22-05-2018
Walk 29.1 km, 7 hours 19 minutes
Ascent: 470 meters
Descend: 410 meters
Kilometers to be traveled: 653.3
When the day comes, enough pilgrims are already on the road. How do I know this? The very early departures also have to get up very early and some of them are a bit noisy, waking up other pilgrims who don’t get up early and leave that early. What is the use of walking in the dark if there is a chance of getting off the path? Or are they going to travel a very long distance and want to experience the best of the day? Or maybe they want to see the sun rise in a certain place.
No, I will stay a while longer and try to get some sleep. But you never know if that is still possible, the alarm clock is at a quarter to six, then I have a good half hour to get everything ready for departure. Even before the watch starts to beep, I am awake as much as I can, helped in part by the increasing stumbling in the dorm room.
Around half past six I start walking again, after all there is another walking day on the program. Valeria walks along again, no one of the others we regularly meet. The street we walk down is strewn with shells on stilts, an Estellian version of the Amsterdammers? It looks nice anyway. The route through the city is easy to follow and it also takes a while before you leave the city.
The next crossing is not a city or cap, but another famous place on the Frances: Bodegas Irache, better known as the Wijnfontein. On this estate, former monastery, is a fountain with 2 taps. Wine comes from the left tap, from the right water. If you arrive too early, the gate is still closed and you cannot reach it, if you arrive late in the afternoon, the wine tap may have dried out.
When we get to the fountain, the wine is still flowing when the tap is turned on. The intention is that you can take a glass, taste the local wine, and if you are thirsty, you can fill your water bottle with water from the water tap. If you want more wine, you are kindly requested to buy it. I take a nice cup of wine, so early in the morning, it tastes best. The photo and video have been made, so I can continue walking.
It will be a pretty long day, the prospects are good or bad, because I don’t watch news or weather forecasts in Spanish. I have to extract the information from my weather app and that is not always accurate. But it looks promising. The shadow is long this morning. The beauty of walking to the west at sunrise, following the shadow.
Our route today contains a stretch of 15 kilometers where nothing is actually for sale, so it is important that you have enough supplies and drinks with you. I get the information from my Rother guide. If you walk in full sun on a summer day it can get pretty hot with a backpack on. Now in spring, which runs towards summer, luckily it is not too bad, but the sun ensures that sweat does not stay away.
We walk through a beautiful landscape, have I seen an ugly landscape so far? No, I don’t think so, even the rainy France had its charm. Maybe the few times you walk past or through an industrial area. It is nevertheless busier on the Frances compared to the Aragonese. As also described in the stories I have read. Seen a monastery on a hill again, you wonder how people built it in the past. I suspect brick by brick, but I don’t know for sure.
On the route of 15 kilometers without any shop, bar or other opportunity to have a snack, a very ingenious Spaniard has now turned into a little copper mince. In the middle of nowhere is a kind of Juice / food truck where you can buy anything that a thirsty and / or hungry pilgrim requires. The prices are slightly higher than normal, but yes, if you do not know that there is a 15-kilometer stretch on the program without snacks and you have nothing or little with you, this is a welcome outcome.
At this stop I take another glass of gravy, I am slowly getting used to drinking at least 1 glass a day. Freshly pressed where you stand. Wonderfully cool too. While drinking I see another familiar face, Domenique also comes for a walk and takes a break. His camera needs a short maintenance.
The route is going well, the pace is good and the weather, in one word: Great. The cornfields that swung back and forth in the wind, the red of the poppies, even though we have regularly passed this in recent days, it always looks different and more beautiful. In Los Arcos it is time to score for a lunch deal.
On the market square, near the church, there are several terraces where we sit down at a table, and Domenique also joins at a given moment. A pizza for me, the first I thought of this trip, because that calzone in Asson was a fake pizza. Domenique ordered something local, a potato dish with a special red sauce, I forgot the name but it tasted very tasty.
Together we walk the afternoon further and the road takes us through a wide gravel path past farmlands, vineyards and olive trees. The sun keeps shining nice. The road winds through the landscape, also through Sansol. The penultimate village for the final destination of the day, Torres del Rio. Walk down the hill from Sansol, then cross the rio del Torres and enter the village uphill. Immediately after entering a large hotel. Not very big but big enough to have a swimming pool. From a window on the 2nd floor a famous Frenchman calls to us, it’s Oliver.
Yes, he also has no room here, but is visiting another pilgrim. His inn is a little further away, where we will try to score a bed. If there is still room. So walk a little further, go up the hill and look for that other inn. Once we arrive at the inn, one with a small shop, we arrange a place to sleep and also a voucher for dinner.
The alberge has several rooms with 10 bunk beds each, I can be the first to choose a bed in a new room, so another bed underneath, this time next to the window. And what do we do first? Just a message home, then decorate the place to sleep again, take a rest, shower, do laundry and hang up to dry on the window where the sun shines full. The best natural and energy-efficient drying machine.
If I take a good look at my shoes, I see a hole in the sole, which is not very nice, a hole in your sole. You would only step on a pointed stone or thorn with that hole in your sole. That means looking forward to new shoes. There are no shops here, so wait until I get to a town or city where there is a sports store that sells hiking shoes. The next big city is Logrono, there is also a Decathlon, so hope it won’t rain, otherwise my feet will also get wet from the bottom.
A tour through the village at its time is always recommended, especially after a 30-kilometer walk. After all, you must ensure that you do not get stiff muscles. Here in Torres del Rio there is also an octagonal church, for a Euro you can take pictures and the light is switched on. When I ask for a stamp, the volunteer sees that I have also visited the other 8-angled church, which is Eunate near Obanos.
After my walk it is time for a beer, or did I drink it before I started my walk? Once back in the room where all the beds are occupied, I started my blog vlog. I take my things downstairs and sit outside on the terrace. There I find the first Dutchmen of this camino. One of the ladies is en route from the Netherlands, the other wife and her husband are connected at a later date and follow her on the Frances.
At 7 we can go to the hotel on the outskirts of Torres for dinner. It is also the only restaurant in this village. It’s pretty full, just pilgrims, but I suspect from all parts of the world. There is again a choice of Primero, Secundo and Postre. Of the 3 courses I can only remember the second course: Secredo with fries and a fried bell pepper. I chose this mainly for the name. It was delicious meat, nice and tender.
After the dessert another cortado, an espresso with milk, then back to the alberge to spend the next night on this camino, because something new is on the program for tomorrow.
Good night and good to rest.
Accommodation: Casa Mariela
