Pamplona - Puente La Reina - Stuck in the mud!

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So 1600mg of Ibuprofen later and Fiona is pinging down today's trail, only wish we had found this product 22 years ago!

Walk through about 3km of the city and the first 10km of the trail in rain -4th day in a row - stopped at a couple of great spots for coffee, tea and pastries.

The agreement when we left was I could walk ahead provided I waited at any intersection I came across until Fiona turned up. So we start up a hill and I head off leaving Fiona, yvette and father Ken trailing behind. About half way up I notice a trail heading off to the left that indicates bikes should go this way and hikers straight ahead. I took this path as I could see that further up the hill the tracks rejoined and figured there would be no issues - wrong. The rain for the last few days had created a mud bath on the hikers trail between the points where I left and rejoined it. Fiona and her team stayed on the trail. Fiona slipped in the mud and ended up sitting in it having to be extracted by the other two. By the time we met up half an hour later it was clear that the mishap was entirely my fault. Had I never left the trail trail as per our agreement which I did have a distant recollection of I would have seen the mud and remained there waiting in the rain to assist my fellow pilgrims through. Something tells me it was best I was not there which meant they just had to get on with it. The one regret - no photos. Had I been there there would have been and then I would have assisted where necessary!

Amazing the people and nationalities you come across on the Camino. Every now and then you meet someone going the other way, they reckon they pass about 250 each day whereas we come across 20 - 30 and only because we are going a little slower at the moment. Most are Americans who have been motivated by the movie "The Way" starring Martin Sheen. A great movie if you get the chance to watch it and authentic to the Camino.

99% of the people are fantastic and have the bug. There was a minor international incident yesterday at a cafe where a very surly Scandinavian did not want to share a table which had six seats with anyone other than his partner with whom it appeared he was having a bad day with. Anyway they left in the end and all agreed he had the problem. Amazing people on the Camino all there to have fun and see northern Spain at a very slow pace.

100km gone and despite a few aches and pains we are having a great time - so far it has well exceeded all our expectations. Tonight was our last pre booked accommodation so tomorrow night we could end up anywhere.

Catch up soon

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