El Peregringo

Updated: October 19, 2006 with images of the bridge…

This had to be the easiest day so far. First of all, I had made all my training walks out of Pamplona along this route, so everything was complete familiar for most of the walk. It’s a pretty steep climb to the ridge of windmills and Zariquiegui just before the ridge. In fact virtually the whole climb is that one ridge. At the top there are 50-60 huge windmills at least. The state of Navarra supplies 60% of it’s total electric needs via wind power and as such is said the be the “greenest” state in Spain and among the most green in all of Europe. Given the stupidity surrounding wind power in Vermont, I find this actually pretty sad since we could do the same if we had the guts to do it.

The route today has taken me through some of the most beautiful little towns I’ve ever seen: Zariequegui, Uterga, Muruzábal, and Obanos. See photos of these locations in what follows.

Final destination was Puente la Reina - Gares. Gares was the original basque name of the village on the Arga river. The river is too deep to ford, so for many years, pilgrims had to pay to be ferried across. In 1041, the then current queen decided that it was time for a bridge, and sponsored its construction (which took some 40+ years). It’s a beautiful bridge and a beautiful village. It’s amazing crossing a bridge that’s been in place for over 900 years…

The Camino actually crosses the bridge–naturally since it was virtually the only away across the river.

In Puente la Reina I stayed in a brand new albergue in the basement of a pretty nice hotel. It’s new enough that not a lot of people know about it and there were only 3 of us there.

Today’s walk was tough by all accounts. It rained a great deal more than yesterday, which isn’t a problem unto itself, but my goodness was the Camino in terrible shape. The ascents and descents were essentially small streams and when water wasn’t actually running, the mud was horrible. The mud in this part of Navarra is thick, clayey and ultimately, very heavy–adding half a kilo to the weight of each boot. In places there was simply no avoiding 6 to 8 inch deep mud and/or water. Kind of a let-down as I looked forward to the relatively level terrain compared to yesterday’s three major climbs.

Because it rained so much, I only pulled out the camera once and got very few shots. The photos I did get were all in the same place. It stopped raining, so I paused, took off my poncho and packed it, shot these 4 images, put my backpack back on…and it started pouring again so I had to pull the poncho out again.

  

Since we will be living here in Pamplona for the year, I’ll have a chance to get back to photograph the medieval bridge crossing the river into the city, and the spectacular climb up the city walls and through the “French Gate” into the oldest part of the city. The gate is complete with a wooden drawbridge, that astonishingly, forms part of a road still used by cars! As I crossed it a minivan crossed it in the opposite direction!

I’m looking forward to a couple of days back home in Pamplona so I can do something about this poncho. It was a loan from a neighbor. It’s a heavy green plastic with a tight neck opening and tight hood. It does cover my backpack and keep that dry, but since it’s plastic, and I am such an old fat guy these days, that I sweat so much when wearing it that I end up just as wet as if I didn’t wear the poncho at all. I hope to get to a sporting goods supply shop to look for a goretex style poncho that will transpire some of my internally generated moisture.

What I’ve learned in Two Days…

OK, so now I have two long days of experience (for what that’s worth). These first two days have really been a trial run of my equipment (and by equipment I’m mostly referring to my knees, feet, and back…but also to the hiking gear). All the many guides you’ll find about the Camino tell you to travel as lightly as you can. OK, I feel pretty stupid carrying a camera, my laptop and charger, an iPod shuffle, a cell phone, a mini-disc recorder, and spare discs. But given that I plan to generate this blog as I go, leaving that gear behind isn’t really an option. What I find amazing, is that a great many of the pilgrims I’ve encountered are carrying at least twice what I am carrying in terms of the size of their backpacks. I’m carrying just my camera/laptop backpack re-purposed to carry some clothes. What the heck are these other people carrying with them? OK, on to my day two tips:

• forget the umbrella (Ana suggested it was a good idea, and it was recommended in some of the online sites I’ve read, but so far, it’s been completely useless going through wooded areas. Furthermore, in rain, I need to have the poncho covering the backpack anyway…)
• Termalgin (paracetamal) is a worthless analgesic. Apparently it’s pretty common here in Spain, but ibuprofen works much better for sore legs, backs and feet.
• get a poncho that breathes. Sweating to death underneath plastic defeats the purpose and at least this time of year, when removing the poncho when it stops raining and you’ll freeze to death as you dry out.
• LEAVE EARLY EVERY DAY This is common sense, but according to the people at the pilgrim office in Roncesvalles, 200 pilgrims begin the Camino each day from Roncesvalles alone. There are very few villages with albergues large enough to handle that load. Had I not gotten the last room in the Hostería de Zubiri, and that only because a reservation missed the 6pm arrival deadline, I would have had to sleep on the street somewhere (as many pilgrims did).

Where will I go from here?

So the first two days were a training run. My plan, subject to change of course, is to photograph as much as I can, weather permitting, and to interview other pilgrims. As I mentioned above, I’m carrying a mini-disc recorder and plan to produce a podcast of those interviews and of my walking commentary. Unfortunately I have to recapture the audio in real time, and that doesn’t lend itself to on-the-road production, but we’ll see how it goes. I really hope to get at least the recordings I’ve made so far online before I depart on Sunday to continue the Camino (it was so good to see my girls today that it will be hard to leave them again. Amalia watched from the window today and yelled “Daddy” at the top of her lungs as soon as she saw me…).

I don’t know how much of my own “spiritual” journey I plan to share here. Obviously when walking alone 5-6 hours a day over the course of 5-6 weeks, I’ll have lots of time to think and reflect. Just how profound that reflection becomes I can’t even begin to imagine. Pain will play a roll I’m sure, as it has with pilgrims for a thousand years. Stay tuned…

I began the Camino de Santiago today, starting from the Spanish town of Roncesvalles, just across the French border. I got a very late start since we had to drop the girls off at school and Ana had some business to conduct, so I didn’t actually set out with my documents from the pilgrim office until just before noon. It rained off and on again all day today, though there were a few breaks of sun when I was able to pull out the camera and get a few shots. I was able to do some audio recordings and I’ll get them online as soon as possible.

The path out of Roncesvalles is quite wooded and very nice. On occasion you will hear and/or see a few cattle or sheep grazing in adjacent clearings. I love the sound of the cowbells.

This section of the Camino is really tough–realistically, planning 22 km. the first day was optimistic, but I still managed to cover the distance in the 5 hours I had planned as an average over time. Some of the climbs were brutal, and given the weather, the mud on the path, and the slippery rocks, I was lucky to make the kind of time I did. The climbs were hard, but the descents were dangerous. With my left knee (plastic and metal as it is), I had to concentrate while going downhill to make sure I didn’t do any damage or twist anything.

This section of the road crosses three tributary rivers (of the Ebro) in separate valleys, and as such, there are three pretty tough climbs and associated descents. The descents are the worst and I really feel them in my calves and the front of my thighs…

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been taking training walks out of Pamplona along the Camino, and I’ve been very surprised to see the footwear in use among the pilgrims. Of course out of Pamplona, it’s all paved, but still, sandals and flip-flops seem a bit ridiculous. Apparently, the last climb before Zubiri, was too much for this pilgrim.

Given my late start, I was surprised to encounter any other pilgrims on the road at all, but as I was making the last big climb before Zubiri (climing to about 800 m. before the descent back down into the village), I passed three pilgrims moving pretty slowly. Once at roughly 800 m., the views down into the valleys were spectacular:

In the Alto de Erro pass, there was once an inn for pilgrims called the Venta del Puerto. Sadly, it’s now a cattle barn.

I shot these images because I thought the building was cool–and a bit sad. The cattle inside seemed quite happy. Only after arriving in Zubiri and pulling out the Gitlitz and Davidson book did I realize what it was that I had photographed.

Descending into Zubiri, I passed a Japanese couple walking and then a German couple resting at the entrance to the town. Zubiri has a wonderful old bridge, part of which is Roman, and part reconstructed during medieval times. Here are a couple of quick shots. Note the lack of mortar in the first image.

Arriving in Zubiri just before 6 pm, as I feared, both of the albergues were full, as well as the two pensiones in town. The Camino doesn’t actually go right through the town, but they do have street named after it…

I finally came to the Hostería Zubiri, despite the much higher cost, and was told there was only one room remaining, and that that one was reserved. However, the hotel policy was to hold reservations only until 6pm without pre-pay, and after a couple of beers, the hotel owner gave me the room. A hot shower later, and a connection to their wireless network, and I’m ready to go…