Day 6 - Puente Reina to Estella (23km)

It has been another steady day of walking beneath blue skies enjoying the laughter, friendship and company of fellow travellers. Out of Puente Reina, climbing into small hilltop towns of narrow, cobbled streets and white washed walls - Maneru, Cirauqui, Lorca - and then descending again into the surrounding countryside of cultivated green fields following gravel paths lined with the yellow off rapeseed and the red of poppies.

The Queen's Bridge

I began the day with what has become my regular group of fellow travellers: Keith and Janna and Robin, an American who will be joining her husband in the latter part of the trip. This afternoon I pressed on alone and met a Dane playing her eucalali as she walked and another American who was doing his second Camino. Every time the same initial questions: 'where from?', 'where to?', 'why?' And afterwards perhaps more personal stories. I have heard tales of triumph and of tragedy, of sadness and of joy but made more special, more poignant, because they come from people who are sharing your journey and who are on the one hand strangers yet, at the same time, friends.

Lorca

We filled our water bottles from the local fountain and lunched at Lorca, a small stone village perched on a hill. Nine hundred years ago this may not have been so wise according to this tale:

'Be careful not to drink ...or water your horse there, because the river is lethal. On its banks, as we were going to Santiago, we found two Navarrese sitting there, sharpening their knives, waiting to skin the horses of pilgrims that die after drinking the water. When we asked, they lied and said the water was safe to drink. So we watered our horses, and two died at once, which the men then skinned.

This evening I am in Estella, a relatively large town for the area.  I am in a simple but modern hostel with wide and comfortable beds and I have enjoyed a filling meal with my new 'family'. Oh, and there was another 'emergency'.....