´cause every little thing is gonna be all right"
-Bob Marley
First off, I´m going to stop talking about how I physically managed the walk on any given day. It´s boring, repetetive, and focuses on entirely the wrong things. Namely, the problems, as opposed to the actual observations/events.
Today was the first 20k-plus strech of this camino, and it took me through some amazing forests, farmlands and hilltops. The towns in this region are distinctly (obviously) basque in architecture, if not layout. The houses themselves, at least the older ones, are generally three stories high. The bottom floor was intended to keep livestock in during the winter, while the upper two floors was living space for the family. I doubt that this is a common practice anymore, but it´s still an interesting setup never the less. One of the first towns I passed through was Burgete, which I didn´t realize had made a cameo in "The Sun Also Rises" until I re-read it recently. At 9:00am on a winter weekday, it was pretty quiet, but it did have an open cafe run by a very accomodating lady with an Argentinan accent. Everything else in pretty much every other town was shut down for the season unfortunately, so I have a feeling I´m going to have a few coffee-withdrawal mornings as this camino moves along.
Passed over the Alto Erro, which is the high point between Roncesvalles and Zubiri, and the view was phenomenal. I don´t remember being all that impressed by the view the last time around, but if I recall correctly, I was in a running fire fight with horseflies at the time. The long and steep descent into Zubiri passed through dense pine forests, and one or two game preserves. One of which was in active use at the time. How do I know? Barking dogs and gunfire, that´s how I know. I didn´t actually see the hunters, or hear their voices, but sound of firing rifles was enough to make me speed right along making as many loud, casually human-like noises as I knew how. I wonder how many pilgrims have been lost to poor aim...probably none, since no-one´s thought to re-route the trail, or re-zone the preserve. In any case, I didn´t want to be the first, so I made sure that the barking dog sounds were far behind me before I took my next rest.
Am in Zubiri now, and in markedly better shape than I was the last time I rolled into town. Of course, last time, I sat down and couldn´t get up for an hour, so anything´s an improvement. I knew Zubiri would be a problem for accomodation. Both public albergues were closed, and the private albergue only took reservations for groups. I had tried calling up the night before anyway, but the lady turned me down flat. She did mention that there was a pensióm just across the street from her albergue, and that they´d be open. Found the pensión, and it´s a little piece of heaven. It helps that I´ve got the run of the place (no other pilgrims yet), but it´s a great little apartment, with all the amenities you´d ever need. I even have a living room! Ok...it´s technically a "common area", but since I´m alone, it´s a living room. The only potential problem with it is that I might not want to leave tomorrow morning. Still, Pamplona beckons, and it has its own charms, so my bet is that the temptation to stay won´t be too irresistable.
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