Río de Lanz

In my last post, we were still climbing high in the forest in the rain, making our way up to the Ermita de Santiago. Slipping on stones, ploughing through mud and crossing fast flowing waterfalls. Water, water everywhere.

But it was also glorious. And the soundtrack for those hours was twittering birds, distant cowbells and, of course, the ever present sound of water flowing down the mountain. We knew we were in a special place. We were grateful for all of this.

And for the clear waymarking. In fact the waymarking in the Baztan has been generally very good and, today, it was excellent. So we were especially grateful to the people (most likely local pilgrims or friends of the camino) who walk these paths with a tin of yellow paint and a paintbrush so that walkers like us don’t get lost. Today the yellow arrows were emphatic. Go this way!

When we eventually made it to the top, we had climbed for more than 10 kms. The rain had finally petered out but, as we emerged from the forest, we were hit by icy winds. The adventure continued. It was slow going walking down, steep in places, with water making the rocky path even more slippery - an accident waiting to happen so we took our time. We had 5 kms to walk to Lantz and the same again to Olague.

Thinking back to our plan to walk on to Olague today I’d already decided a knee high river crossing in a few hours’ time was something I wanted to avoid if at all possible. On a bright sunny day, I may have been up for the adventure but … not today. I told The French how I was feeling and, while I think he would have voted for the river crossing, he agreed we could discuss once we reached Lantz.

What ended up happening …. we stayed at the albergue in Lantz. There was a number to call and soon after the lovely Isabel arrived. As would be the case in Olague had we continued, there was no bar or cafe for dinner. The albergue had a kitchen with cooking facilités but there was no shop to buy supplies. We had our emergency rations - two small boxes of pasta rice and tuna salad that we’d bought in a supermarket and carried since Day 2. And a packet of biscuits which would be dessert and tomorrow’s breakfast. Not exactly the comfort food we would have liked after today’s adventures, but enough.

In painful Spanglish we chatted with Isabel and before you know it she said she would bring us something to cook (she lived a few houses away) and we said would be very happy to pay her. A little while later she returned with a packet of pasta, pasta sauce, tinned sardines and a bottle of vino tinto. As well as fruit and coffee, milk and sugar for tomorrows breakfast. We had a delicious dinner and went to bed happy.

Oh, yes … one more thing. Isabel said she could to drive us to Olague in the morning so that we could avoid the possibility of a river crossing. Muchas gracias Isabel - our second Camino angel in this short adventure. 🙏Read more