(B) Zubiri to Pamplona

Greetings friends. It's been a baller of a day.

I was going to edit Lexie's post, adding my two cents, but going through the photos I wanted to add I realised they were numerous. My own post it is!

I am indeed captain of the "let's actually look after our bodies hauling us up these hills" squad. Lexie has an extremely loose grasp on these things, which I find only mildly insane, knowing her. After only eating one meal yesterday she shrugged on her pack this morning with a "ready when you are!". I remained seated and stared her down, pausing as I processed, and expressed in a flummoxed monotone "we're having breakfast". Watching to make sure she selected something with more than 10 calories, we settled down to a very enjoyable breakfast. Yum.

As we set off out of town we were caught up in a bit of a pilgrim mob, with a lot of others heading out at the same time. Audience - something deep in my psyche which I simply can't control (I try) is the sharp need to Be In Front. As such, I unfortunately quickly left Lexie (and the mob) behind. Please, no boo-ing, I checked with Lexie and she was more than happy to slug along alone, the poor little petri dish.

Off I went, jetting along, passing pilgrim after pilgrim until (to my knowledge) I was officially Pack Leader. I put this down to two things, other than my sinful competitive nature: our carb/coffee combo earlier in the day and a great sense of revitalisation following the reorganisation of my packing strategy, which left my bag feeling magically lighter. Spring was in step.

I, too, delighted in feline friends along the way, along with more beautiful sights, and a whole packet of biscoff cookies coming into town.

I arrived an hour and a half before Lexie, secured us beds, had a shower, and took myself on a little walk around Pamplona which I am now very passionate about as a municipal area. Stunning.

Highlight of the day was perhaps uploading my activity to Strava (tracking them on my watch) and learning that I made the 2nd fastest time worldwide!! Of all time!! ⭐🥹 The only thing that takes away from this is the fact that the fastest time only beat me by 10 minutes, and that's about how long I hung around in the shop buying my aforementioned biscoff cookies, without pausing my watch. Mum I could've been world champ! 😭 I would've gone quicker if I'd known it was a COMPETITION! But no, this is an extremely slippery slope for me; must NOT be mindful of this fastest time business going forward or I'll simply sprint straight through to Santiago. Can't have that. Lexie would shoot me.

- Branna

(EDIT: Branna discovering this about Strava is the worst thing to ever happen to me, I probably won't see her now until Santiago - Lexie)Read more