Yesterday was a good day of walking. Almost no pain except down those steep Roman roads out of a hilltop walled town:
I was walking in my shorts because it was in the eighties with no cloud in the sky! Gorgeous but hot, I was having flashbacks of Honduras. And I didn’t do a good job with my sunblock. I’m embarrassed to say the backs of my legs are really burned. They look worse than they feel, but they look bad. What a difference from being cold and wet in France!
My favorite part of the …
So without writing pages and pages of details, the short story is things are going well. Yesterday i walked from Pamplona west and had planned to stay in a town on the mountain, and then take a whole day doing the downhill (since that’s hardest on my knees). I was walking along and bumped in to this woman:
She has turned out to be an angel for me, because the town we were both planning on sleeping in had only one albergue, which turned out to be closed. She immediately said she would stick with …
I’ve been told that using hiking poles reduce the weight on your knees by 25-30%. That sounds nice but I haven’t been able to figure out how. Well, one quick google and here is the (obvious) answer:
“Each pole, when planted, reduces weight on the legs and back by at least that of the arm (4 – 6 kg / 9 – 13lb). Applying pressure to the poles can easily raise this number to 7 – 11 kg (15 – 25 lb.) per step.” (Bonnie & David Alley, 1998) so we’ll see what I can find.
Pamplona …
Wow! First impressions of Pamplona: 1) the Camino Frances is a completely different place/experience than the Camino Arles, I bumped in to 7 pilgrims just on my way from the bus station to the albergue (pilgrim’s hostel), and 2) I picked the right day to come to Pamplona! Our host says there are always parties here, but seriously, music and traditional dancing in the streets all day, different groups every couple of hours, everyone and their brother and their children out, drinking (not the children obviously), dancing, having a great time. It is the “Day …
I’ve been off of the Camino for 10 days now. Thats longer than I was ‘on,’ and we have yet to see how far I will make it. But tomorrow I’m moving closer, if only spatially. My original schedule had me arriving in Puente La Reina (where the Via Tolosana which I was on in France meets up with the popular Camino Frances) either tomorrow or the day after. So, if I started walking again on Sunday I would be exactly back on track. Interesting to think about, although I think I still need another …