A Day On A Path
A lovely day for a walk. Mostly flat, cooler temps, early cloud cover.
Leaving Navarette. Road construction in the old villages looks a lot different!
Villagers are so helpful. These guys happily obliged my photo request.
And then, there’s the pretty kitty.
Finally, the path leaves the village.
Navarette remains a major pottery center and has been so since the 16th century.
I attended mass in the cathedral only to realize later that I’d crashed a funeral.
Had a good night’s rest in a beautiful property in Viana, but still woke shaky and very tired. Very few villages to take a break on this stage. I needed to spend time in Logrono, a city of about 120,000, to take care of a few things: had left an adapter with three cables plugged into a wall somewhere, needed a stop at a Farmacia for a few things, needed to go by the Orange network store and recharge my SIM card.
I determined my body needed a break, so I bussed to Logrono, took care of my business, then bussed on to Navarette. It was the right decision. As I write the next morning, I’m rested and ready to walk on.
The stone benches face the back of a church. It looks like a place where mass was held. Or some other ceremony. Baptism? Appears to be an alter and a font. Now, it’s a nice pilgrim rest stop.
The little bar on the path has an amazing selection. On the other side of the path, across from the bar, are 6 metal tables surrounded by red metal chairs.
A generator sits in his vehicle trunk supplying power to a little George Foreman type grill. I had a grilled ham and cheese sandwich and a coke.
Ups and downs. Highway walking. Flat, gravel paths. A snail’s pace on the ups n downs, and a shift into high gear on the flats.
One skittish kitty and one very affectionate dog.
The fellow petting the dog is Pilgrim Damo, from Northern Ireland.
I walked out of Los Arcos to a highway intersection. Stood, scanning, scanning for an arrow pointing to the Camino. Zilch. Three options: left, right, straight. No arrow. No pilgrim. Me standing looking lost. Then, beep! Beep! A guy at the intersection rolling down his car window, “Camino!” With large sweeps of his arm showing me the way. Off I went. It took the help of two other villagers before I found my way.
A strange day of steep ups and downs, highway walking, and flat gravel paths. A guidebook said this section is referred to as the “knee breaker.”
Today’s paths: A mountain and a dry, hot, flat road.
Luckily, had a private room at an albergue. But I had to share the bathroom with the two guys next door.
