Friday 12 September

The labours of the previous day cling to our musculoskeletal system but we decide that walking may be better than sitting in Ronscevalles. None the less we cannot get our “credencials” stamped until 10 am so we decide to breakfast and take a look around. Good choice.

The monastery is a wonder and we stroll through a newly renovated section that appears to be accommodation. It is spectacular and we are envious of anyone that made the choice to stay overnight. If we ever get pics uploaded then you will see.

So by 10.15 am we set of to Zubiri and walk through forests and open fields, mostly downhill thank God. We reach Burguete, famous for it's white on red houses,and Hemingway's fishing retreat in The Sun Also Rises.

We walk on at an easy steady pace through Hawthorne to Aurizberri / Espinal. There appears to be two names for each town and we will get back to you when we find out why. This small town was founded in 1269 and yet it remains very well maintained.

Next stop , through Spruce and Beechwwod, is Biskarreta / Viscarret ( with fountain). This time we take pics and feel in great spirit. The walking is easier than yesterday and although residual stiffness of muscles and joints persists, we are making good time.

Lintzoain is our next town with a“fronton”, an old pelota court. We fill our bottle at the fountain and turn a corner to find a steep rise.I hate the hills and at this time prefer the down grade. We decide to stop for lunch. Bread with ham or chorizo. Dry and hard to swallow, you get the impression that the woman just doesn't care enough to add tomato or cheese and my language skills are not up to explaining. Up we climb to alto de erro and on to the crumbling Venta del Puerto, where the roof has recently caved in. It was once a stop over for pilgrims.

Entering Zubiri, after a long downhill stretch, we cross an old bridge and 100m on we are at the hotel. My legs gave up long ago and Dee seemed as though she could walk another 10 km. The hotel is very welcome and the bath, although luke warm, helps ease the muscle fatigue. we lie about stretching and groaning, walking about as though we are in our 90's. Bent knees, short stride and swaggering gate. Each step is painful and again we are on the 2nd floor so 2 flights of steps torture us and impact on decisions whether to leave the room or just go to bed.

We decide that action will be better and so end up at an “allimantacion” purchasing bread, cheese, wine ( 2 bottles cost under 10 E and one of the bottles cost us 24 E at La Posada in Ronscevalles), proscuitto,pears, prunes, nectarines and oranges. We head to the river for our feast, glad to have finished the second day, gorging on our fresh produce and giggling like adolescents as we painfully attempt to stand and walk back to the hotel. We need to wash but there is nowhere for 20 km. The dirty clothes are piling up and they are getting a bit whiffy.