Day 9 - Navarette to Azofra - 22km

The way out of Navarette was quite easy to follow and the track was fairly level initially. My back unfortunately started troubling me early on and bothered me more than usual all day. I stopped in a village for a coffee and later on had a lunch break in Nájera. The first bar I went into looked so grubby I just had a coffee, but then I found another one, a slightly more upmarket café/bar than usual where I was delighted to find they had real sandwiches made of sliced bread with a very tasty moist filling of chicken and mayonnaise with tomato. Yum, I can still taste it!

The way out of Nájera was quite a steep climb up past some sandstone cliffs on a shadeless track in the now roasting sun. It was a long hot walk to Azofra and my legs were tired and my feet hurting by the time I got there at about 2 in the afternoon. The albergue had beds in double rooms, small but adequate, and I was pleased to find I´d been allocated a room with my tall German friend Ursula. Kari and Sandi also turned up and later I found Mick, Yvonne and Robin were there too.

It was nice to see them as we had not expected to meet again after our dinner the previous evening. Mick and Robin had walked from Burgos to Santiago another year, so this time they were planning to only go as far as Burgos, a few days away and their daily schedule was different to mine. After the usual chores a group of us went out for a drink and then I sat around chatting to various people in the albergue courtyard, where there was a tiny pool. One of them was a Brazilian, Luis, who had sprained his ankle very badly a couple days previously and been unable to continue. Normally you are allowed to stay for only one night in most albergues and have to leave at eight in the morning, but if a pilgrim is ill or injured they usually make an exception to this rule.

Later I went for a another farewell dinner with Mick, Yvonne and Robin. We were joined by a chap I had some trouble shaking off the following day, but more of that anon... Strangely I found it difficult to get to sleep that night, with just myself and one other person in the room. Ursula wasn´t snoring or restless, maybe I had become so accustomed to the noise of a full dorm with 30 or more occupants that the quiet bothered me.