simple enough, but my knees started complaining after about Lorca. Though truth be told, that the little shop in Villatuerta had no beers in 1L bottles helped not at all, as it made taking little sips along the way impossible.

The Camino itself was beautiful enough in the Sun, though it is one of those places where the most natural way has been triple tarmacked - - old road, new road, motorway - - so that foot pilgrims end up clambering over hill and dale rather than the easiest way of yore.

I had a bit of tortilla de patatas and some pork scratchings at the bar, and a couple of beers, then down to the semi-Albergue here, it's more private guest room though. Comfortable enough. I *think* he does welcome people who are stuck financially or otherwise in trouble for free in Winter, but his normal price is €15. I probably could have slept well enough outdoors this time, it's not that cold, but well, a bed and blankets is clearly better.

The only really disagreeable thing though was that the end of the day's hike came after nightfall, and I really would have preferred not to need to navigate the ruins of the Roman bridge in the dark, nor the maze of streets in the pueblo.

All went well after I found the bar, and so to eat a bit and drink, and the villagers are most helpful.
 
I am glad that I was snug in bed, because even though the temperature is clement, it is very damp out, and outdoors would have been imperfect.

Walking the whole stage yesterday with the wrong kind of beer was also imperfect, so that my joints are writing letters of complaint to my central nervous system.

Thankfully, the bakery here has some groceries, and *they* at least have the right kind ; and the bar is open for my morning coffee and cerveza.

The Albergue Bidegain is peculiar, and I can well understand why he keeps it mainly off the grid, except for the Winter Aprinca list.

It's just two beds, so that it would be a disservice for most pilgrims if it were easier to discover. Also his policy of no reservations.

Anyway, second antiinflammatory, and waiting for the cervezas to kick in as well.

And it's not too far to Puente La Reina.

It's less than 100K to SJPP ...
 
JabbaPapa,


Glad that you had a good night indoors. Walking into Cirauqui over that old bridge in the night must have been very unpleasant ! Carpe diem as you continue on.
 
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Not enough beer yet to get out of the pueblo, but enough to at least get out of the bar.

Two Korean pilgrims came through.
 
Made it to Mañeru, and the superior form of beer in my backpack has certainly helped.

I found a good spot at the edge of the pueblo, bench, bin, somewhere to P, and best of all bang on top of the Camino.

And I have seen more than a dozen pilgrims so far this morning, and it might be that after the pre-Christmas low point, numbers might have started going up again and into 2023.

Among them was a Camino Family of six, and there we go.

I am in the Association bar at Mañeru, and there have been few of these since about Vigo on the Português.
 
Getting steak and eggs and a bottle of tinto in Mañeru.
 
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Day 351 - - Puente La Reina

This place is so strange.

I have only ever slept in the Padres Reparadores place off the radar and free, or been refused a bed here for no good reason.

Tonight, some pilgrims let me in, and it is functionally impossible for me to pay for my bed.

It's just so weird. Free or thrown out into the street, what do I know ?

The youngest pilgrim I have ever met is staying here tonight, he is a baby being taken on his Way by his Russian mother.

Otherwise, I have come across some tinto and a cerveza.

The walking was fine, and I am still in jeans and t-shirt, it's not at all cold.
 
Things seem to be a little complicated between Pamplona and Roncesvalles, but I hope that they will be better than they seem.

To Uterga today anyway, and Pamplona tomorrow, which will be a longer day.

Might need a third antiinflammatory to get going, definitely more cerveza, though there are a couple of pueblos and no doubt some watering holes along the way.

This will be my first time on the Francès between Puente and SJPP since the 2005, though I think that last time I was forced to sleep outdoors by the hospitaleros in Roncesvalles was on my hitch-hike back in 2014. Last time I slept there normally was in 1994 ... I did sleep in the Albergue at SJPP in 2014 though, IIRC.
 
Oh actually, about the Padres Reparadores place in Puente La Reina, I did once get no bed there because it was full, so it's not true that I have only ever been turned away from there for no good reason at all, though I was a bit miffed that time about no possibility of sleeping on the floor.
 
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JabbaPapa,
One of my favorite CF watering holes is the friendly bar/hostal/albergue Camino del Perdon in Uterga where I often also stayed in the albergue. Their food was great also. It was always a happy stop after descending the Alto de Perdon. Will you climb that tomorrow or make a detour?
 
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Day 352 - - Uterga

I took it slow, including because there was a fairly cold mist this morning, but mostly because my knees were in a complaining mood.

Obanos I have spoken of, and I had a beer and a couple of tapas in Muruzábal, some mini sausage things with a little bread, and a small bunch of white grapes.

It was a short day anyway.

I am in the Casa Baztán which is great, nothing special in a material sense, just rows of metal bunk beds, but the hospitaleros are super nice, they have put the heating on just for me, and yes I am alone, and they are making me a dinner.

And as many blankets as I might wish for.
 
JabbaPapa,
I am so glad that you are there plus being warm and dry! Be sure to get a good rest for tomorrow will be a long trek.
 
Dinner was a mistake, from not really thinking, as really I wasn't hungry. Oh well.
 
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Day 353 - - Pamplona

Breakfast is included at Casa Baztán in Uterga, so very unusually for me, I had toast with jam and orange juice for breakfast. Though there were some remains left of the dinner, so a bit of sausage, egg, and tomato too.

Then I headed out quite early, with just enough cerveza left in my pack to make do.

The weather was overcast and rather windy on the Uterga side, but the ridge blocked most of the wind on the other, and it cleared up for some of the afternoon. Some tiny drops of rain in the early evening.

Good thing I did leave early, because even though my knees etc weren't too bad, that climb is still a little hard on them.

The view up there is of course as glorious as I remembered it.

I came across eight pilgrims on the way, and I'm getting into that part of month again when I need to ask for help again, though thankfully for not so long a time as the two months previous.

I was happy anyway to get into Zariquiegui for some overpriced refills, an extra dose of the antiinflammatory, and a rest in the Sun.

Then to Cizur Menor.

I'm not sure which side of the ascent is tougher, but the descent towards Pamplona is definitely better than the one on the other side. Though there were several muddy patches, actually the first I've found impossible to step around since the start of this Camino. Though OTOH, there is a great deal of newly laid down gravel, especially between Zariquiegui and Cizur.

Cizur Menor has greatly changed in the past 17 years, last time I was there, there was mainly just a network of streets with empty lots between them. All built up now.

Getting into Cizur I looked at the time, and so needed to hop onto a bus into the city.

The largest Albergue is closed, but supposedly two smaller ones should have been open. Well, the Plaza Catedral one was not, and as to the Iruñako Aterpea, there were pilgrims inside, but I had a hard time contacting anyone. Finally I managed, and he told me it was closed, but with some negociation, he gave me the access code, asking me to leave the payment for him, and for the first time in a long time, I am alone in a disabled dorm.

Not sure how many are sleeping here, not sure if all of them are even pilgrims, and one of them played with his phone with the sound on 'til 2AM.

As for next day, the Municipal at Villava is open, but some family has booked the whole place for themselves so that it is completo. So my only possibility is to bus out to the edge of town, then get to Zubiri, where either it will be open and not completo, or I'll sleep out somewhere there.

Then up to Roncesvalles on Saturday.

After I reach Lourdes I will drastically speed up, because the time is coming just to get home. I will still follow the route that I came up with, via Carcassonne, Béziers, Montpellier, Arles, Aix-en-Provence and so on, but mainly hitch-hiking - - which of course involves a certain amount of hiking.

I have known since before I started this, so back in 2018, that walking back from Lourdes would be a stretch, and that being able to do so would be conditional on things like time and the seasons, but really I have almost achieved all of the main objectives of this Camino, and I have also reached the conclusion that walking twice through the South of France is enough for me, and don't need a third.

There are parts of that way that I would happily revisit, and I will, and I will walk from the edge of Nice near the airport to home. So it will still be a few weeks from Lourdes to home. Just not the three months of hiking it would take to go all the way on foot. And I am walking to Lourdes from SJPP.

Because as to the main health objective, I have run out of room for further improvement from this Camino. Which is a positive - - that goal of improvement has been achieved.
 
I am in Zubiri, but my Windows Phone broke - - the on/off button has basically broken off.

I have swapped the SIM card out to what I have been calling my "hand-held device", so it's now a phone, and I do have a backup Windows Phone at home I could switch back to when I get home, though it would need a new battery, but this is a bad development.
 
JabbaPapa,
I am sorry to learn about this problem. Perhaps the best place to get advice and or help would be in SJPdP. next Monday morning. Hope that you have found a good spot in Zubiri for sleeping tonight.
 
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mspath said:
JabbaPapa,
I am sorry to learn about this problem. Perhaps the best place to get advice and or help would be in SJPdP. next Monday morning. Hope that you have found a good spot in Zubiri for sleeping tonight.
Click to expand...
No, it's dead. My data is safe, i.e. mainly the photos, and I have most of my functionality through this backup device, but it takes less good photos, there's some cloud storage management that was already problematic and is now a little more complicated, and I am not sure how to recover messaging history or if it's possible from out in the sticks with access to no Windows device.

I will have some complex data management and recovery stuff to do when I get home anyway, this extra will make it only a little more complicated. But I don't need help with it, I'm an ex IT professional.

I am in the Rio Arga Albergue, which is full of Koreans.
 
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