Camino Day 2
From Roncevalles to Zubiri is just over 20km. The first part, which we walked in the post-dawn cool, meanders through farmland and a series of small villages. The villages look very German to me – whitewashed houses built of stone, steep red roofs and window boxes overflowing with flowers.
The paths are lined with berries – rose hips, brambles, blackberries, and more. And, and this is important, the route is pretty flat. We are feeling OK after yesterday but our legs are reminding us they did good work climbing the Pyrenees.
We stopped in a village at about the half-way mark and had a fabulous tortilla for some version of brunch. I was most amused to come across several people we met yesterday in the same bar – including our Italian man and Australian girl, now walking together.
Much of the second half of the walk ran through fragrant pine and beech forests. It was getting hotter as the day wore on and I must admit we were getting more tired, which made the last few kilometers of the hard, steep, scree path down into Zubiri a bit of a trial. There’s a great camaraderie on the trail though with everyone encouraging everyone else in whatever language seems to work or just with a heartfelt ‘buen camino’.
Zubiri is a nice little town and our hotel, or rural house, is all wooden beams and heavy brick walls. We arrived before it opened and so sat about sharing a beer with a couple from Adelaide and Toronto. Now we are just wondering if we can stay awake until a reasonable time to have a meal.
