Day 11: Sanguesa to Izco

Marion
We were on the road very early today 6.45am, again a lot cooler, great for walking. We had stayed close to the river in Sanguesa and everytime we crossed the river there was a strange smell, could not work out what the smell was. Well we had hardly left our hostal and we passed the water treatment tanks and realised that was what we had been smelling. We walked on a grassy path uphill through almond trees for 1.5k´s to Rocaforte. Then on to a concrete path which became gravel. All along the hills were topped with a line of windmills. Our path was undulating sometimes gravel, rocks, sand or grass. Sometimes through a wooded forest and sometimes in the open with majestic views of mountains in the back ground, still could see a bit of snow on the tips. We also walked through fields of wheat. It was a very easy walk today.
Izco the village that we are staying in tonight is again up on a hill, so was a climb to get to it. The village is very small. Our albergue only sleeps 8 so luckily we arrived early to get a bed. Our albergue has the only bar in the village so if we have a glass of wine or two it won´t be far from our beds!!

Val = Minister of Nutrition
Up early and on the road by 06.35am - no coffee or breakfast so eat a banana on the way. Arrive at a lovely little village in the middle of nowhere and find our way to the Albergue. It turns out to be the village community centre but they provide 8 beds for Pilgrims. The local handyman is repairing the ladies ablutions and is very kind to us. There is nowhere to buy food (as usual!) and he offers us coffee..from a cupboard in the community kitchen he takes out a stove top espresso pot and disappears and returns 5 minutes later with coffee in the holder..he brews it on the stove top..no cups so we pour it into glasses..heaven. He shows us with pride, the outdoor braai .. it can roast ast least a couple of whole animals together with washing up facilities and a huge hall with tables and chairs and a bar. He says they have big gatherings here....strange because we are yet to see anyone in these villages...no children, no old people...they are deserted. He says the lady will be here in a couple of hours.
Time for a rare relax. I lay on my bed with my ipod and Syl and Marion go to visit the local church..the flies drive me mad so I pull the blanket provided over my head and disappear for a couple of hours. Eventually Paul Simon finishes his 17th track and I unplug. There is a lot of noise coming from the passage and I walk into a bar with lots of pilgrims who are passing through..there is not enough room for them all to sleep here...Syl and Marion had managed to get bread and ham and saved me one. Marion says"good now you've arrived, we can have a glass of wine". We have a glass of Vino Tinto each. Then Mr Fix It explains that the place must close so we get up to leave. He asks if we want more vino? Yes we say, he goes to the bar and puts a bottle under my arm..it is a Castillo Irache - Cabernet Sauvignon Y Merlot, Crianza 2004 Navarra region - GOLD MEDAL MADRID! He is proud of this wine which is from his region Navarra. We ask if we can buy food for tonight and eventually find out that they will send the "Supermercado" to us at 6pm. There is nothing to do until then. An Italian couple arrive, we have stayed at the same places with them off and on. She has terrible blisters and has walked on a sprained ankle for almost 2 days..it is swollen and black and blue and she cannot go any further. We all have a lie down for a while and set the alarm in fear of missing the Supermarcardo! By 5.30pm we are all awake and gather outside and we share our wine with the poor lady with the swollen ankle. We all talk about the supermercado and very soon it has become this wonderful refrigerated unit selling everything from fruit and vegetables to "real milk". At 6pm the lady and Mr Fix It returns. A moment later she says, Supermarcardo? Si we say and remain seated. We hear a truck and get excited but it turns out to be "garden services". Then the village dog arrives and we say it must be coming soon, the dog has come for his bone! He takes one look at us and runs..Syl says we must look very very hungry and he's scared we'll eat him. The lady again comes out "Supermercado" she yells and beckons us in. The Supermercado turns out to be a cupboard with a few cans and packets! We take pasta, a tin of toms, a jar of chargrilled peppers. She gives us free salt and fresh garlic and shows that the last pilgrims left 4 sticks of asparagus so we will add that in as well. She also has some bread left from lunchtime so we buy that as well. Sil buys a cold custard and a tin of fruit salad for her supper. The pot for the pasta is taking ages to boil and I have fried off the garlic and Marion and I will finish our 3 day old piece of Chorizo. Then the lights blow...the lady says it is a serious fault because even Pamplona has no electricity. The tom sauce is warm but we cannot cook the pasta. It is light outside but too many flies so we have to eat inside regardless of the fact that there are no candles or other lighting. We eat with the Italian couple and share another Gold Medal bottle of wine. We all put on our headlamps so we can see. The wine is E5.60 per bottle which is good value given that we pay E1.60 per glass of table wine. Our accommodation tonight is E8.00. The Italian couple are lovely and the universal language of music makes it possible for us to communicate. She sings beautifully and he plays the drums in a group..he demonstrates with knives on the table. "Phil Collins?" I say, "Queen?" "Bruce Springstein " he says and becomes more and more animated. Eventually they are talking so fast to Marion andme that we have absolutely no idea what they are saying, Marion looks at me with raised eyebrows, pleading with me to say something...I return the look..eventually Marion says "Agh Shame!!"
Now 'Agh Shame' is a wonderful versatile South African expression. It is appropriate for just about any situation..for instance: Meeting a neighbour or friend in the Supermarket "My Great Aunt Betty died yesterday" "Agh Shame"
A friend "Do you know Woolies has run out of fresh asparagus?" "Agh Shame".

Sil
We left at sunrise along straight, wide gravel paths with our shadows strecthed out before us. It is a good way to warm up. Then it was upill to Rocaforte to the Alto de Albar and Alto de Olaz with a stunning view over a wide valley that looks as though a gargantum glacier gouged out this valley millenia ago. From there the path narrowed to a single clay track, becoming a narrow clay and rock animal track which must be lethal when wet.
Having climbed to the Altos it was time to go down again along a very steeply downward trail through the woods. The last 6km were an uphill climb to Izco. Many of the pilgrim ´rooms´on the Aragones (not strictly pilgrim albergues) are a part of the local community ´Sociedad´or social club. It appears that the community are happy to provide a room in their club property with a few double bunks and offer them to pilgrims. At 8€ per pilgrim it doesn´t bring in much revenue but if the pilgrims buy lunch in the social club diningroom and have no option but to buy food stuff to prepare in the kitchen, it must be worth their while.
We find Mark and Chris - the Swiss and Beglian pilgrims we´ve been meeting all along the route - sitting outside having a beer. Some pilgrims arrive at an albergue, have a beer and food, lie down on the beds for a snooze and then pack up and continue walking. I don´t know how anyone can walk after a heavy meal with beer or wine. We manage to have a bocadillo and a Coke before the place is locked up at 3pm. Marion and I visit the local church, walk about the village - it takes all of 10 minutes to walk from one end to the other - admire a woman´s garden and then stroll back to the albergue. It starts raining, ´Not good for the paths´we agree. Val has told you about our supermecado purchase and dinner by headlamp light! I opened my tin of ruit salad and shared it, together with one small sub of custard, between the five of us. Loaves and fishes! Quite a night.
We had just finished eating when a cyclist pilgrim arrived in the rain. As we got into bed the electricity came back on but we were too tired and pleasantly full by then to get up and cook the pasta.
Buenas noches todos.

Day 9 Santa Cilia to Artieda

Marion

Today we decided we needed to start a bit earlier so that we could rather walk most of our walk in the cooler part of the as as it so very hot by lunchtime. Val´s alarm went off at 6.00am this morning so we were up and out of the room to dress in the passage so that we did not disturb the others. Can you imagine all of us standing on the steps with all our belongings, folding up our sleeping bags, puting everything in our backpacks and getting ready to go and then creeping down the stairs then to the kitchen to get our breakfast.

We were on the road by 7.15am. Most of our walking was through farm land lots of golden wheat fields with a scattering of wild poppies every now and again. We walked on a path of sand and stone lots of wild flowers alongside us. It was quite flat and again very hot with very little shade. We stopped at a little village called Martas, unfortunately no shops at all, so no coffee. Luckily we saw three elderly men sitting on a bench and the one showed us where we could get some cold water to fill our bottles. We then walked through the Lunar valley, it was quite weird, hills that are soft rock, grey coloured and it looked like they had a top layer of very fine looking gravel. The village that we were going to stop at Artieda was on a top of a hill, it was quite a climb. At the bottom of the hill was about a dozen Royal Eagles flying around and whilst I was walking up I could not help but wonder if they were watching to see if I would make it to the top and if I did not would I be good food for them. I was exhausted by the time I had reached the top, at first could not undrstand why I found the day so tiring but then realized how I had perspired in the heat and had not had enough carbs and salt, also had not had enough to drink. I straight away started drinking water and eating carbs and some salt. Even though it was a tiring day it was wonderful.

Val Minister of Nutrition

We are up early today = we want to get a head start and so it is dark when we awake. The alarm has been set for 6am and my cell phone is our alarm....but the battery is running low and I have to leave it plugged in at the bottom of Marion´s bed...I am above her in the top bunk. As such I say, Marion when the alarm goes off in the morning you must quickly turn it off so it doesn´t disturb the others. It duly goes off at 6.00am, and off and off....I lean over the bunk and whisper Marion, Marion....she cannot hear me...´the poor French girls head is next to the bench that the phone is on and in a sleepy voice says "oh Sil o plait, oh sil of plat....which interpreted comes out like the teenagers say " oh pleazeeee" finally Marion awakes and unplugs the phone and hands it up to me....my sorry´s do nothing to compensate for the intrusion....we all sneak out and then go back and back again to move our things from the Dorm to the landing to dress and sort out....I have dreadful eyesight so put on my head lamp and go back into the dorm, careful to keep my head low so as not to disturb them further...but the poor French girl´s head is just where I need to be and my head lamp shines right on her head...."oh Pleazeeeee"...I think this morning I have crossed the line of Pilgrim etiquette! One does not wake up nor disturb fellow pilgrims.
We go downstairs and prepare our hot chocolate with hot fresh milk (actually it is longlife in a carton but by fresh I mean it is not in a packet). We have a breakfast bar and a banana so lots to eat and there are some late comers who are sleeping on the lounge furniture and ´hiss at us´to shutup. We give up and leave. There was a storm during the night and it is very humid. Eventually the sun comes out and there is no escape as we are in the open...quite a slog today on hard gravel paths and not much variation so you feel every km. After about 5kms I could feel my left foot stinging. I discovered scourers/sponges last time were great for putting under your bra straps to support the back pack straps - as long as you remembered to put the sponge side on the skin and scourer part against the bra strap. I hve been using them to cushion the balls of my feet, toomany pedicures have made my feet too soft. Finally I have to stop and discover that I have put the sponge around the wrong way and had the scourer against my skin and I have literally grated the underpart of my foot. I had rubbed raw. Nurse Syl comes to the rescue and dried it off with spirit and rosemary and then applied a dressing and the rest of the journey was fine. We could see our village high on the hill and it reminded us of Tuscany. We climbed and climbed andwere greeted by a lovely woman and daughter - her Albergue was also the only bar, restaurant in the place, what luck!! There were no shops and they relied on deliveries. They showed us to our rooms and once again, spotlessly clean. Asked if we would like to eat and offered us Tortilla and Salad - yes please...we had cool drinks and coffee and vino tinto. My first spanish meal. There is no internet so we will write our blog and publish when we can...have a shower and afternoon nap as they have offered us supper at 8pm and breakfast at 7am...more than we have eaten in days. We got caught out today and walked all day on a banana, apple and a third of an orange.We ask if we can get a taxi to drop us at the next village as we are a bit behind now and need to catch up about 8km to guarantee somewhere to sleep. yes we are the taxi also she says! The wind is up now and it is trying to rain (5pm)We get ready to go down and I go to climb off the top bunk...it is so high I can reach the ceiling without stretching...I crawl to the end and turnaround to come down and Syl shouts " the ladder is on the other side"...we nearly have spatchcock Val. Tonights meal is green beans, large runner beans cooked with potatoes and small dice of ham. Followed by Tortilla (which we have a lunchtime so gave that a miss), beef ragu or sausages. I choose sausages dreaming of a Spanish casserole of spicy sausages, Spanish onion, garlic, peppers and perhaps some smoked Spanish Paprika...no...4 chipolatas and chips!...followed by commercially packaged ice cream, tinned fruit salad or flan.. I choose flan which turns out to be a prepackaged creme caramel...I woof the whole lot down! Breakfast is lovely coffe, half a slice of dry bread with preserves. Also Magdamena´s...cupcakes which taste stale. However, all of this together with our accommodation cost 28 euro....The Spanish are really lovely people......

Sil

Today was a much better day for me. After the heat of yesterday and the challenging climb down from San Juan de la Pena, I found today´s walk a breeze - long and relentless, but

easy all the same.

The paths were mostly wide, open gravel or sandy paths and although it was hot we were able to stop three times for a backpack off and snack break. Val and Marion seem to find the long, flat paths more tiring than I do and it my turn to be encouraging.

We realise that we need to take in more salt and perhaps more proper carbohydrates. They eat more bread than I do but I prefer fruit and yoghurt - neither of which really replenishes salts and fluids lost by a long day´s walk. Artieda is on a hill (what´s new) and as we walk in we see a vehicle parked on a side alley with a taxi advert in the wondow. Such a tiny place with a taxi service! It also has a telephone box and I try to phone home. My card works for Marion to phone Kim in JOhannesburg but doesn´t work for me to phone Finn. I´m starting to feel home sick and need to speak to my family.

The albergue is in a hostal - some private rooms and some dorm rooms. Our room has two double bunks so we are alone in the room.

After a lunch of Tortilla Espanol and salad we had a nice hot shower and sorted out our packs. Marion and I walked to the end of the village and took photos of a stunning view of the valley with rain clouds slashing the Yesa dam. Dinner is a communal one and we shared our dinner table with three German pilgrims who could all speak English. After dinner, a French pilgrim asked the owner to take a photograph of all of us so we trooped outside for a group photo. I ask the woman in the restaurant if we can contact the taxi to take us to Ruesta tomorrow. "We are the taxi" she says. "We are the hostal, the shop and the taxi - todo!" So, we arrange for the taxi to take us 8km down the road tomorrow morning so that we can get back on track to reach Pamplona in time for Val's flight and our trains.

Day 8: Jaca to Santa Cilia

Marion
Another beautiful day, clear sky, no sign of rain at all. We started off by taking a taxi to the Monastary of San Juan de La Pena, it was such a worthwhile stop. Its amazing to see how the Monastery was built into the rock mountain. The workmanship was incredibile, and it all was so interesting. After spending approximately one hour walking through the monastary we then started walking the 7.5k´s back down to the road. At first did not understand as we started climbingfor 1k, and then the descent began, a very steep path of earth, stones and rocks. One had to be very carefull and go down quite slowly. I so enjoyed it but must admit I would not like to do it in very wet wether. At times we came across wild lavendar growing alongside of us, lots of pretty wild flowers and very colourful butterflies. At the bottom we found a cafe bar and had something to drink at Santa Cruz which was very welcome and then continued on our way up and down a another path of rocks and boulders. It was very hot and no shade. I am sure we were walking in the path that the water would come tumbling down. One could actually see where the little waterfalls would be in the wet weather or when the snow melted. I love walking off the road as in the silence I am able to listen to the sounds of nature and lose myself within myself. Have to say at the end of walking today I was quite tired but contented.

Val Minister of Nutrition
We are chucked out at 0900am so we decide to get up early and finish off on the blog. We are now up to date with our blog...still a shame that we post almost a week in one go as we know friends and family like to get an update every few days....we are getting a taxi to the Monastery this morning so Syl goes off to scout for the taxi rank and atm whilst Marion and I get our fix of ´cafe´in a bar....I also have a roll with ham and proscuitto which is served warm...delicious. The taxi rank is full of cars which are not taxis...and we along with another woman accost every one who parks and gets out of the car..."taxi" NO comes the reply...the Spanish woman actually opens their doors and is almost in when the owner of the car has to manhandle her and say No not taxi!!
We got to a hotel and the kind lady calls us a taxi and we then wait at the taxi rank....we bundle in with all of our stuff and are soon speeding up a very narrow winding road to the Monastery. It is well worth the visit and the late start we have today. It doesn´t open until 1000am and we spend at least an hour. We immediately set off on the path to our next stop. I resist singing "I´m off to Sunny Spain¨and pretend that I have never been to Benidorm! But I feel like singing because it is so beautiful. For the past 5 days we have seen a lone bird of prey - it is as if he is following us...perhaps guiding us. Our next stop should have been Arres but we will not make it as we are so late and cannot book and as such ensure our accommodation. We walk into Santa Cilia and there are two young boys playing football. .. Syl says Albergue? and they immediately walk for us to follow. We go down a side road where the entire road is running between the buildings is dug up...another village undergoing reconstruction. Other than that, there is absolutely nothing! We have walked through villages where there is a row of say 4 houses, of which only one is habitable, the ones surrounding it are ruins. They have no shops, absolutely nothing but almost always a water fountain and incredibly - recyling bins..probably more for us pilgrims than the residents. Our accommodation tonight is superb in many ways, it is bright and cheerful, the 3 storey ¨townhouse¨has colour washed walls and paintings (murals) a map and modern Male and Female Pilgrims to denote the abultions, although most often these are communal. The place is spotless and quite a few of our fellow pilgrims have all gathered here tonight and a great atmosphere exists. There is a washing machine! Marions says, "and what is this?" " a dishwasher?" I say, but it is a tumble dryer....we have not been able to wash our fleece´s as they are difficult to dry and if the weather turns we only have one, and need them in the mornings and sometimes to sleep in. They are competing with the smelly cheese now! Downstairs is a fully fitted kitchen, huge communal table and lovely open plan lounge. The next floor is a male and female dorm and lovely showers and toilets...there is liquid soap AND paper towels AND TOILET PAPER! Some places do not supply toilet paper because we pinch it. The first time I discovered this, was a bit of a shock...where the toilet rolls should have been, was a piece of cardboard with a message...I did´nt need my phrase book to know that it said something like "we no longer provide toilet paper because you nasty little Pilgrims pinch it".....In the next door cubicle is a groan and expletive - it doesn´t matter what the language, it is obvious he also forgot to check before sitting down.
On the 3rd floor is a huge room - almost like a classroom with free Internet and we manage to post a few photographs onto our blog. The use of the internet, washing machine, including powder and the tumble dryer in addition to all the other facilities is just 10 euro. The only problem now is where can we get food. Marion and I go looking around the village, and it is full of allotments with such wonderful produce including fruit trees and fruit bushes. As we pass down a narrow path we can just see over a wall with vegetables at our height - oh it is so tempting to pinch and onion and lettuce but we resist. We report back that the place is deserted. Eventually we learn that we have to walk around the corner and press the door bell and wait about 15 minutes and they will open - there is apparently a bar and food shop. A few of us go to the door and sure enough about 10 minutes later a lady appears and we set into the bar..a tiny dingy room and we are told to wait here until she is ready for us to come into the shop. The tiny bar has a shelf on the wall with grimey bottles, most without labels and I don´t ask for wine fearful that I might be given the contents of one of these bottles and so we wait for over 15 minutes for Senora to invite us into her shop behind the bar. "only two at a time!" But she allows us three in together. It is a lovely Alladins Cave- we snatch up fresh lettuce, toms, onions, peppers and garlic. A carton of milk for tomorrow with sachets of hot chocolate, apples, oranges and bananas. She doesn´t have any bread but we still have some in my backpack also some cheese. Then she says "Jamon, Chorizo?.. Chorizo I say...a huge one is taken from the fridge and she gives us a generous piece. I will lightly fry this to release the juices and add to our salad. There is a row of wine bottles, covered in dust and cobwebs...¨vino¨I say...si tinto?...si Senora..she opens another little fridge and hands me a perfectly chilled red wine. We all go back to our kitchen and start cooking...Marion and I produce our corkscrew and wine goblets and the German man, says in English ¨you do not need a man¨...then he calls everyone into the kitchen to see our goblets...they are drinking out of plastic bathroom cups. Our bread was so hard now I couldn´t cut it too well, the yellow hard cheese was desperately trying to evolve into a Stilton but tasted fine and we finished off with a piece of Lindt chocolate which had travelled for 2 days in my backpack.


Sil
We have three options today.

(1) This was the plan from home. Get a taxi to San Juan and ask him to wait for one hour then take us down to St Cilia - which means an 8km walk to Arres, our next intended stopover.

(2) Get the taxi to San Juan and walk the 7.5km back to St Cilia and 8km to Arres. That'll make it 15km walking day.

(3) Get a bus at 8h10 to St Cilia and walk up to San Juan de la Pena and back again. This will make it a very long walk so we discard this idea.

Plan 1 means we walk 8kms today - or plan 2 and we walk about 15kms?
"I don´t mind to walk" says Val. "I don´t mind walking" says Marion. So, I ask the driver to take us to San Juan and we will walk back. It costs us 25€ - 35€ if he had waited. We pay 3€ (pilgrim price) to see the monastery and leave our packs behind the ticket booth. After visiting this stunning place we collect our sticks and packs. "It is not a dificult path" says the young lady in the ticket booth. "Only 7.5km". It IS a difficult path! It is rocky, narrow, VERY, Very steep and although we spent the first km going up, the rest is all down, down, down - impossible ledge paths with no hope of recovery if you wobble or stumble. At one stage it looked as though the path had disappeared into an abyss but there it was when we peered over the edge, snaking its way sideways down only to disappear again into another gully.
I was exhausted by the time we got to the bottom and even after stopping at Santa Cruz for a cold drink, I started to feel light headed and wobbly as we walked to Santa Cilia.
"I think I need to lie down" I told M and Val at one stage. We found a tiny patch of shade and I lay down with my legs up on a tree and my head on my backpack. I had goosebumps even though it was 35oC in the shade. I think I had a touch of sunstroke. When we got to Santa Cilia I headed straight for the albergue. After a shower, something to eat and a drink I felt as though I could have gone on another 5km or 8km but by then our washing was in the machine and we were very comfortable in the albergue.
A pilgrim gets very excited when she sees my shorts. She is an ex-pat South African living in Belgium. We talk about Cape Town, Johannesburg, the 1908o's and the new South Africa. She and her husband are cycling from their home to Santiago. It's a really Groot Trek!
Val´s heels are sore and her achilles are tight so I give her another foot massage. This turned out to be one of the best albergues we´ve stayed in with a very kind hospitalera, small rooms, free internet, free washing machine and tumble drier and a wonderful atmosphere. I have a bed near the window and can hear sheep baaing in the fields. I also hear thunder during the night and worry about what the paths will be like if it rains. But, I´m too tired to care tonight and drift off to sleep. It´s been a long, hard day.

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