Day 7

Pamplona to Muruzábal - 19.8kms
17 April 2019

The Pamplona street our hostel was in was party central during the day and even more so at night with all the tapas bars but it was quiet and completely deserted when we left this morning. The weather today has been perfect for walking as it is cool with high cloud cover so we didn't get too hot ...except for the hill climbs! Leaving Pamplona behind has given us a feeling that we are really on our way now, we've made a good start and all we have to do is to keep walking.

We stopped for a light breakfast at Cizur Menor this morning, 5 kms from central Pamplona and a picnic lunch at Zaruquiegui - we had our own cheese (from St Jean Pied de Port) and spicy dried sausage (from Zubiri) and we bought hard boiled eggs from the bar to go with them. The path was basically uphill from Cizur Menor (roughly 450m) to the top of Alto del Perdón - the Mount of Forgiveness (790m). There were the obligatory photos with the wrought iron figures of medieval pilgrims with the inscription: donde se cruza el camino del viento con el de las estrellas - where the path of the wind intersects that of the stars. The whole ridge is dominated by massive wind turbines.

From there the path was rocky and dropped sharply until we got to the village of  Uterga. The last 2 to 3 kms was on a gentle pathway through almond groves. All the countryside was in crops - possibly barley. We're staying the night in a lovely albergue at Muruzábal.

On the outskirts of Pamplona

The crops start

At Cizur Menor

Looking back towards Pamplona

The path goes on

A small settlement in the distance

The green crops start appearing, possibly barley

Entrance to Zariquiegui

A view from the loo - at a small bar in Zariquegui

The wind turbines up on the ridge

A stall on the way up to Alto de Perdón

Jeff joined the medieval pilgrims

The giant wind turbines stretch along the ridge top.

A lone poppy - the first poppy on our walk.

The Virgin of Irunbidea, near Uterga

Uterga in the distance

I found Pappy's house in Uterga - it just needs a bit of a tidy up and he'll be as comfy as - do you agree girls?

This sign at Uterga says 697 km to Santiago de Compostela... but the number of kilometres still to go seem to be very fluid.

Nearing Muruzábal we walked through an almond grove

All the trees in the orchard had heavy crops of almonds

At our albergue in Muruzábal. Do I look shattered? It certainly felt great to sit down when we got to our albergue

Showered and washing done we went for a wee wander around the village: the church

One of the village lanes

Our albergue entrance

The local bar