We stayed at the Hotel Maisonnave which, being a typical city / business hotel, was quite different from where we have stayed so far.
Being a city hotel, the view from my room was pretty much what one would expect. It was quite a pleasant walk out of Pamplona. Although still urban there were plenty of green spaces and then the views opened up as we walked past our first field of oats.
Many more fields of peas, rapeseed and oats filled the vast open spaces and alternated with narrow wooded paths. The bird song was incessant (in a nice way) and we identified Greenfinches, Blackcaps, Cetti’s Warblers, Nightingales, Cari Buntings, Melodious Warblers (great name), Corn Buntings and Blackbirds, I’m sure there were more but the Merlin app struggled to pick up the sounds over us crunching on the gravel path. The little chap above is (I think) a Corn Bunting who just sat there and shouted at us we we went past.
Now we started walking up to the top of the Alto Del Perdon (c750m). More views of distant villages and a couple of shrews (not sure they should have been handled by that person) before we reached the summit and a photo opportunity with the steel sculpture and a great view as the clouds had just lifted. Some of the paths had been quite slippery due the overnight rain – thankfully we had no rain during the walk to make them worse. It is said that all those who summit the hill will have their sins forgiven.
A couple of villages to pass through, a cold drink stop and then a long walk down a path between rapeseed and wheat and a multitude of wild flowers. Poppies, Thistles, Mallow, Fennel, Hawthorn, Dogwood, Hawksbeard, Daisies, Clary, Honeysuckle were all flowering and among the ones I could identify. We then tried to blend into the rapeseed field given the colour of our shirts – if you look hard you can just about see us!
There were plenty of almond trees, all bearing fruit, as we neared our Hotel, which is about 1km outside of Puente La Reina. It was not long until we reached our hotel, checked in, showered and joined the long queue for the washing machines & driers. Overall it was a very pleasant walk today and the sun made an appearance so all was well.
