Day 8 – Cizur Mayor to Uterga

• Distance today:                     3.6 mi
• Distance Camino 2017:     51.9 mi

Shortly after leaving our hotel we arrived at Zariquiguie as the wind picked up considerably. The temperature was 55 degrees making it quite chilly as dark clouds partially blocked the sun. We took some quick photos of the church featured in the film “The Way” mentioned earlier.

The Camino today took us up the steep incline to the Alto del Perdon and then back down.

The walk up was slow, giving us multiple excuses to stop and look back at the beautiful fields and small villages between us and Pamplona and look forward at the ridge above us, lined with windmills.

The winds of 30-40 mph, fortunately at our backs, continued to increase as we climbed upward. When we reached the top the near gale force winds forced us to struggle to maintain our footing. Our Backpacks acted as sails, making matters even worse.

We took some quick photos of the metal silhouettes of medieval pilgrims, an icon of the Camino Frances, then got some welcome relief from the gale as we began our descent.

The descent was also a struggle, even as the wind subsided a bit, due to the steepness and the fist size, loose pebbles filling the path which was more like a wash. This was a real knee killer… an accident waiting to happen. We finally made it down the slope as the path became more manageable and we walked the final distance to Uterga, our destination for the day.

Our albergue for the night was easy to find, right on the Camino path through the small village (pop. 205).

Directly across the street was a nice bar where we had breakfast, lunch and dinner, and drinks during the day if not doing our routine chores in our room. Wifi was stronger in the bar so we did our internet activity and blogging there.