The Walk – Day 04

Pamplona to Puente la Reina | 05 Oct 22

Well right off the bat you can see I’m still having teething problems with my GPS tracking. I can’t remember the details from three years ago but I know the watch would’ve been fully charged so it was probably a case of me filming my morning video and then charging off without pushing the start button on my watch. Doh! I’ve managed to work backwards using the metadata in my images and the known Camino route and it seems I didn’t start the GPS track until I’d already walked for 1hr 20min. Clearly I’m not a professional, but when you walk 900km (eventual total) across a country over a 38 day period, I guess there’s bound to be some hiccups.

My Pamplona albergue, Irunako Aterpea, was a great choice. As usual though, I was pretty much the last person to leave in the morning, stepping out the door at about 7:45am, as I waited for the sun to give me a little light for making videos.

No judgement please – it’s for energy I promise. And people always say “you must’ve lost a heap of weight walking 900km?” Umm, no, with food this good, it was a walking and eating trek I’m afraid. Ha ha.

For reasons unknown, but I would assume health issues, an unfortunate fact is that some of the pilgrims who’ve attempted the Camino Frances over the years, just nevermake it to Santiago de Compostela. Memorials like that in the photo above can be found scattered along the trail, reminding me how fortunate I am to have good health and fortune.

One of the great landmarks along the Camino Frances, is climbing to the summit of Alto del Perdon (‘Mount of Forgiveness’) and standing before the sculpture dedicated to all the pilgrims who walk the Camino Del Santiago. Made of metal, it depicts pilgrims on foot and on horse and reflects the historical and eternal nature of the walk. The inscription you can just make out in the photo above says “donde se cruza el camino del viento con el de las estrellas” meaning “where the path of the wind crosses that of the stars”. Although the hike up to the summit was challenging, it was a beautiful day, the views were magnificent with the Pyrenees in the distance, and I sat there for almost an hour drinking it all in and enjoying my Bocadillo (the eclair didn’t make it this far – are you kidding me).

And as often happens on the Camino, you continually cross paths with the people you meet. Here, during my hour long lunch break, I ran into my old buddie Canadian Mohammad who saved me wandering off into unknown parts of Spain on Day 2. I can’t remember if I ran into him again, but I remember he was meeting his wife and family in Sarria so they could walk the last 100km together.

So, with some newfound energy and another milestone achieved, it was time to continue on the journey towards Puente la Reina, my next stop for the night.

Having finally arrived at Puente la Reina, this stage of the Camino saw me start the day at 490m and end the day 100m lower in altitude. Of course there was that little bump in the middle where I stood atop the Mount of Forgiveness at around 800m. I think that deserves a little looksie around town and a nice cold beer.

Thanks for coming along for the journey. In the morn, we’re off to Estella (not to be confused with my beer “Estrella”).

Total Distance From SJPdP:	91
Distance To Santiago de Compostela:	725
Total kms actually walked:	98
Total Step Count:	150,384

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