Today was our first 18 mile day. We are realizing that we need to make a little better time if we are going to make it to Santiago in time. It was pretty good until the last half hour when our destination of Ventosa seemed like a mirage - always the same distance away even though we were walking steadily towards it. We could see it across the vineyards and knew that it was relief for our feet, legs and backs. I much prefer it when we turn a corner and the town we are heading for is there!
We got an early start leaving the Palicio Pujades at 5:40 out into the pre-dawn morning. The forecast for the day was 90% rain. We were prepared with our ponchos out and at the ready. We were greeted by a cloudless, star-filled sky and soon fell into step crunching our way out of town over the gravel pathway - when it got light, we unfortunately realized that some of the crunching was snails.
Approaching Logrono, we crossed another beautiful bridge of the Camino. Shortly after entering the old city, we found a coffee shop for our caffeine fix and had a ham, cheese and tomato filled croissant. Delicious! The weather report on the TV in the shop showed rain for all of Spain.
We caught up with some of our friends and made a new friend, Pam from Asheville and walked through a lovely park with a big lake and swans towards our destination, Navarette.
We rolled into Navarette about 11:15, visited the huge Church of the Assumption and found the aubergue where our bags had been sent. The town and aubergue were frankly uninspiring and we were feeling pretty good, so we picked up our packs and headed another 7 km or another 4 + miles to Ventosa.
We had a picnic lunch outside of Navarette and passed lots of beautiful vineyards with dark grapes hanging on them and olive groves.
Crosses hanging off the fence along the trail - several k long on both sides.
Ventosa is a bit of a sleepy town just off the trail. There is one private aubergue and luckily, the man at the aubergue in Navarette generously called and got us a reservation for the night. Unfortunately, our friend Pam and 3 other hikers were not able to get in for the night and the inn keeper helped them get a taxi to the next place. There are about 4 people sleeping on the dining room floor tonight - latecomers.
It was so good to get out of our boots (shower and laundry) and take a short nap before a delightful dinner with Tony and Lynn, a couple of Aussies who are walking together.
My angel card was 'Purpose' and it is now to late to write about that.
I am sitting in the kitchen with a group of Spainards and Germans who have just finished cooking dinner. Others are checking email, singing, journaling. The forecast rain finally arrived about 15 minutes ago.
I missed your post that didn't post!!! So glad that you're back on the blog... You and Diana look great with your packs. I think it was a terrific idea to switch plans and hike on. The photo of the bridge is beautiful.
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