Estella to Logroño, 28.6km, 7.0 hours, Pension La Bilbaina, 50€

Before you read this post, have a look at yesterday’s post again. I have just updated it with photos of this morning’s newspaper’s front page which talk about the historic rains that we walked through. Also, I have added two videos showing the lightning and rain and the others shows the aftermath as the water comes down the sides of the farmed hills. That is Melanie and I at the start of one of the videos, getting ready to fill our boots with water in the new river. The videos are from our Camino friend, Jack.

Today’s walk head surprisingly little mud and puddles. There were plenty of each but just much less than expected and for that we are grateful. The places that we did have to go through mud, it clung to our boots like a wool sock to Velcro strips on rain pants (I did the wash today). After ten steps through mud, our boots weighed 3kg more. Each. We just had the drag our feet for a while to lighten the load. Water hazards were almost always possible to walk around or, at least, through less than an inch of water.

Best of all though was the weather today which was cloudy and cool. More rain this morning was predicted but it only drizzled a few times. Melanie used her tried and tested superpowers though and every time she put on her poncho, she stopped the rain immediately. It was very cloudy and a little chilly and I can’t think of better walking weather than that. Long may it last!

The guide App we have mentions that this section is called the “knee wrecker”. The first seven kilometers, the trail went through rolling farmlands after the first steep hill out of Estella. That wasn’t the problem though. In Singapore a few weeks ago, I trained on Lorong Sesuai, walking up and down four times in an hour. I thought that was good enough training. The rest of the way from Samsol to Logroño there had to be at least 10 steep climbs. Similar to Lor. Sesuai. (Baltimore friends reading this, think of the way up Loch Raven Boulevard from the Beltway. Florida friends, think of, ummmm, Georgia). My Garmin tells me I climbed 163 “flights of stairs” today and went down 193 flights. My goal was ten flights each. By the way (still pun intended for Camino friends), I had 41,628 steps today, if anyone wants to borrow some for their day’s exercise.

Despite the good weather, the distance made us just put our head down and walk today. we did stop twice for a drink but each time, we didn’t even sit or take our packs off. We did walk with several people and chat though, including with a couple a little younger than us from Californina. They are stopping there Camino today so they can still fit in eight days Rome and Milan. I suggested they walk there but the wife slapped me. The Camino hasn’t grabbed them just yet.

We are still keeping our eye out for our first Camino friends, Seung Hee and Aki. I’m guessing they are a day behind us now as no one with us has seen them since Day 3.

That is all I can think about at the moment. We have already explored the immediate neighborhood, had a beer / sparkling water, some pinchos and an ice cream cone. I guess we are ready for dinner now.

Peace y’all. Good night George and Leo.