Day 9: Logroñ - Najera

Today started in a beautiful park just outside Logroño, filled with little rabbits, beautiful red squirrels and a sunrise over the lake. The squirrels were a bit aggressive but a lovely start.

I started solo, doing my daily Spanish learning, and felt like I powered 13km to the first stop at Naverrette for the ritual Cafe con leche. We are fully into Rioja wine country, so there were plenty of vineyards and pretty dry terrain.

At a park I saw Laurent who was treating himself to a shot of Ricard ('because it was Sunday' he said), and aI lso had a chat with two American girls who were trying to shake off a pulled muscle. After 3 rest days in a miniature town they had started off again, but one was limping pretty badly. They'd sent their bag ahead and I hope they find someway to continue, but it did make me thankful that I'm only sore but still functioning.

Today was 30km and I felt every step the last few kilometres. Thankfully at a rest stop I caught up with Ruben and Brook for the last stretch, and had a really nice chat. They unfortunately lost their newborn son a few months ago, such a sad story, and are out here trying to process the grief and get away from it all. They said they have had many reminders of Sonny on the Camino but for some reason they bring a lot more joy than the reminders from home, so I'm glad they're finding some peace.

We did a simple cook at our simple albergue, 6 euros a night! Incredible. Benjamin picked up the guitar and played a few songs for us (including TNT by ACDC), which was a very wholesome camp fire vibe. Snoring tonight was pretty rough, but that's life in a 40 bed dorm room!Read more