Zubiri to Cizur Menor – 30.5km

Snow day on the camino

 We woke up this morning to a fairly decent covering of snow. Yikes. On the upside though, it did make for a very picturesque exit from Zubiri and was enough to distract from the rain … for a couple of hours at least.  By the time I hit Pamplona about six hours later though, I was well aware of every single drop still attached to my body, particularly as the temperature signs around the city were waivering around 4C … not quite what I had in mind for a spring camino, but hey ho. 

Beyond the initial snow-laden forests, it hasn’t been the most picturesque of days with the Camino running in parts alongside a river (nice) and in other parts through the middle of what looked like a series of concrete factories (less nice). Toward the end we crossed Pamplona which looks to be worthy of a less rain-soaked return visit. After a few days of mountain paths though, it was all a bit hectic for today so only received a cursory glance and a quick stop for tea and a few man portions of tortilla espanol. Nom, nom, nom.

The big highlight in Pamplona was the Magdelena Bridge which marked the entrance to the city for pilgrims. I had been thinking during the day about how difficult it was to get your head around this path being hundreds of years old – doesn’t quite compute when you are walking alongside factories, through storm drains and even across landslides on the mountain paths (quick toss of the backpack and lithe scurry up a mini cliff and away we go).  But when you come to the marker at the Magdelena Bridge, the whole thing feels properly old and for about seven seconds it really didn’t matter that I was cold and soaked through with still a fair slog to go.  

The Magdelena Bridge gave me a little ahhh moment

I have been thinking today about how the walking is only part of the Camino adventure. In most of the books I have read before coming here, people talk about the importance of the people you meet along the way and I think I get it now. For the most part, you arrive at your destination before 3pm, without much energy to do anything other than sit around and chat.  It has brought back my backpacking days (in more ways than one as I trounced off, slightly outraged from the first allbergue yesterday when they quoted the outrageous sum of €15, €5 more than the ridiculously cheap going rate everywhere else). But it is also quite odd getting your head around the transient nature of the friends you make – have just heard that Oscar and Margarita, the mother and son team we hung out with last night were struggling today and have decided to get the bus to Burgos and rest up there for a couple of days so am unlikely to see them again. Paola the delightfully chatty Brazillian has stopped about an hour back in Pamplona, so who knows if or when our paths will cross again. And still not sure about Virag, Gary and Gabriella who I shared the journey from Biarritz to St Jean are apparently a day or so behind me after being talked into taking a closed mountain pass and getting stranded overnight in a shepherds hut (no comment!) I can already see how word of everyone’s progress travels up and down the camino … just an odd, but good. experience when you don’t know whether you are going to be sharing an evening in very close quarters with someone, or never seeing them again. But that is travelling I guess … 

The one constant is Mirraid who seems to have fallen naturally into being my walking partner. We both travel at the same speed and have about the same amount of juice in the tank before we decide it is time for a path-side snack attack or to call it a day. I was quite looking forward to some alone time and was a bit reticent to team up at first, but  this works even better – we generally walk for an hour or so without speaking, often 50m or so apart and will then come together for a bit of a confab about anything from which new and surprising aches and pains have popped up to what song is running through our head. 

On which note, today’s internal soundtrack comprised Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy, Queen with a bit of Don’t Stop Me Now (I’m having such a good time) and the random addition of the day, the Beach Boys with Kokomo …  who needs an iPod when your subconscious is throwing that fine selection your way!