Spectacular Walk to Nájera

Another day with beautiful weather, and glorious scenery…our mornings start cool, but soon get very comfortable, and when we arrive we are hot and sweaty, but not overpowered by heat. I think it went up to 26°. No huge climbs today, mostly undulating and flat, except one quite demanding uphill and at the top was a beautiful view back from where we’d come, and ahead…the view today consisted almost entirely of vineyards covering the whole landscape…there was an occasional wheat field, and I saw a lovely vegetable patch with onions and artichokes, but basically wall to wall vineyards.

The Rioja soil is very rich red, and today it was very stony…you wondered how things would grow in such stony ground, but they even seemed to be specially built up along the rows and maybe they help keep the grasses and weeds in check, and the vine roots are deep and unaffected. They are just getting their first sprouting leaves, and today most were very old and gnarled looking.

I think we arrived here about 1, walking only about 15 or 16 kms, and sat at one of the bars by the river before checking in to our hotel. Had a nice chat and drink with Orla, an Irish woman we’d been walking with. Then checked into the hotel…the wifi knows me at these hotels I’ve stayed at before which is very convenient, don’t need to bother about passwords.

Showered and washed and we had a bit of a wander, but sadly the Monasterio de Santa Maria de Real, which Amr and I had really enjoyed visiting, was closed on Mondays. So we circled round, not much to see, just pleasant by the river where we had another drink and now R&R are at a mass, and I am doing this, and we’ll meet at about 8.15 for dinner at a little restaurant round the corner that we have a voucher for. All good.

Well now back from dinner, fun rime, and I loved the food…I again had the garlic soup, but this time it had a whole poached egg in it. - yesterday’s had egg cooked and streaked through - delicious, but not heavy, and then I had stuffed peppers, and flan (always safe).

Rachel has reminded me to tell about the people (we think Korean, but not positive) who were totally covered against the sun…it was more covering than the burka! They must have been so hot, with all their skin covered…Also, there seemed to be more people on the Camino today…I think maybe because some started at Logroño and did the 28 km walk to Nájera like we did in 2013, and they arrived around the time we strolled in at about 1. It feels very long and weary doing the whole thing in one day, and we were very happy to divide the day at Navarrete. Our stats for the day are: 18.32 kms, and 27,714 steps.Baca lagi