We’re in the lovely albergue with the swimming pool that we stayed in 3 years ago. Dorothy was really looking forward to using her swimming costume, brought specifically for this one occasion. She stepped into the water,

bottled it and refused to go back into such a cold pool. Cold? It was 17 degrees and absolutely superb for those of us with warm hearts and the ‘right attitude’ 😊

Despite attempts to cajole her she refused and remained dry.

After chores (showering, washing clothes etc) she’s fallen fast asleep whilst I get on with recording today’s little jaunt.

In summary, 29 km with the last 10 km or so covered in temperatures uncomfortably above 31. Whereas yesterday we managed 7 km in 3.5 hours, we’d reached Los Arcos, 21.3 km from Estella by 10:30 with the first 15.6 km coming up in 3.5 hours. Much better and much safer with the temperature rising from a low of 21 as we left this morning.

There was a very impressive door close to the albergue, Middle Ages by the look of it but I know nothing about doors so it could have been a B&Q early medieval look alike. Nice though.

A few km out we came to the famous Irache wine fountain with two taps. The rightmost serves water whilst the leftmost distributes wine from the barrel.

Great marketing ploy. This year Dorothy is pretending to drink from the water tap. Last year, admittedly around lunch time she held that pose for 15 minutes but a foot or so to the left.

Shortly after leaving the bodega we came to a choice of routes, the left heading up into the hills and few (and as it turned out, no) services, the right a km or so longer but with three villages en route. Tom chose to head right while Dorothy and I chose left. Probably 95% of peregrinos chose right which was great because for the next couple of hours we were alone on the track, a rare occurrence on the Frances.

Look, no pilgrims 👍.

And a cheerful Dorothy with the sun coming up behind her.

The next image is a panorama courtesy of the XS and gives a pretty faithful rendition of what it looked this morning. Hopefully you’ll manage to see this in all its high definition glory. Full marks to the camera on the XS.

Here’s a smaller image – note the corn field in the foreground and the church on top of the hill in the distance.

It seems a strange custom to build churches at the top of hills, pity the poor parishioners who have to drag their aged, aching joints up such slopes.

One more. The corn field from a slightly different angle with a suitably impressive range of mountains in the background.

As with every day, there have been some wonderful flowers. First, some images of poppies which we find clinging to life under the most challenging of conditions.

Next some dwarf elderberry.

and some sheep’s bit.

some high mallow

and finally, some cheese rennet.

The last image is very much like a lovely fractal image that I have at home.

We came across fields of asparagus

and more pilgrims once the two paths, separated for three hours or so joined 😞.

Los arcos

was as pleasant as last time we were here and we thoroughly enjoyed two large baguettes of tomato, ham and cheese. Two might seem a lot but after 21 km of increasing temperatures and no food we were pretty hungry.

A small selection of images to give you a feel for the countryside.

I think we’d describe some of these as ‘sweeping vistas’. It’s fairly flat around this area. The ups and downs are gradual and fairly easy on the knees. According to my Garmin report we gained 482 m, lost 465 m and ended up pretty much where we started. This profile might look a little spiky but nothing like the profiles on the Primitivo 😊.

There’s not a great deal else to say. No more flies up nostrils, no blisters, though Dorothy does have a nasty heat rash on both lower legs. The temperature now is apparently 35 degrees as I write (it’s now 18:22). Tomorrow is expected to top out at 37 degrees so it is warm. To avoid the heat, Dorothy and I have been discussing catching a bus to Léon and heading up the Camino Salvador to Oviedo and then coming down the Primitivo from Oviedo to Santiago. It’ll be far hillier, ie proper mountains, but given that it’s harder than the Norte which Tom couldn’t manage with his dodgy knee, we’d have to split up our little group which would be disappointing but the heat is beginning to cause Dorothy some real problems. Hence the decision to tackle the Norte this year in the first place. Tom definitely has the hang of things now, is chatting to all of the pilgrims, walks on his own quite often and might enjoy the Camino experience more in any case. We’ll see how it goes.

As a final image, take a look at these enterprising snails. The rough ground at the side of the path was full of these little hermaphrodites scrambling up the wild fennel.

Buen Camino