What goes up must come down

Today we would be descending almost all of yesterday’s climbed metres as we head to Akerreta.

The sun was shining as we departed the Hotel Roncesvalles this morning. A really nice meal last night, comfortable rooms and a good breakfast helped overcome the trials of yesterday and set us up for our walk.

The church above is the Collegiate Church of Santa María de Orreaga/Roncesvalles. It’s origin dates back to the beginning of the 12th century, when Alfonso I “El Batallador” and the Bishop of Pamplona ordered the construction of a hospital-monastery in Alto de Ibañeta to care for pilgrims. The Kings of Navarre García V Ramírez, Sancho VI “el Sabio” and Sancho VII “el Fuerte” —whose reigns followed one another from 1134 to 1234— gave the decisive push for the building. Sancho VII el Fuerte was the architect of the construction of the collegiate church, and his remains lie here.

We walked through the pretty Burguete-Auritz, enjoying the peacefulness and the views. At this stage, as we had left “relatively” late at 8:45am we were still behind the majority of El Camino walkers so had the road pretty much to ourselves.

The route alternated between paths in shaded woodland and small towns. The town of Espinal was typical of the area – well maintained and pretty houses and a long narrow Main Street.

The views continued to impress, whether looking across fields to the hills in the distance or walking through the many forests – we passed through Bizkarreta-Gerendiain towards Zubiri. We probably passed 100+ walkers (although it’s not a race!) today. It’s great to see the diversity of walkers, we said hello / Buen Camino to French, Spanish, Germans, Italians, Americans, Canadians, Koreans (and probably other nationalities too) as we passed them by.

A long, rocky descent down to Zubiri, where most walkers were finishing their day, and a first ice-cream stop of the walk. From there it was a walk around the edges of the Magnesitas Navarras site – a huge corporation in the business of extraction, manufacture and commercialization of magnesite and its derivatives. It really looked out of place in such a beautiful environment.

We arrived nice and early to our 300 year hotel and are currently enjoying a beer ont he patio as we rest up before our short walk into Pamplona tomorrow.