Day 9 Longrono to Najera

Today was a 28.8 kilometer or 18 miler day. It started out a bit hilly but quickly leveled off, so although it was one of our longer days in distance, all in all it didn’t feel too bad. Another thought is that perhaps we’re getting stronger?
Either way it was a very good day.

Leaving lovely Longrono at about 7:00, another brisk clear morning.

Sometimes when you leave before 8:00am in Spain nothing is open in the morning! No cafe, no hot croissants, nada! This is not an enjoyable way to walk (especially up hills) – suddenly the Camino provides – a pilgrim guru greets us with oranges and water biscuits….amazing how the simplest of things can provide so much enjoyment; certainly a lesson of this pilgrimage.

We came across Danni’s long awaited and anticipated fence of crosses. Danni and Elda left a cross for Travis & Jesse and I left flowers for Garrett.

We ran into our Camino pal Pam from Ashland OR. Pam went to UT and taught history in Houston for years. Whenever she sees us on the trail she yell “hook um horns” really loud and starts singing the Eyes of Texas! She is quite a hoot and a half. Today while walking with Pam she accidentally got in the way of an Italian bike riding pilgrim (you can do the Camino on bike or horse as well as by foot)- he put his brakes on to quick stop…..this could been aggravating to the biker, but instead he polity says “Buen Camino” with a smile and moves on. Suddenly the bike rider realized that if Pam hadn’t gotten in his way and made him stop, he may have actually ridden out into a busy road because we were at a sharp turn where the path ended abruptly on a busy road. Upon this realization the Italian bike ride turned around to get his picture taken with Pam, the woman who saved his life! We all had a great laugh. You can see the Italian bike rider leaving up ahead of Pam.

Traveling along….you often still see the
Ancient Roman aqueduct system still being used to irrigate the garden and fields of planted trees.

Entering the historic Camino town of Navarette we saw an ancient hospital used to care for and house traveling pilgrims. It reminds you how many other pilgrims have walked this path before you, very humbling. When you enter your first town of the day after only eating a biscuit from a pilgrim guru, you get food and coffee. We each had a wonderful chocolate croissant with coffee (and tea for Danni) and got sandwiches made to eat later for lunch.

Another beautiful church from the 16th century. This was one of my favorite yet; a wonderful feeling we all felt inside this church.

Leaving Navarette.

We stopped under a overpass tunnel for some shade and some water and look what Danni found! Thank you Travis, you’re mom LOVED that gift!

Sites along the Way and into out next town of Ventosa. Here we visited with fellow Pilgrims, ate our sandwiches and each drank a big glass of a Lemmon-aid type drink (with ice ) that we’ve all become quite find of during the heat (about 73 with a nice cool breeze) of the day.

We are walking through some of the best wine making areas of Spain. There are vineyards as far as the eyes can see and the wine is good and cheep! About 1 euro a glass or about $1.50. There is very little shade to be found in this region.

We kept seeing these snow capped mountains off in the distance – so when I found this sign it referred to them as the Sierra de la Demanda.

At last our final destination of Najera for this day off in the distance.

A lovely bridge crosses a small stream and Danni suggests these weary pilgrims soak their soar feet! Great idea. Our pilgrim friend Rupert from Germany crosses the bridge. We take his picture and he takes one of all of us soaking our feet. He showed it to us later when we saw him, great picture he will email it to us after he returns from his Camino.

We finally arrive and had to go to several pilgrims Albergues which were all full! This is very hard on weary pilgrims. The Camino eventually provided us with a lovely Hostel complete with a private room and our very own bathroom! After resting up from our hike we share a lovely meal with our pilgrim friend Jan (pronounced Yan) from Denmark. Another great day and these pilgrims are weary and content.
Buen Camino, albrazos to all.
Kate, Danni & Elda