Day 5 - Puente la Reina to Estella - 21km

Since the albergue I was staying in actually had a bar, I was able to have a coffee before leaving in the morning, which made a nice change. Usually I had to walk between 5 and 10 km before finding somewhere open. I didn´t want the extra weight of carrying coffee makings with me, so usually after walking for about an hour I would have a breakfast stop of chocolate biscuits and water.

The route led through gently rolling countryside, vineyards and farmyards, good underfoot but with some fairly steep ups and downs, and passed through several villages. The fields and hedgerows were full of spring flowers and I was accompanied almost continuously by birdsong. Each village seemed to be built on a hill, so that you could see it in the distance as you approached, and part of the way was on a 2000-year-old Roman road. I took fairly frequent breaks because the sun became very hot early on.

Walking from east to west every day meant that the morning sun was always behind you, so the backs of necks, arms and legs were the bits that caught it most. In the evening you could always spot a pilgrim by their brown legs and white feet where their socks had been. Your shadow was always cast ahead of you when you set off and I think everyone takes a photo of this, I know I did. It was actually useful at times when in doubt which route to take to know the sun had to be behind you. It helped me on more than one occasion.

During the walk I met up several times with Kari and Sandy, and also a group I had first met at Cizur Menor. This group showed how truly international the Camino is. They were all in their twenties, April from England, Anna from Ireland, Estella from America, Santiago (think that was a nickname!) from Columbia and later also Alex from Germany. They were a very lively and friendly bunch and I saw quite a lot of them as we sometimes stayed in the same albergues. They always prepared their own evening meal and would gather up and feed any stray pilgrims they found.

I stopped for a bocadillo for lunch on the way, an awful one that consisted of slices of smoked sausage slapped in a french stick with no butter or anything. It was very dry and the sausage still had its tough skin on. In fact I went off bocadillos fairly early on as I found most of them dry and tasteless. At a pinch cheese and tomato would do, but some places would make you a "sandwich mixto" a toasted ham and cheese sandwich which was very much nicer. Anyway, stopping to eat meant I didn´t arrive in Estella until after 3 in the afternoon, by which time it was blazing hot.

Despite my late arrival I managed to get a bottom bunk, the last one. I don´t like sleeping on a top bunk as I´m always afraid I´ll fall out and I was lucky enough to nearly always get a bottom bunk, often one of the last ones. The dorm filled up very fast and after the usual chores I went for a walk around, where I bumped into Kari and Sandi who were staying at the same place. We went shopping for supplies as the following day there was a long stretch without any villages. Later I went out to dinner with Kari and we had a nice long chat and got to know each other better.