Pamplona is a mere 20.3 km from Zubiri and only a single star on Gronze’s rating system, but we wanted to get there relatively early to enjoy a wander around the city. So, we were up at 6 and left at 6:40.

The path takes one very quickly to what is clearly a major industry in Spain – concrete. It’s clear that the pilgrim routes are a major source of foreign revenue; 325,000 pilgrims a year eating, drinking and simply staying in lodgings en route end up making a major contribution to the economies of what are often some of the poorest areas of Spain. In response there’s considerable investment in infrastructure, much of which requires the use of copious amounts of concrete, plain and imprinted. Large sections of today’s route which would once have been on earthen tracks are now covered in imprinted concrete. Imposible to walk without pain we found in boots but fine when walking in well padded trainers.

Safely past the concrete factory we were greeted loudly by these chaps.

We got to Larrasoaña in fairly short order but found it quiet and no sign of any bar where we might grab some breakfast. 5.5 km isn’t much in the cosmic scheme of things but it’s enough to build up an appetite. Thankfully, I’ve got organic maps, a fork of maps.me by the original authors who couldn’t stomach the latter’s transition to a cryptographic app. It showed a supermarket some 400m of the route and I headed off in search of breakfast or least the ingredients to make one. As the image below indicates, I was successful.

The chap behind Dorothy is Oliver, a Belgium chap, married to a Russian lady who he met on his 11th Camino having left politics and his post as teacher of philosophy under a cloud of depression with the state of the world in general and political backstabbers in particular. They had bought this small bar/supermarket and were happy quietly serving coffee and breakfasts to hungry pilgrims. Apparently Miguel Indurain lives just down the road and is often seen cycling past with friends. Oliver was a fountain of knowledge of all things Camino and gave us pointers to restaurants, bars and hostelries all along the way. We had intended this to be a short refuelling stop but stayed the best part of an hour chatting.

Eventually we made our goodbyes and plodded back to the Camino.

We saw our first siani flewog (caterpillar to the rest of us) of the Camino.

And these fine horses

It took a surprisingly long time to actually get into the centre of Pamplona which has an extensive suburban area, but eventually we made our way up through the old city’s walls.

Pamplona is the home of the San Fermin bull running festival and they have the sculptures to prove it.

Each to his or her own.

We’re staying the Hostel Navarro. It’s pretty decent, all mod cons and not too far from the Camino route. For future reference, dinner tonight was at a street side restaurant, extremely popular with locals whose name currently escapes me. It was excellent and had impressively large wine glasses.

It’s 20:57, we’re both tired. We have 24 km tomorrow, up and over Alto del Perdón (there’s a very nice coffee bar at the foot of the climb and some impressive statues at the top) so we’ll try to get an early start.

Buen camino