San Miguel de Aralar

What a day. First, breakfast made by the wonderful Pilar. She insisted on giving me a sandwich for the road, along with three really yummy homemade granola bars. As I started out, it was hazy, chilly, with the mountains on both sides. Pretty close to a perfect morning.

I passed through several villages, 2 or 3 km apart from each other. All of them had some 18th century caseríos, many beautifully restored with their coats of arms and flower pots filled with red and pink flowers. And two very old bridges.

But I knew it was going to be a hot day.

The priest in the monastery had told me I could leave some of my backpack contents there during the day, to make my walk up to San Miguel easier. That was a great benefit.

It was a rough climb, but not absurdly hard. The cafeteria at the church was closed today, which I think kept the visitors down. The church was open, however, and I was in it all by myself. There is an enamel and gold altarpiece that is really unbelievable. It is the same kind of workmanship as a little box that I remember seeing in León in the museum of San Isidoro. But that was a tiny box, and this is an enormous altarpiece, with Mary in the middle and lots of Saints and angels around. It was just spectacular. And real candles too! So I was able to sit and think about a lot of things and a lot of people.

The story of the miracle that happened at this site is really over the top. Rather than repeated here, I have attached a picture of the tail. And a picture of the chains, which are still here.

Rather than take the straight way back, I decided to follow some tracks I had that go to several dolmens. It’s kind of hard to conceive of what it means that these things were made 6000 or 7000 years ago. I saw four of them, each one a little different — different sizes, different shapes, different underground spaces, but each one had one of those enormous slabs on the top. How in the world did they get them up there?

Though the dolmens were extremely fun to see, the trail itself was, shall I say, a challenge. It took me a long time to find my way, because there were very many sections of total overgrowth. Lots of sections across rocky outcrops that would have given someone with vertigo pause. But I made it, very slowly, and by 4:30 (yes that’s 9 1/2 hours after I started out!), I was sitting in front of a monastery, waiting for someone to come let me in.

I have a very nice room in the monastery, and I am now going to figure out my plan for tomorrow. It’s going to be very hot, so the one sure thing is that I will be on the road very early.

My tracks: https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/hiriberri…Baca lagi