19/05/2024 – Walking the walk 3

Day 4 was another easy one - 24km with an elevation gain of 465m, with over 500m shed again! Nature is unhelpful that way, with this “rolling countryside” and all. And, that’s what we had today: grey-green wheat fields and lime-gold barley, both edged with an extravagance of wild flowers. On the hills, we were in thyme again, oregano, and also lemon thyme. In the fields, it was poppies, big-eye daisies, purple thistles. The birds were in full throng: many goldfinches (which makes me feel a little silly about how excited I was to see just one earlier) and lots of warblers - including a very handsome Sardinian warbler with piercing red eyes.

We passed the 100km mark leaving Pamplona and moved into drier territory, with olive trees and vineyards. We climbed to the iconic El Perdòn windfarm, on an, often muddy, clay trail and descended on a dry riverbed of a track, full of round, tumbled pebbles.

When we walk together, we string out a bit. Whenever we go uphill, I dig in and sprint up before sagging at the flat bit. Also, Carey likes to listen to podcasts, while I like to sing, which, Carey says is lovely - so long as I do it with my heart, not my mouth. So I do. I trotted along to “Joyful! Joyful! We adore Thee” all day (Beethoven) which is the perfect marching beat.

Day 5 was Pentecost, and a day for the Camino as metaphor. We walked out of Puerta de la Reine in the pouring rain, and so through several storms throughout the 24km to Estella. Strange to say, (not), the sun came out every time the clouds rolled over and away… We walked stretches that were narrow strips between head-high, very pointy thistles and those banked with roses, with all their fragrance and thorns. We walked under people’s laundry (the camino as “other people just want to get on with their day”). We walked over 4-lane highways, as well as under them (the camino as “road less travelled”? or, see above, “walking under laundry” – take your pick). We came across a garden in the mountains, where we were encouraged to rest and smell the roses. That seemed to be metaphor A, until we realised they had co-opted the camino signage to send us there and we had walk past its delights to rejoin the “true path”, which turned it into metaphor B …

We both feel the cumulative tiredness of about 135km in 5 days. It’ll change, but it’s currently around the 20km mark where our legs say “that’ll do”. The utter satisfaction of arriving, stripping off muddy, sweaty clothes, getting clean, putting on a fresh shirt and soft sandals… must be felt to be believed! As I write, we have picnicked, enjoyed a can of cold beer and are mustering to go exploring this wonderful historic town. All it takes is an hour or so and we are both fully refreshed.