An absolutely terrific walk of only 14 miles today. Funny enough, the longest walk we had ever done in our life before this week was about 13 miles, and now are talking about 14 miles like it is nothing!
What a difference a day makes. Yesterday, we walked about 15 miles and it took 8 hours. Today, we walked 14 miles, and it took a little over 5 hours. There are several key reasons for this:
1. Linda was back on her A game today. After taking a header and getting several blisters yesterday, Linda was back at almost full speed. The recuperative powers of a great night's sleep and medical help (mostly drugs....) are quite remarkable!
2. Weather conditions were ideal- temperature in the mid 60's, no rain.
3. The terrain was very favorable for walking- basically addy, gravel path most of the way. While we had some climbs and descents, they were not bad. Yesterday, we dealt with hard rain, very rocky and uneven surfaces, and lots of steep climbs and descents.
After a great night's sleep in a lovely 4 star hotel in Estella (more about lodging in a separate post) and a terrific breakfast, we departed around 9 am. After an hour or so, we came to the long anticipated wine fountain of Irache. Basically, there is a fountain at a bodega that dispenses free wine to all hikers. Alas, when we got there, the wine fountain was dry! Later on the trail, we came across a large group of young Europeans who were drinking lots of wine out of plastic water bottles. They told us they had filled up all their bottles with wine, and emptied the fountain!
Along the way, we continued to run into friends from Holland, Germany, France, Korea and other places that we have met over the past few days. An hour later, we stopped for coffee and came upon the 3 couples from Australia. After talking for a while, they left and we finished our coffee and took off. Later in the day, we ran into the Australians again, and walked the last 8 kilometers into Los Arcos with them.
The scenery today was primarily vineyards and rolling farmland. This is a spectacular time of the year to do this hike, everything is in early bloom. At the same time, the temperatures are still manageable. The summer time in this area can become very hot.
After arriving in Los Arcos and checking into our hotel (the best hotel in town, but the worst one we have stayed in so far), we headed down to the town square to eat a delicious Spanish lunch, and drink a reasonable amount of Spanish wine. Our friend Tomas from Denmark joined us and we had a very pleasant conversation. Tomas works with kids with Attention Deficit and Autism, and it was interesting to compare Denmark's approach to autism, etc to the US. Hint: Denmark would seem to have a much better handle on this!
No day is complete without an injury report. Our previous blisters are healing relatively well, but Linda developed another today. And it is quite likely that we will both loose the toenail of or second towing our left foot. Why the hell we would both have this happen is beyond me. They say that old married couples begin to look alike after awhile. That won't happen to us because of Linda's natural beauty, but it looks like we have chosen to substitute similar ailments instead....
Tomorrow should be a fairly easy 18 km (11 mile) walk to viana.
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