27.7 km ~ 39,136 steps
Song of the Day: Follow the Yellow Brick Road – Wizard of Oz
At around 6:30, we woke up in our dewy tent and packed up camp. Though I know it’s not true, my pack definitely felt a bit heavier today and my body felt a bit sore from the beating that was yesterday’s crossing of the Pyrenees. We stopped just before leaving Roncesvalles to take an obligatory picture with the “790km” sign.
We have yet to encounter an ATM (the one in the next town over was of course broken) so we are currently living off the goodwill of our fellow pilgrims. Well, I am at least. Maverick has food for at least a week still. Shoutout to Trish for buying my breakfast at the first little town we came to. I helped her to order in Spanish, she bought me food. It’s a win-win, right??
I wasn’t expecting this section to be so hard after yesterday’s grueling day, but it definitely was. I kept thinking we had to be almost to Zubiri, but we so weren’t. And the trail still climbed and climbed until we got into some scrubby forest area that had scattered views of the surrounding mountains through some trees.
Eventually, the trail dips down and you come to the cutest teenie, tiny café where we ran into our friend from NH, Taylor, that we had met walking the day before. He kindly bought us two bottles of water since we had run out yet again. I guess we suck at this whole pilgrim stuff.
After a pretty steep descent, we finally came to the river just before Zubiri. The bridge that crosses here is gorgeous, known as Puente la Rabia. It was said that if animals were walked around it three times, they were cured of rabies. An interesting legend I suppose, and an even prettier piece of architecture. We must have stayed down at the river for over an hour, soaking my feet while Maverick insisted on playing fetch with a stick he had found in the river. We found a nice place to stay that allowed dogs and I FINALLY was able to take out money from an ATM and pay for my own dinner. A delicious chicken paella at this awesome bar who had the nicest waitresses who were lovin’ on Maverick all afternoon.
We’re planning on sleeping later tomorrow and doing a shorter day, so we shall see.
