The Camino Provides

My feet continue to misbehave. Maybe they are meant to be helping me stay in the moment. Getting fitter was never going to be a walk in the park.

Last night was the end of my pre-booked accommodation. It is a fine balance on the Camino Frances in September post covid and a holy year. You want the freedom to walk without booking ahead but being slow you want the security of not missing out on a bed and having to walk to the next town.

I decided to head for Pamplona even though it was a bit further than I thought I could walk. I knew I could get a taxi through the suburbs and then have a full rest day in Pamplona. I wanted a private room, I'm mixing it up between private rooms and albergues. Accommodation was scare but I found a nice looking apartment in the historic centre and decided to spoil myself because I'm worth it. Jody, who at this time was sitting next to me with her feet soaking in the pool, was also searching for two days accommodation in Pamplona. I asked her if she would like to join me in my two bedroom apartment. After contemplating for a while the odds of me being an axe murderer or something similar she said yes. I told her to pay whatever she wanted towards her stay.

Now I just had to make it to Pamplona. The walk was beautiful again. We followed the river all the way and I spent an hour soaking my feet at a gorgeous spot. Shops were shut or absent so around lunch time I was getting pretty tired and starting to think about how I was going to get a taxi without speaking Spanish. I plodded into a picnic area at the bottom of a big hill and sat down for another rest. There was a pilgrim lying on a picnic bench looking exhausted. We had passed each other a few times but never spoken more than a buen Camino. I asked him how he was and he said he had just figured out how to get a taxi into town. Needless to say, we shared that taxi and Thomas from Germany would not let me pay a cent.

At three o'clock I meet Jody at the entrance to our Bnb and we scored the best Pamplona apartment we both could have imagined. Jody insisted on paying for half of it as well. We both love it so much we are now buying one together.

They say "the Camino provides" ...Read more