Depart Time: 7:45 Temp: 57F RH: 80%
Walked today: 6.7 mi. Camino 2024: 14.6 mi.
We planned to get something for breakfast at a small grocery store as we left Bizkaretta, but it was still closed. Realizing that no other services were available until Zubiri, this meant we would be extending our fast since yesterday’s 2:00 p.m. meal an additional 4 hours. But we decided to press on rather than wait for it to open.
Soon after exiting the village, the camino led us into a forest and continued for about a mile ….
….before joining a gravel road which took us to the hamlet of Lintzoain. Linda found a bench and we took a short break to consume some nuts and raisins to hopefully sustain us .
Directly across from us were two water fountains… labeled for the benefit of pilgrims.
Unable to put it off any longer, we began walking up one of the most challenging sections of the Camino.
The next half-mile of paved path then rocky wash, by our calculations, was a very challenging 16% grade!! (400 ft rise over 2500 ft distance)
The path became less difficult for the next 2 miles with more rocky washes and inclines but for relatively short duration.
At the 4 mile point of today’s walk, we reached Alto de Erro, a reported food truck stop for cyclists and pilgrims. Unfortunately, whenever we have walked through, no food was to be found! We rested for a few minutes and munched some more nuts, then reluctantly set out to tackle the challenging final 2 mile walk into Zubiri.
Less than a half-mile from Alto de Erro, the shale infested (dry) washes appeared and threatened to terminate our Camino with treacherously, rocky, unstable footing and sharp vertically oriented protruding shale stone, dominating the final 1.5 miles of the way into Zubiri.
By the time we escaped this section of the Camino Frances, our legs and knees were like jelly. We willed ourselves across the 15th century Puente de la Rabia into Zubiri and collapsed into seats at the first bar we came to and consumed a belated breakfast at 12:15.
The bartender graciously called a taxi to take us to our hotel in Pamplona. We checked in at Hotel Maisonnave at 1:00 p.m., crashed until 3:30, then walked (gingerly) to a nearby restaurant and had our lunch/dinner for the day.
We’ll be staying in Pamplona for two nights before continuing Camino 2024.
Jimandi 