A Snowy Start!

I started the day with a brainwave….as shoes were still soaking from night before…

Some previous guest had kindly left their hair dryer!

Just when I thought it couldn’t get any colder…I woke up this morning, with a sore knee…donned all my walking woolies, strapped the sore bits…fully anticipating a 27km walk through more mountains, looked out the windows and it was snowing….heavily!

So sub zero temperatures! So before breakfast I went for a walk outside to get the feel of chill and slipperyness and gauge whether my knee would handle it!

Yes it was cold and yes it was slippery, but

Kind of beautiful too…this is Roncevalles at its picturesque prettiness! Last night when I arrived it was kind of run down and just grey!

One more snow photo for the road…. Or not…I joined a table for breakfast with an American couple, who informed me a man died on the route I took yesterday and another had a nasty fall and smashed his face, to be rescued of the track by police and paramedics! These people took the low road yesterday (I didn’t know there was another one) and thought I had done very well to complete the mountains in those conditions!

My next decision was easy…I have hundreds of miles ahead of me and today’s route posed a very long slippery downhill before the town of Zubiri…and a bus came through at 9.30…to take me over the mountains….then a gentle 8km (undulating) walk from there to my next destination!

The difficult bit was finding out where the bus left from! Running around in the snow for about an hour I finally found an old Spanish woman who had a friend who could translate for me, that it left from the carpark! (around there!)

Off I trudged, to wait in the carpark…and get very wet and cold by the time 9.30 rolled around!

There was an American man, named John, whose destination was Zubiri, from where I was walking who also figured a bus ride this morning was a good option!

We arrived in Zubiri around 10.30 and went and grabbed a hot coffee…he headed off to his hostel around midday and I hit my Camino for the day (8kms) from here to Akerreta!

Leaving Zubiri to join the Camino trail (rather than follow the (busy) main road,

The sun was peeping out from time to time, however the waters were high …. As I hit the track….

I felt I was walking in a rain forest…as so much water has come down from the mountains…

The paths were rivers and at the lower points there was a bit of fording to do!

This was a little precarious and calf deep and fast running…so it was no haste all care…but saturated shoes again!

A few ups and downs…

And waterfalls on the side! …

An ancient 18th century abbey on my travels…looking rather empty and forlorn.

A bit of street art on the back of someone’s garage!

And roses and arrows showing me “The Way”, possibly not in the biblical sense just yet…it was more like get to my next hotel before the next rain shower swept through!

Too wet for snails…but this big fat slug escaped being trodden on by this kiwi pilgrim!…he was lucky as die to the wet nature of the path I did spend most of today’s walk looking down!

More beautiful Spanish country gardens on my final ascent to my abode for the night…arriving an hour before check in…I donned my Poncho and enjoyed a rest…

Waiting till I saw some life at my hotel, which once again is great (although I am on the 2nd floor and my transferred bag is heavy)

I’m in a very cute rustic room with lots of exposed beams that look like a hundred years old! And yay…I have a bath…albeit a shortish one, so had had a nice hot soak, going to take a beer and order my dinner…I may meet my breakfast companions from Florida, who I think they said they are heading here tonight! I can’t remember their names, oops, I wish every man was called John – that seems to stick on this trail!