The beginning of my camino.

This is finally the first entry from my Camino de Santiago. I have been walking for a week now and I´m in Logrono, where I arrived at 10:30am. As I´m doing well today I will keep walking for a few more hours, to Navarette, another 13-14km away. I started in Torres del Rio (20km away) at 6:30 this morning. Life on the Camino...up early and walking before the sun gets to high and the heat start beating down on us. Yesterday I did not get on my way until 10am leaving Estella. It was hot, but everything went well, though my blisters were killing me and I got some sun burh..my first. Blisters are a story of their own on the Camino...I´ve had more than I care to think of and it seems to be a daily blister management. Last night this little local guy saw what I was doing to take care of them and started using every language he could think of to let me know that I was NOT doing the right thing. Before long he had been at the store and bought some antiseptic and was coming back to help me. He sat down, and thanks to this nice Italian peregrino who patiently translated to the best of his abilities, I understood most of what he was explaining to me as he tore off my nice work and started to pour antiseptic on it. It became the entertainment for the peregrinos there for a little while. When he was done I tried to pay him for the bottle but he would have none of it. "You arrivng in Santiago is pay for me", he said.

The first day on the Camino was hard, hard, hard! It was uphill for 18km from St Jean Pied de Port, before we went down to Roncevailles (steep). The total distance that day was 24.4km. I walked with Margaret from Ireland and I can truly say she was a blessing to me, motivating me to keep up a good pace and after 7.5hours of walking we arrived at the legendary Camino hub at 3:30 in the afternoon. My shins were so bad it felt like needles shooting up my legs for every step I took. And, my right hip flexor was toast; I felt like picking up my leg for every step too. Not a good combination!!! As the Pilgrim office did not open until 4pm we sat down outside the bar and had some lemonade. NEVER has lemonade tasted that good!!! Afterwards we went to the pilgrims´office and got our credentials as well as a paying for a bed for the night. Then we lined up outside the well known pilgrim hostel, where we finally got a bed assigned. This was a beautiful building and we were organized in one big room with 120 bunks...and it was full! But, organized as the hospitaleros were it was all set up well, with lights out at 10pm and on again at 6am, with all of us out by 7am. At 6:45 we were on out way again. Margaret felt good, but I felt like an old lady with two sticks who could barely walk. Last night Margaret had helped me ice my shins and I think that saved me. But before long Margaret was far ahead, while I kept reminding myself that slow and steady wins the race. And, to my delight I managed to make it to Zubiri that day and I was still in the "race". Toward the end I had met a Dutch girl, Winnie, who I walked with the last part. She had a reservation at the private Albergue, so I went with her to see if there was space for me. I got the last bed!

Here I ran into my Norwegian "friend" again, Randi from Skjeen. I had briefly met her the night before in Roncevailles, but not spoken with her much. She and Diana from Denmark were staying at the same place, as were Stewart and Valerie from England, whom I would also keep meeting along the way. In Zubiri I had dinner with Randi and Winnie and it turned into this amazing evening where we had such a beautiful connection. The next morning Randi, Diana, Winnie and I set out again at 6:45am for Pamplona. Before long Randi and I had left the other two behind. After waiting for a while we decided to move on. Later I did find out why we lost them (met Dianna in Puenta la Reina). They had gotten off the trail by accident and added about 3km to their hike. That was the last I saw Winnie. I wish her the best. She too is walking to Santiago. Many people are only doing part of the trek, often breaking it up into several portions. Only a smaller portion of us are doing the whole thing. Randi and I kept company to Pamplona where we had lunch together before saying our goodbyes. She was staying there for the night while I marched on to Cizur Menor, another 5.5km down the road. I do not want to spend much time in the cities. I prefer the quieter atmosphere of the smaller old towns. The distance this day was 26.8km. Not bad for an old woman...who was still struggling with some very painful legs. Once I got up the hilll to Cizur Menor I found an Albergue to my left, and walked in. I had a choice; to sleep in the main house or in the church. As I´ve never slept in a church before I decided on the latter.

The next day I left about 7:45 am for Puenta la Reina, 19.6km away, but with a detour of 2.5km to the old historic church in Eunate. It was a good day; one that took me over the final ridges away from the mountainous climate of the pyrenees and into the hotter interior weather. I did well, and got into Puenta la Reina around 2pm, exhausted. In town I saw there were festivities and found out that this was the last nigth of their anuual week-long celebration of St James, who is the patron of Puenta la Reina. The celebrations finished that night with running with the bulls in the streets. I got some amazing pictures and hopefully footage of it. At the Albergue I met a guy, Illka from Finland. We decided to walk the next leg to Estella together. While I was watching the event that night I ran into Randi again. We had a little visit before heading back for some much needed sleep.
Illka and I har a good start and were on our way by 6:30 am. Before long we had caught up with his Spanish friend, Ruben, who walked the rest of the the way with us to Estella, where we got set up at the Albergue. Before long Randi walked in and joined us.