Day 3 - Roncevalles to Zubiri (22 km)

Roncevalles

Last night I ate the set meal in the hotel, which included wine. A group of four Austrians eating the same had a bottle on their table as did a group of four Australians. As I was eating alone I therefore expected only a glass. However, it seems the policy was one bottle per table.... I tried to give some away, honest!

My head may have been clouded this morning but the sky outside was blue as I set out from Roncesvalles to the small town of Zubiri.  The day has been quite a contrast to yesterday's cloudy Pyrenees ascent. Apart from a couple of small and neat Spanish villages early in the day it could well have been a walk in rolling English countryside. Small rivers, gentle climbs into sunny woodland, pine forest and beech woods and a final rocky - but not too steep - descent into the small village of Zubiri marked out the day. It was longer than I had expected but I had opted for the company of a group of retired Australian women to help pass the time during the morning followed by a Canadian couple - father and daughter doing the walk together to bond a fractured relationship - later in the day. I was impressed that a 75 year old would tackle such a trip, that is until I later met the 81 year old Mexican doing it with his son; it seems that this walk is for everybody. This evening I fell into the company of a Canadian who had completed the walk last year with his 12 year old son and who, it turned out, knew a Canadian Navy officer I had spent time with in my military days.

                   

Zubiri itself is a small and isolated place, stretching itself thinly along the road. It seems a little soulless to me, its older buildings seemingly lost among a string of square utilitarian buildings, largely serving the Camino with accommodation. You enter and leave the village by crossing the small Arga river over an ancient stone bridge known locally as ‘Rabies Bridge’, a name arising from a myth that animals could be cured of the disease by being driven across it.

Tonight I am in a hostel at the end of this tiny town, small rooms with bunk beds but well equipped.  I had originally planned to stay in the larger, more central municipal hostel with the Canadian father and daughter couple I had spent some of the day with. However, literally as I was handing over my money for my night there, the three retired Australians arrived only to be told there were now just two free beds remaining that evening.  As a solo traveller and with a half decent grasp of Spanish I decided it fair that I head off to find alternative accommodation. My more modern and smaller hostel is only a short walk from the centre, which is where I headed early evening to meet fellow walkers for drinks and dinner. Tomorrow I set out for Pamplona.

Rabies Bridge