What goes up, comes down

Day 4 Pamplona to Puente la Reina 25.1km, 7.5 hours of walking.
102.7km so far
148,683 steps so far.

I woke up with the blues this morning. I was really teary at breakfast and for the first hour of my walk. My wee cloth that hangs from my backpack became a tear cloth (it was clean).
Leaving Pamplona, it was a long walk to get out of the city and the concrete paths are much harder on your feet than trails. We then headed into wheat fields and climbed until we got to Monumento al Peregrino.
The metal silhouettes represent pilgrims from different eras travelling the Camino together: people on foot, horseback, with dogs, carrying staffs and banners. It symbolises centuries of pilgrimage toward Santiago de Compostela.
A steep descent after this and what felt like forever to get to accommodation in the heat of the day. Shade was not very common today.
I’m not going to go on about what I saw today because that will get boring. I’ll tell you about a few people I met.
Bernadette (Bernie) from Massachusetts is doing the Camino with her 20 year old grandson. He had gone on ahead.
She was just what I needed today.
She was 68 but definitely didn’t look it, a theatre nurse, a really proud mum of her kids and that pride came simply from the fact that they were good humans, nothing to do with achievements.
Bernie is a bit of a people pleaser and vowed that she wanted to stop saying sorry all the time. Instead she said, “I haven’t had much luck, just learnt to say sorry in two new languages.”
She lives 10 miles from the New York border and can drive herself into the heart of New York City in 2.5 hours.
Bernie was kind and wise and funny and she was the remedy to my blues today.
Sue from South Africa owns a radiator business and planned to be retired before she did the Camino, but it wasn’t so. She happily handed control over to an employee and headed off. She surprised herself because once upon a time she would never have given over control, but after raising 4 daughters she knew it was her time to do something for herself.
She was with a gentleman that I thought was her partner, but he was somebody she only met a couple of days ago. His mate who he was walking with had injured himself and was travelling via bus, and they had just hooked up to walk together. It’s temporary as his mate was coming back on board, so they were just enjoying this time hanging out.
My old mate Irish Jerry, who lives in Scotland, popped back up and we drank a Hydrate and had a chat at the final stop today.
My favourite was a 75 year old local from Pamplona who rode his bike to the top of the hill we walked. He then offered to take a pic of us there, all via hand signals because I couldn’t understand what he was saying. He managed to put his fingers up to tell us how old he was and then hopped back on his bike to ride all the way back to Pamplona on a stinking hot day. He was a really happy man.
Started off a bit rough today but finished feeling happy xxRead more