Roncesvalles to Zubiri - part one

A 22km stage today, optimistically framed by the gang as short and downhill, between Roncesvalles at 960m and industrial Zubiri at 520m. Got up at 5.45am once I heard the first toilet flush (I didn't have to try hard to hear it) as I figured that was the band-aid ripped off the peace.

By 6.45am they were piping monastic chants through the PA to wriggle us on, they're very serious here. In the pod we had a laugh imagining the words of the unintelligible chant were "gettttttt outttttttt". With the ummmmming booming, I rounded a corner and nearly fell over a woman engaged in what with hindsight I recognise as yoga but at the time I truly suspected might be a possession in progress. She was bent at the elbows and knees to create like a table, with her torso and thighs as the top, and had her eyes closed. OUT (of my way) demon!

On the road by 7am, which started with a truly lovely yet CRISP wander through dense woodland described in the literature as the home of "secret covens" in the 1500s, and when translated, named Oakwood of Witches. Excellent, all my love to the girls. While we're on the literature, I wasn't joking about the Charlemagne stuff, cop the attached page from the Camino bible.

At one point the guy in jeans passed me, which was a good proof of life check for him as I did worry about his chafe and general health yesterday when I saw him leave SJPP. Every now and then someone with really swishy pants will come up behind me and I'm enraged by it by the time they stick the overtake, I can't imagine the cognitive dissonance it takes to put up with that all day.Read more