Los Arcos

My feet are so tired! I am in Los Arcos after almost 24km.

I started out this morning around 7am and it was still dark. That was ok as we were walking through the city first. It was very hard leaving the albergue in Estella. I kept touching the walls to feel Jörg. I had a very strong urge to hug the building but I didn’t.

Just outside of Estella is the famous fountain that dispenses wine. Even though it was only 8 in the morning, I still filled up my shell and drank from it. The shell I am carrying this trip is actually Jörg’s shell from 2009.

The first 10km went pretty quickly. It was variable terrain and lots of shade so it was pretty good. I stopped at Villamayor de Monjardin. It was a place where Jörg and I stayed overnight in 2009. I visited the albergue and stopped and had lunch there.

After that, the next 12 km was mostly gravel road and very little shade. I decided to put on my headset and listen to some music to get through it. At one point, the song “Country Roads” came on and I started to cry. It was the words “Country roads, take me home, to a place, where I belong ...” that hit me. I was crying because I feel like don’t have a home. Jörg was my home. Jörg was the place where I belonged. There is nowhere for those country roads to take me, but to just wander.

At about the 16km mark there was a food truck tucked in some trees. They were offering food including Hagen daze ice cream, what a treat. When I approached to order, they asked me if I was Canadian. I said yes, and they gave me a Canadian flag pin. It turns out the owner is a Canadian from the Vancouver Area. Just when I was feeling like I didn’t have a home, and felling a little lost in this foreign country where I don’t speak the language, I was suddenly special because I was Canadian. Perfect timing.

About 3km from the end, there was some more shade and some benches so I took the opportunity to rest again. My feet are tired and there are some blisters on my toes. The blisters aren’t too bad, just the tired feet.

I have been reading my old journal from 2009 and it almost always starts with “I am in pain, back, ankle, calf ...”. I am really surprised that I only have tired muscles, no real pain. I was getting a type of burning in my left quad, but one night I did some major rolling on the area and it is no longer bothering me for now. I think the slow start was the best thing for me.

I am in Los Arcos and the albergue is full. It was full when I arrived, but I had called yesterday to reserve. It really is crazy these days about the reserving. Tomorrow I plan to stop before Logroño, so it may not be so bad, but I have a reservation for Viana anyway. She says it is reserved until 2pm. Often people reserve a couple spots and then just cancel if they get something else, and just take the loss. The problem is, someone else who wanted that spot was told it was full and walked away. There’s got to be a better system.

I am thinking about food now, but my feet are so tired, and it is about 2 blocks away ... I guess I better go.

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