Day Six

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Puenta le Reina to Estella - 22.4 km at 36C

The climb out of the valley leaving Puenta le Reina is tough. It's a long climb and just when you think you have reached the top-no.

Once out of the valley, the trek is quite easy, meandering through many little villages where I stopped for breakfast, snack, and lunch. Lunch consisted of two large wieners stuffed with cheese and jalapeño peppers and a cup of dry noodles. Yum!

The walk from the last village before I reached Estrella was gruelling with the temp reaching 36c and no reprieve from the heat. Not a lot of shady trees. On the bright side, a pilgrim can sustain himself quite nicely in all the natural fruits along the way, most notably fresh wild figs. When they have a yellow tinge to them, they are the sweetest and should be eaten.

The municipal albergue is comfortable with all amenities including washer and dryer for 5€. I recommend this option if you don't check in by 2 pm as the sun and drying time will not be enough.

The beer across the street is 1.7€ and ice cold. You can enjoy one on the patio overlooking the creek running through town.

Estrella itself has more people than you might think and three well stocked supermercados.

Tomorrow it's onto Los Arcos. The last village/watersource is Villamayor de Monjardin. From there it's 13 km to Los Arcos. Today I went through 4 750ml bottles of water in 22.4 km. I will have to fill up my bottle and purchase some agua for the final stretch.

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