Camino : Logorño to Azofra? No, Cirueña

It was 4 AM, time to get going. There were a bunch of kids from Chicago who had come to play football in Pamplona and they were on their way back to US. They were noisily getting ready as I arrived at the café to get a strong dose of coffee to start the day At 5 AM, I started walking with Stephan.

In a few minutes, I saw the two Romanian pilgrims who I had run into in the past few days and today I struck up a conversation with them discovering their names as Gabriel and Neillo. Although they could not speak much English, I surmised that Gabriel had sustained a leg injury recently and was determined to complete the hike despite this shortcoming.

In the early hours of the morning, by the street lighting, I saw a very appropriate bronze sculpture of two pilgrims walking on the Camino.

Pilgrims have a sort of a virtual and loosely knit community. Whenever you see somebody, you try to recollect if you saw another person from their country. You try to tell the name of that person to the new acquaintance.

Aaron from Birmingham, a 29 year old accountant, had just quit his job and was walking the Camino at a very fast clip with an intention to finish the whole 800 km in three weeks.

Steve from New Orleans started walking with me and said he was intending to walk in year 2020 but had to delay due to the Covid pandemic. He was a retired real estate and investment banker in the oil & natural gas industry.

The past few days, the sky was partially lit by half moon and the stars were visible, a different kind of sky than that I have been used to at home. The 'Sky Tonight' iPhone app came in very handy to see the new constellations. I could find Scorpius, Aquarius and Sagittarius. Right in front of me was a pond, with a beautiful reflection of the half moon in it.

I had been very grateful for the many little things the community of the basque country and the European Union in general had done in order to make the journey of the pilgrims an easy one.

Particularly helpful where the yellow arrows, which always seemed to be present when there was a fork in the road or when the Camino crossed a highway or a bridge. Also useful were the metal markings embedded in the pavements and in the city areas of the Camino. The multitude of signposts with the yellow shell was quickly becoming a welcome and expected sight. The water fountain above and the wine fountain I encountered a few days ago were fantastic as well.

Sunday morning, the European countries made their time shift for summer daylight savings and sunrise was now an hour later. It still was spectacular with the backdrop of mountains and the vineyards of La Rioja in the foreground.

Looking backwards, I could see the pond in the distance that I had passed a half hour away, and it was shimmering in the new sunlight.

I had seen Bob from Seattle a couple of days ago in the Albergue and as I walked this morning, I saw his silhouette in a distance, and I called out his name. I was very surprised that he recognized me by name even in the darkness.

Bob also had run into Nora from Seattle, a young girl, who had been walking by herself and whom I had seen in Logroño.

The big city of Navarrete was visible in a distance, and that meant some coffee and breakfast was in my near future.

Although it was not forecast to rain today, there were blue and black clouds on the horizon.

Passing by the church of our lady of Asuncion, I made a beeline to Bocateria Move, a breakfast place catering to pilgrims. They were offering a freshly squeezed orange juice and to Aaron's delight, also offered the English breakfast with bangers and bacon.

As I continued further in the rural farmlands, I was surprised to see a person sitting by a tree. Looking closely, I found that he was an artist and had a stamp that could be put on my credential. I gave him a couple of bucks and he asked me my name. Then he sung his own composition of music for me.

Walking in front of me was a family from Spain with parents, their son and daughter. They had been ahead of me for an hour and I finally caught up with them just as the crest of the hill passed and the big vineyard building visible from afar was within reach.

It was lunchtime and I arrived at Nájera just by 1:30. For some people, this was the destination for the day. It had many waterfront restaurants by the river Najerilla and many interesting plazas. It could've been a good place to stay overnight.

I continued to the next town and it took me through the mountains and a forest. The dark clouds were gathering ominously.

The town of Nájera looked very pretty as I looked back to where I had come from.

The next part of the tail was steep, and there was nobody in sight. The dark clouds resulted in some showers and the mountain pass was very windy. My hat flew off, and I had to run back to get it as it kept being blown further and further downhill by the wind. I got to climb the hill twice.

I was not feeling that strong and was developing some aches and pains. Stephan and Aaron had gone ahead of me. Finally, I came to the restaurant where they were supposed to be having lunch, but saw that they had already left. I found another restaurant that was more to my liking and was happy with the spicy marinated bacalao.

After walking to Azofra, I found the Albergue that we had agreed to be at overnight. Just then I saw the message from Stephan that he and Aaron had decided to go to the next town, which was another 10 km away.

By now my feet hurt and I was unwilling to walk. I remembered I had some really good orange dark chocolate, and I ate a piece of it.

I changed my mind and started walking towards the next town. This was a very long stretch and it started drizzling, the wind picked up and the path became very steep.

A pilgrim on a bicycle passed by and continued riding as his companion followed a few minutes behind. Up at the hill ahead, I saw that the companion could not continue riding the bicycle due to the strong winds and uphill grade. She just stopped.

As I kept walking a mile behind, I saw her companion walk down, then he took her bicycle and walked the bicycle up while she slowly continued climbing on foot. They were going so slow that eventually I caught up to them and passed them. They had been riding from Zaragoza. After a couple of miles, I finally reached Cirueña and saw the bicyclists coming to the same spot as seen in this picture.

I found the Albergue Guadalupe that had 10 beds with two per room and charged €15 per night. Sergio, the pilgrim from Ireland, who was originally from Ukraine was also present there. I had seen him a couple of days ago and we got a chance to catch up.

Removing my shoes, I discovered two big blisters, one on each heel. I took a couple of anti-inflammatory tablets.

The room I was in also had another French pilgrim. He suffered from swollen feet and was glad to accept my offer of a bunch of anti-inflammatory tablets that he could use for the next few days.

To him, it was a coincidence that the Albergue was painted blue, I was from San Francisco and he had grown up hearing a song 'blue house in San Francisco' written by a hippie who had visited at San Francisco in the 60s. He played the song for me on his iPhone.

The Albergue served a very healthy vegetable soup with chorizo for €15 along with wine and dessert. At the table was a couple from Phoenix, Arizona and the wife was a nurse who retired after working 44 years. She gave me medication and moleskin for my blisters.

After hanging out with the six other pilgrims at the table for a while, it was 9 PM and time to call it a day, a challenging day, but quite a rewarding day.