The Forests of Navarre

After my arrival in Roncesvalles, I quickly made friends with a young woman from Germany, who had the bunk above mine.

She had walked through the snows from Saint Jean, and she helped me get oriented to albergue life. So Linda and I shared the pilgrim’s menu: first course of a wonderful potato soup (possibly they had once been introduced to a leek), second course fresh local trout.

Afterwards we joined several dozen other pilgrims at the Collegiate church for Mass and the pilgrim’s blessing.

The church is a lovely gothic gem.

In the morning, we were all woken by an energetic rendition of “Wake up Little Susie”, courtesy of a wandering minstrel and his guitar.

And then the walk began!

It was drizzling a bit, but as Linda and I had breakfast in Burguete 2.5km on, the skies opened up. She decided she’d rather have another cup of cafe con leche, so we said our goodbyes and I broke out my poncho and pushed on.

I soon met up with Eamon from NZ and Cliff from MASS. We walked and talked through the forests of Navarre.

The villages were beautiful, and the countryside between them alternated between wild hills, meadows with sheep and horses, and the forests.

There are many photos on the Flickr link to the left.

The Camino itself was a morass of mud.

The three of us lunched at Biskarreta, where I discovered the wonder that is the bocadilla jambon.

Uphill and down through the mud we walked. The sun came out and away went the ponchos.

We have checked into the Albergue Zaldiko in Zubiri, and will soon set out in search of the local eatery.

21.5km today.