The forecast for today was hot temperatures in the mid 80s, so we started early. By 7:15 AM we were out of the hotel and walking the Camino through the early morning
streets of Pamplona. So much quieter in the city after all the noise and crowds from yesterday's triathalon!
We met up with a party of four Texans. They told us that they had taken a rest day in Roncevalles and a second rest day in Pamplona. That is because when they
did stage 1, they took the Route of Napoleon and were met with rain, fog and sleet. It took then 12 1/2 hours to finish stage 1! No wonder they were tired. I wonder how many more stages they completed, we did
not see them again.
Next Lil met Michael from a town near Dublin, Ireland. He said most of the factories have left town within the last 15 years, knitting mills, a Red Bull factory, etc.
Michael currently worked for a company that services wind turbines. Since Michael worked in energy, Lil asked him if he knew the cause of the power outage which had blacked out most of Spain a few weeks
prior to our visit. He said the power in the grid had suddenly dropped below the load level but the back up batteries failed to switch on. This led to a snowball effect that rippled through the whole grid. Lil was pretty good at striking up conversations with the other pilgrims. We talked to Jeensu from Korea, Simon (an environmental engineer from northeast Italy) and Jeenay from Okinawa.
In the distance, we could see the famous windmill ridge, called Alto de Perdon, the Hill of Forgiveness, where the famous Monument to the Pilgrims stands. It looked a long way off, but we were already accustomed to walking
long distances. Unfortunately, we came upon a barrier stretched across the Camino. It indicated that pilgrims should walk on a detour. We could see other people walking ahead of us, so we followed. The detour took
us along hot asphalt roads for several kilometers before we finally merged back with the original route. When we rejoined the main trail, we saw a lot of pilgrims on the original path. We asked - what was the obstacle
that caused the detour (which you ignored)? There was no obstacle at all, they replied, the Camino was perfectly fine! We realized that yesterday there had been an Ironman Triathlon into Pamplona, and the organizers
must have reserved that section of Camino for the triatheletes so that they didn't run into crowds of pilgrims. But because they didn't take the sign down when the event was over yesterday, we wasted an hour today hiking on unnecessary roadways.
I was quite frustrated and annoyed. I don't think I recovered my sense of equanimity the rest of the day. I kept thinking: We should be an hour ahead of where we are. Our 23.8 KM day was more like a 28 KM day.
We stopped at the town Zariquiegui at 11 AM. Lil went into the San Andres church and then bought herself a souvenir Camino patch to sew onto her pack.
The guidebook explained that there was a legend of a medieval pilgrim
who climbed the windy ridge but was dying of thirst. The devil, disguised as a fellow pilgrim, offered to show him a spring of water if he would only renounce God.
The pilgrim refused and then St. James himself appeared and led the pilgrim to the spring where he quenched his thirst scooping up water in a scallop shell. Apparently this magical stream is still
flowing, because the trail near the top of hill was a bog of mud. My mood was not helped by the fact that I slipped on and landed in the mud near.
I probably cursed like the devil a few times as I tried to struggle to my feet in the mud. Another pilgrim offered me his hand
to pull me upright, and I almost took it, but I realized my hands were covered in mud and so staggered free of the mud on my own.
The top of the Alto de Perdon is one of the iconic spots on the Camino. There is a famous sculpture there depicting pilgrims through the ages. The first pilgrim
is looking for a path forward symbolizing the start of pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela. The next group of three pilgrims represents the growth of the Camino pilgrimage,
inspiring more and more people to embark. The next group has donkeys, pilgrims and merchants with wares on their back representing the medieval period when transactions occurred
with pilgrims and merchants. The third from the end pilgrim represents loneliness as a metaphor for the decline in pilgrims due to political and social unrest.
The last two people in the sculpture represent today's pilgrims, since the later part of the 20th century has seen a resurgence of pilgrims. We met our friend Michelle from Ireland again. She has such an ebullient personality that it was always a delight to run into her.
Standing on the summit of Alto de Perdon, we had commanding views both west and east. Giant wind turbines lined the ridge to the north and south. It was a memorable sight.
There was a steep stony slope heading down, but since it was a dry day we had no problems with slipping.
At a roadside shrine dedicated to Mother Mary, Lil spotted another pilgrim who was wearing a B.F. Goodrich hat. Since she used to work for B.F. Goodrich, she was excited to talk to them. It turned out that they
were Australians who worked as distributors for Michelin (which owns B. F. Goodrich). So they may have sold tires built by the factory where Lil used to work. They had an exciting conversation about tire manufacturing.
We almost started down the wrong road in the town of Uterga, but other pilgrims saw our mistake and shouted we were off course. In the end, we never got lost on this whole trip, it was quite well marked from start to finish.
I think the detour made our day seem unexpectedly tiring. It sure seemed to take awhile to walk into Puenta la Reina, though actually it was only 3 PM when we finished, so it wasn't an
unreasonably long day of walking. The only place we could find open for an early dinner was a bar serving cold potato and ham quiche. Thunderstorms were forecast for midafternoon tomorrow, so we made plans for a real early start.
Panorama Photos
Still Photographs
