Camino Day 2: Roncesvalles - Larrasoana (10/09/14)

The lights came on in the Albergue dormitory at 6:00 am and we left Roncesvalles at 7:10 along with numerous other pilgrims quietly brushing the sleep away from our eyes as we set off in the half light of dawn. On the outskirts of Burguete we passed a stone high cross and found a supermarket and bought frappe coffees, cakes and fruit for breakfast and ate them on stone picnic tables nearby which reminded me of the Stone Table in the Chronicles of Narnia that Aslan was slain on!


Stone cross at Burguete

Burguete was a pleasant town with a stream running down a channel in the main street past the doors of the houses and I thought how in the past it must have been very convenient to have a source of fresh water at your own doorstep. The town is famous for two things; the witches that were burnt at the stake in front of the Iglesia de San Nicolas de Barri  in the 16th Century and the fact that it was a favourite resort of the American author Ernest Hemingway who liked to stay here in the early 20th Century.

Burguete church

We turned off the main road and over the rio Urrubi, before reaching Espinal where there was taxing steep climb up the Alto de Mezquiriz. Ben and I stopped for a bacon sandwich in the village of Viskarret where a friendly cat made short work of the fat and rind from my bacon. Matt soon joined us and I refilled my water bladder in a convenient fountain. The great thing about the Camino is that fountains of drinkable water are situated every few kilometres and well marked on maps, so there was really no excuse for not keeping my fluids up to avoid becoming dehydrated.



Crossing the rio Urrubi

After Linzoain I found myself walking with an Austrian and we had a very interesting conversation. He himself had joined his friends at St Jean to walk with them for a few days (they were ahead of him along the track) but his friends had already walked in stages all the way from Austria via Bavaria and Switzerland! The walk was beautiful through mixed deciduous and pine woodland and interspersed with Scabious flowers, rose hips and carpets of more Autumn crocuses; fully open in the sun and resembling stellar constellations. During this time I received a text from Ben Jonas telling me that he and his girlfriend Auste had got engaged the night before and I spent time praying for them and their future life together as I walked along.

Constellations of more Autumn crocuses

At Alto de Erro the Camino crossed the main N135 road and another mobile trailer café allowed me to have a coffee and a snack. Matt and Ben had rejoined me and we sat for a while talking to some young English women who were complaining about how hard walking the Camino was and Ben who was starting to limp again due to the trainers of doom agreed. Matt and Ben wanted to rest awhile so I walked on by myself and although the path was very rocky at times and in places hilly, I enjoyed the seclusion and fell into a rhythm of walking which I became more and more familiar with as I walked the Camino on the following days and found myself praying, singing worship songs or reciting snatches of Psalms. In this way I arrived at Zubiri.

Approaching Zubiri

The medieval bridge at Zubiri  crosses the rio Arga and is known as the Puente de la Rabia  or Bridge of Rabies because there used to be a local belief that if you drove your livestock around the central pillar three times, it would ward off rabies. This ritual according to Lozano arose because the relics of St Quiteria were buried in the abutment of the bridge.

Puente de la Rabia

I should probably have stopped at Zubiri as there was an Albergue there and especially as Ben's feet were really starting to hurt again, but on the map the next town of Larrasoana only looked a short distance down the river valley and I pressed on so that the walk to Pamplona the following day would be shorter. In fact the walk seemed much more arduous than expected and involved climbing up to three villages in the heat and walking along a road past a long and hideous quarry complex that seemed to fill the valley floor with it's industrial sprawl. The industrial intrusion was lightened however by sulphur yellow butterflies and green lizards skittering up the walls.

Industrial Complex

I arrived in the small village of Larrasoana at 14:40 and checked into the  municipal Albergue. It had taken me 7 hours and 30 minutes. Already I felt I was falling into the rhythm of getting up early, walking, arriving at an Albergue, showering, hand-washing my clothes and then relaxing. Once refreshed, I made my way to the local bar and booked a pilgrim meal for the three of us for the evening and then had a beer with Eduard, the Brazilian we had met at St Jean on the first night. We compared notes about life in Ireland and Brazil. Eduard was from Sao Paolo and explained how hard life was in such a mega city for him and his family and how he would like to live somewhere much smaller and rural. I explained that the village I lived in back in Ireland was about the same size as Larrasoana and probably the kind of place he had in mind, apart from the weather! We were then joined by another Austrian and Bob from San Diego who was walking the Camino with his friend Clint and was writing a blog about his experiences called sandiegotosantiago.com

Larrasoana

Whilst talking to Bob and Eduard, Ben limped in at 16:30 accompanied by Matt and exclaimed angrily "That's it! No more Camino! No more walking! I am getting the bus! I am finished!". He looked in agony with his feet. Because Matt and Ben were so late the Municipal albergue was full, but thankfully they managed to find a Pension up the street where they could stay.

Bob far left, Eduard in red and me in green

While they went to shower I went to sit by the rio Arga and sketch the medieval bridge and a semi derelict farmhouse beside it. I noted how in traditional Basque architecture extremely large stones are used to frame window apertures. Whilst sketching, a group of about a dozen men in their early thirties arrived from Pamplona in a transit van. They were accompanied by their young sons, changed into swimming trunks and proceeded to swim and cavort in the river. It was fun watching them and especially the small boys, one of whom had brought plastic sharks and dolphins to "swim" in the river. The men took an interest in my sketch and maybe discussed in Basque how rubbish it was (!) and then one of the boys found a freshwater crayfish. Whether it was a native species or the invasive American variety I do not know, but it suggested to me that the river must be fairly healthy despite the industrial complex up the road.

Boy with Crayfish

As I sat by the river I felt God calling me to "cast the net on the other side" and try new things and see things in a new way in my life. I also took the time to thank God for my friends (I had an encouraging text as I sat there from a friend back in Ireland whose friendship I appreciated) and I also reminded myself that Jesus is the gate to all blessings and real life in it's fullness.

The pilgrim meal that night was lovely, although the wine was rough as a robber's dog and a French guy at our table turned his nose up at it. Afterwards I took Ben back to the Albergue and examined his feet as he was in agony. He had sub ungual haematomas (blood blisters under his left first and fifth toenails) caused by two days of repeated pressure / trauma in his unsuitable trainers. I got my Podiatry pack of sterile scalpels and dressings and drained the blood from under his nails and dressed them with iodine tulle dressings. Ben yelled as I did so and the Austrian from the bar came to look on and give encouragement.


That night I found I was sharing bunks with the very pleasant Zimbabwean couple Ian and his wife Maggie who I also met at St Jean and after friendly chat I read the graffiti on the bunk slats above me before going to sleep. At 3am I was awoken by the wonderful sound of owls hooting in the trees outside the open dormitory window and fell back to sleep smiling.

Graffiti on bunk slats