Today we were up early after yours truly suffered a poor night. It must have been the one beer and ‘several’ Easter chocolates I consumed while watching Contagion on Netflix!! It was more likely the movie, but my walking buddy Rob has recently raved about it as did my neighbour Ariel, so I blame them:) However, today we were up early and on the road by just after 8:00. Not bad for a virtual camino!!
That’s a Canada Goose on the weather vane. Those who follow my walking ramblings will know that I look for these as I walk. Funny though. I've walked past this one dozens of times and never noticed it. Nice find!!
Our goal today was to walk the 19 kms to Lorca where Ken had stayed in 2013 with Marianne, but while we were walking we received an email from Ken with his reflections on their stay there. Needless to say the albergue received a scathing review;
That’s a Canada Goose on the weather vane. Those who follow my walking ramblings will know that I look for these as I walk. Funny though. I've walked past this one dozens of times and never noticed it. Nice find!!
Our goal today was to walk the 19 kms to Lorca where Ken had stayed in 2013 with Marianne, but while we were walking we received an email from Ken with his reflections on their stay there. Needless to say the albergue received a scathing review;
The albergue was filthy and the dinner at the town’s only restaurant was disgusting—so bad that we laughed at the food. We ate it anyway—we were hungry—but were I to walk the Francés again, I would go right through Lorca, or even around it! But I was practicing being grateful, and that practice is evident in my journal for the day. Here’s an excerpt:
The place we walked through much dryer than before--more wheat, grapes, olives, no potatoes. This morning, irrigated corn--harvested, smell of stalks. Church at Eunata not open yet, but exterior spectacular. Photos, inc. selfie, because I almost left the camera behind this morning (it had fallen on the floor--in the pack from now on and nothing to indicate whose it might be.) This albergue a little dirty but I don’t care: the beds look clean enough, and a small room, only three [actually four] people.
I got a terrible cold from one of the folks we were sharing the room with. If only I had known about the power of hand washing and not touching one’s face!
So our plans shattered, we decided to walk to Ciraugui which we’d passed through in both 2013 and 2018. We really loved the look of this town and would have liked to stop there, but more on that in a few moments. For the record, today we did walk the necessary kilometres to make it to Lorca. No slacking going on here! Well, maybe a little.
During both of our Frances crossing we stopped in Puenta la Reina. It's a nice city which is home to a very nice church which oddly I have no photos inside. Maybe it was closed both times or the inside wasn't as good as the outside? Happens. However, here's the spire as we departed early September 21, 2013.
Annemarie captured me as I crossed the Rio Arga.
And a look back after crossing the 11th C bridge in the gentle early morning light. It looks nice, right? So why so few photos of this city?
The short, but steep climb out of the Rio Arga basin. A bit of a rude early morning wake-up!!
One of the special things about distance walking is that you can see just about anything at any moment.
Annemarie pounding up the climb. Keep in mind she's almost walked 900 kms at this point and nothing was slowing her down in 2018 as it had in 2013 (broken toe and allergic reaction at this point). She did really well second time round!
We passed by several small villages as we walked.
And we quickly slipped through Mañeru.
In 2018 we caught up to and visited with these 3 ladies, a combination of Canadians and Americans who had met on an earlier crossing of the Frances. There were in fact 4 women and I recall that one was slower and we'd already passed her with a friendly "buen camino"!
And there's our home for tonight. Cirauqui. A town that I've always enjoyed climbing up to and experiencing...all too quickly.
In 2013 Annemarie surprised me by taking more than three photos in a day and captured me sauntering along, clearly already pleased with what my eyes were beholding. I mean, just look at the symmetry!
I have this photo on our wall ( I'm glancing at it as I type this post). It's a very special moment on our first camino as just about 1 minute after Annemarie captured this imagine I caught up with Neil and Sarah (of course presently on this virtual camino as well). That's Sarah with the blue towel(?) drying on her pack and you can just see Neil's shadow to her right. I caught up with them at the stone fence just to the right of the trail beside the olive grove where they'd stopped to check out Neil's knee injury. I checked in to see if everything was ok. Neil's a fit guy and he was saying during the Monday night Zoom call that at this point he was moving at only about 2 km/hr. That's how we caught them! A good thing we did too, as it resulted in a strong friendship these past 7 years. Again, one of those nice outcomes which sometimes occurs while walking a camino. The next day the relationship was cemented, but I'm getting a bit ahead of myself: )
Of course, always time for a shadow shot!
Then into town. Oddly I have more photos here than I do of Puenta la Reina where we have actually stayed, twice. Hmmm?
Always important to be aware of the local politics. Still in Basque country, just.
That's about it for today. I have a yoga class online with my usual group to attend in 10 minutes. Part of the fun of a virtual camino. You get to think about and kind of experience the camino plus add the realities of every day life.
Buen Camino!
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