After spending most of yesterday walking uphill, we were going to be spending today going in the opposite direction.
We stayed at Casa Sabina, a small place but very busy with plenty of Auberge residents eating there as well as us in the hotel. Room was just fine and the view from my room (in the evening and in the morning) was worth looking at. Breakfast was a basic minimum!
Roncesvalles is (apparently!) famous in history and legend for the death of Roland (a military leader) in 778, during the Battle of Roncevaux Pass, when Charlemagne’s rearguard was destroyed by Basque tribes.
The 790 km to Santiago was just about sticker free when we last did this walk. We started out on a nice walk through the woods – all the walkers from Roncesvalles had long since left – with a loud cacophony of bird song to accompany us.
Still cloudy, but not enough to spoil the views, as we walked towards Burguete-Auritz. The old rough path had been ripped up with a tarmac end surface replacing it for quite some distance. We couldn’t find out what the tunnels were for, but we had passed what looked like a civil (or world) war bunker so presume these are part of some old complex.
We continued walking, passing through the small town of Espinal where we took a brief stop to look inside the Parroquia de San Bartolome – a modern church inaugurated in 1961. From there onwards, we were back in the woods, heading steadily downhill and with occasional spectacular views through the trees.
We continued downwards, sometimes very steeply and with a few sneaky sharp hills thrown in for good measure, until we reached the town of Zubiri. This is where most of the walkers stop for the day – we had another 6km to go. But first it was ice cream time. The bridge is the pretty XII century medieval bridge over the River Arga is called the ‘Puente de la Rabia’ (Rabies Bridge). According to legend, animals passing under the bridge were miraculously cured of any illness (including rabies!). Eventually we arrived at our hotel in Akerreta – exhausted after two very arduous days. Tomorrow we have a short day heading to Pamplona.
