Via Podiensis: Into Zubiri
Last night after dinner was Mass for the Feast of Saint Matthew, celebrated by the Augustinian canons of the church. Afterwards, one of the priests gave a tour of the church. Only about six or seven of us stayed for the tour, which concluded with going down into the crypt, which still had its original 13th century paint. It was here that I prayed for the intentions of the Camino.
The collegiate church of Santa María de Orreaga/Roncesvalles itself was built in the early 13th century as a miniature copy of Notre Dame de Paris. It was the first completed Gothic church on the Iberian Peninsula.
It contains the gentle and moving statue of Our Lady of Roncesvalles above the altar. This statue made a powerful impression on me when I first saw it a decade ago, and the impact has not lessened with time.
Wake up call this morning was about 5:57 AM, when Gregorian chant begin playing throughout the dorms. And precisely 6 AM, the lights switched on. Again, I have no desire to walk in the dark in Spain, so I waited for the 7 AM breakfast call. Met a couple of new pilgrims, Mattie from Australia and Sophie from Paris.
We left at 7:20, and I prayed before we left in the little 13th century chapel of Santiago.
We walked a broad dirt path through the compelling and mysterious for Navarra. It was chilly enough that I opted for my fleece this morning. The forecast said rain was likely, but the sky was completely clear.
In contrast to the latter half of my walk through France, most of the paths today were dirt or closely packed gravel, perfect for walking. There were a couple of little bits of pavement, but the only actual road walking was when we were going through villages.
And there were a lot of villages, pretty close to one every four or so kilometers throughout the day. Basically, every hour or so you were walking into a new village.
While we were walking through the forest, Tara caught up with us, and I ended up conversing with her for most of the day. She works for the archdiocese of St. Louis, so it was a lot of “shop talk”.
I had my second breakfast in Espinal with Tara, Mattie, and Sophie. It was my first café con leche and Napoletana in Spain, and it was magnificent.
We popped into the local church to pray. On the outside, it looked almost American in its modern design and lines. Inside was quite a surprise, with a magnificent painting across the interior of the entire apse of the church.
Afterwards, there was a bit of a road walk, but again it was mostly uncomfortable dirt paths. We crossed a number of streams on some very clever monolithic stone bridges. Generally, we were under the cover of trees, which were sometimes quite dense and made for a dark path.
At some point, we had lost Mattie and Sophie, but we arrived in the village of Linzoáin at 11 AM. We were making much better time than I had anticipated.
Past here, the road became loose stone on top of ridges – the Dragon’s back as Francine says. It was a little more difficult to walk, probably because by this point I was also tired.
This part of the path was the steepest climb so far of the day, but nothing compared to yesterday.
We came upon food truck flying a flag with a stein of beer on it. We stopped for just a little bit, that we had no beer, for we knew there was a rough descent coming.
And indeed, the steep descent into Zubiri is a thing that looms large in my memory and imagination. It was both easier and more difficult than I remember. There were fewer boulders than I remember, but much more slip and slide.
Much of the descent was down a chute made of stone with loose rocks decoratively strewn about. And sometimes, when this was starting to get routine, you would get a large slab of stone, smooth as kitchen floor tile, for two or three meters at a stretch. Sounds great, yes? The problem was, it would be canted at about a 30° downhill angle. With the mud already on my shoes, this was a barely controlled slip and slide.
I would like to stress that I did not fall at any point. But there were definitely some close calls. And it was definitely nerve wracking.
At 1:12 PM we crossed the bridge into the town of Zubiri, and we were able to immediately procure beds at the same albergue I’ve stayed at twice before.
A word about the bridge: the medieval Puente de la Rabia reportedly contains relics of Saint Quiteria, whose tomb I visited in Aire-sur-l’Adour. Tradition has it that animals who walked around the bridge three times would be cured of rabies. Hence the name. Not sure what that has to do with the Saint..
Date: 22 September 2023
Place: Zubiri
Today started: Roncesvalles
Today’s Photos!
