Day 3 - Roncesvalles to Espinal - 7km

I had an AWESOME sleep. I only woke a couple times to go to the washroom and right back to sleep.

Today was a planned short day. I made a reservation in Espinal which is only 7.5km from Roncesvalles but I thought it is important to give my muscles the break early. When I awoke, I felt pretty good and thought I could probably do the whole 20km to Zubiri but I won’t. At about 3km, I started to feel those glutes and hips again so I was thankful I only had to go 7.5km.

Because it was so short, I didn’t want to arrive too early, so I left around 9am. This was wonderful as there were only about 3 of us on the trail at that time, so I got to walk alone for most of the way.

When I almost hit Espinal, I guy stopped on a bike. He was a chef at one of the bars in town and was saying if you want a break, then he is the second bar in town. Ironically, I was just thinking earlier today about the restaurants and how hard it would be for the second one as the first one pilgrims see, they go to as they are not sure there is another one. So I decided to go to his place. Only a couple other pilgrims where there where the other one was quite full.

Check-in at the albergue is at 2:00pm so I had time to kill so I went to the other bar. It is more expensive, but definitely nicer. I sat with Maria and Antonio from Italy. They also had only done the short distance today.

I don’t have a reservation in Zubiri. I am a little concerned about that so I looked up if it was even possible on booking.com and they were full. There is a municipal albergue that has 72 places that doesn’t take reservations so I should be fine. If I leave early, I already have a 7.5km head start for most people that want to stay there so I should be able to get a bed.

What worries me more is that the forecast is rain. The volume of rain in the forecast has gone down since I looked a week ago, but it is still rain. This part is know to be very slippery when wet and is about 500m down.

Pilgrim’s dinner was at 7pm today and was pasta, pork and french fries with yogurt for desert. I think it will soon be time to get my own dinners.

Tomorrow will be a challenge. It is best I be off to bed.

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