September 30, 2001
Pamplona (Cizur) - Puente La Reina (sunny)
11.9m/19km - 55.1m/88.1km

Remember I wrote that I thought the building we were staying in was close to the church next door? That meant we were also close to the bell tower in the church next door. Which also meant that when the bell in the tower rang, it was loud. Which also meant that when the bell rang loudly it yanked most of us out of sleep. Every hour. All night.

This morning I started out feeling a little groggy. Two of the people sleeping in the room with us were a couple from Canada (J&Y) and I walked most of today with them. After we left Cizur we walked past large fallow fields of cultivated land and then up to the top of Alto de Santa Maria de Erreniega; which is a strenuous climb. Before we started the hard part of the climb, I eat two packs of the energy goop I am carrying to help keep me going. This stuff is awful. It's like eating a thick paper slurry. Banana flavored paper slurry but still awful. However, it does give me the extra energy boost I need to get to the top.

The view from the top is magnificent. Behind us is the Pamplona Basin where the city of Pamplona sits and in front of us in the Valdizarbe Valley and the way to Puente La Reina. All along the range of mountains that divide the basin and the valley are large wind turbines. I watched them grow taller and larger as we made the climb up. They are so enormous that you can hear the whaap, whaap sound the blades make even over the noise of the wind blowing. We catch up with B, J, P, and T up here and stop to eat lunch while looking at a huge metal sculpture commemorating all the pilgrims that have made the journey to Santiago.




After lunch we start slipping and sliding our way down the other side of the mountain. This side is all loose rocks and dirt, so slipping and sliding is the only way to go. A little while later we are walking along another ridge and I stop to look down at a house that is half way between the ridge and the valley floor. I want to live in that house. I feel so at peace here that, after checking to see that B, J, and P are far enough ahead of me so that I can't see them, and that J&Y are far enough behind me that I can't see them either, I drop my pack, pull out my tin whistle and play Amazing Grace. When I finish I hear a small noise behind me and turn. Caught. J&Y are standing there with big smiles on their faces. I am embarrassed and mumble that I did not realize they were so close. Their smiles get bigger and they say that they enjoyed my playing immensely. I do not tell them that Amazing Grace is one of only three songs that I can play on a tin whistle.

While we are walking, J (of J&Y) has been trying to make up a song about walking the Camino. He is using the melody to Kansas City, so as we walk I try to think of lyrics too. Finally, we come up with:

We're going to Santiago, Santiago,
Here we come
We're going to Santiago, Santiago,
Here we come
They've got a wonderful cathedral there, and we're going to make a run
Won't take a bus, won't take a train
We're just going to walk there, forget about the pain
And get to Santiago, Santiago here we come.

We reach Puente La Reina early enough to do laundry and take a shower. The room we are put in overlooks a closed factory of some kind and nesting in the tall, round, brick chimneys are storks. J&Y lend me their binoculars but they are low power and I can't tell if the nests have babies in them or not. They are powerful enough for me to see that storks have faces that only a mother could love. They are big, awkward, clumsy looking birds and they are also black in color, not white- Walt Disney you lied to me.

This bit of information is spreading through the refugio. You can mail a package of things you do not want to carry anymore ahead to Santiago and the post office there will hold it for you until you reach Santiago and pick it up. B, J, and T plan to mail their extra stuff in the morning