Camino Pilgrim

The morning started off early as usual now. Waking up at 5 comes naturally. Half an hour later, I was on the trail. There was an older French woman who asked if she could walk with me because she would get lost in the city and she was afraid to hike alone. Of course, I agreed to help.

The morning went by so fast. The most fun part was the park just outside the city with singing ducks, jumping fish, hordes of wild bunnies and some squirrels (the picture was taken just before the park). The rest of the day was just walking next to highways or from one vineyard to another.

Things got so boring at one point that I decided to watch the latest episode of Game of Thrones while walking at full speed. I made a little stop after 20km and discovered that the French woman was still keeping up. She really impressed me. At some point, she started to push the tempo even. To my surprise, Matthew also joined in out of nowhere for a quick ten-minute lunchbreak and off we were again.

Everyone continued at their own pace until Nájera and we arrived way before midday. I decided to treat myself with half of a watermelon until the albergue opens. This time we took a private house to enjoy some quality rest. Group dinner later in the old town was really nice.

Tomorrow pretty much all shops are closed in Spain for fiesta, so we need to prepare our lunch kits tonight for tomorrow.

My knee got better today. I took a lot of care yesterday and will continue to do so. In the evening, I spent twenty minutes stretching and it felt great. Really need to keep doing it. Also, we did some core strength training on the kitchen floor.

What is funny is that work productivity here after hiking is often over the roof. In terms of working from the Camino, I need to find new things to do for the office. I actually really like balancing hiking every day with work. It’s a pleasant change not to be on a pilgrimage in your head all the time and have other things to focus your mind on.