Uterga

AM I FN CRAZY TO DO THIS?!!!

I am in Urtega now. Just barely out of my shower and with very little energy to do much. I forced myself to wash my clothes because they stink! I did 24 km today with a start time of around 7:30am to a finish time around 5pm. A lot of mistakes were made today given it was a long day ... not enough water, not enough food and not enough sunscreen.

I started the day strong, about .5km in, I ran into a couple ladies from my albergue. They were going for breakfast and told me I was going the wrong way. I thought it was right but I doubled back, and sure enough, I was right ... those B*&%^es added 1km to my day for nothing! :-)

I was going a good pace at the start, in fact 4.5km per hour which is great given I have been averaging 3km per hour most days. It was straight city sidewalk walking so it was a wonderful break. I got into Pamplona at about 8:30 and stopped for a croissant with ham and cheese and a coke. I bought some sweet lemon treat to take with me. Pharmacies opened at 9 so I stopped in to grab some bandaids, throat lozenges , and voltarin.

I then stopped at the pilgrims store and bought a few other necessities and then I was off. I still had my full bottle of water but hadn’t had any yet but figured I was fine. About 5 km outside of town in Cizur Menor I stopped and drank all the water and about half of my sweet treat and figured there was a fountain in town. I didn’t find one so I kept going.

I was thinking of Jörg often. I found the spot where we stopped for our picnic lunch so reminisced a little but kept on moving (read more about it in the throwback at the end).

Well, now I was getting tired and slow. No water and little food. I wasn’t hungry but I know I should eat for fuel. It wasn’t until another 5km that there was a little town that had a fountain. I drank a full bottle (700ml), then filled it again. I passed through town and they had food for sale but I wasn’t hungry so I decided not to stop. That was a mistake, again, even though I wasn’t hungry, I needed it for fuel.

I was really slow going and it was all uphill now to the Alto del Perdón (790m high). Just before the top, I found the fountain were I had stopped before. It was a little overgrown now and I remember the picture clearly from 2009 with me looking exhausted ... I absolutely know why now, I had completely forgotten how difficult the climb was.

I made it to the top and rested there for about 30 minutes. A tour bus stopped and people poured out to take pictures. I was sitting with a German lady (Cordelia I think) and we both joked that they must be excited to see real pilgrims and wonder how many took pictures of us.

It was now 4pm, very very late to still be walking in the Spain heat. There is a reason they take an afternoon siesta, no one should be out here. I had 3.6km to go and it was downhill now, so decided it best to push off. The downhill was just as hard. It was all stones and I was needing to watch every step. About 1km outside of town, I stopped one more time in the shade and drank the last sip of water I had. It was uphill again into town but I made it.

This is the most exhausted I have been, even more tired than the Pyrenees hike. I just didn’t have enough energy (food and water). I won’t make that mistake again.

Dinner was good, lots of protein, egg, tuna, chicken. Time for sleep.

TTYL

Throwback to 2009 from Julie’s Journal

Today we awoke at 6am. I took my time as my back and ankle still hurt. We had breakfast which was bread, jam and cheese (I am sooooo sick of bread!!!!). We left around 7:45am. We arrived at Cirquar Minor in about an hour and half and my ankle was a little sore. We stopped for about 30 mins. I decided to go on (after we put more cream on my ankle).

I was very surprised but my ankle was not so bad now and my energy was good. At one point, I was tired and Joerg looked at me and said “we stop here in this field for lunch.” He blew up his air mattress and when I sat down all tired and exhausted, I looked up and saw the famous ruins right there in our view. It was beautiful. It was exactly what I needed. I told Joerg that he was heaven sent (and then I had to explain what it meant). He truly is a blessing.Read more