Day 3: Larrasoana to Uterga (Walk - 34 km)
Elma Fakt 4: Coffee can be transformative and I am a coffee addict.
Spent a freezing night sharing aroom with about 23 others. Had all my clothes on wrapped in a goretex jacket and in a sleeping bag yet I kept waking up freezing. Ursula told me that it is a sign of some kind. I thought it was just that the old stone building had no heating. Left at 7.00am, windy and very cold outside. The alburgue had no facility for breakfast and the one bar in the village was not open. 
The next town with anything likly to be open was 12km away. Walked with Ana from Chezck Republic for the first 5km or so. We drifted apart and walking on my own I noticed that my pack was awfully heavy and I started thinking of things I could ditch from it. Great trail through forested areas with lots of trail runners out just before I reached Villava. I liked this town immediately - maybe it was the sound of church bells riging as I arrived just after 9am. This being Good Friday there were people walking towards the church. I was relieved to find one pattiserie shop open. It is here that I found the magic pudding and the power of coffee. 
After a coffee and a fried doughnut with and sweet eggy custart filling I was out the door with spring in my step and song in my heart. My pack suddenly felt like it was 5kg lighter. The transformative power of coffee and fatty sugary sweets. I loved this town even more now. It is also famous for being the hometown of 5 time Tour de France winner Miguel Indurain.
I skipped out of town and very quickly found that I was in Pamplona. I was in the rhythm of the walk and as it was still too early to stay I moved on and by the time I was on the other side of town a slow rain started to fall. Unfortunately I did not look at the description of todays walk. The next stage was climb over a ridge with a string of wind turbines I could see in the distance. The ridge is called Sierra del Perdon. The wind and the rain did not let up. I can see why they put the wind turbines up there. The rain got heavier as I climbed, the temperature dropped and the rain turned to snow/hail. It was miserable walking but the wind turbines did look rather magestic standing proud agains an inky grey sky.
Could not wait to get off the ridge and out of the rain. Got to an Alburgue in Uterga just before 3pm. Walked 34km over nearly 8 hours powered by a cup of coffee and a fried doughnut. Pleased to get out of my wet muddy clothes have a hot shower and some lunch. Not sure how non-coffee addicts managed today. Had a great dinner of lentil soup, roasted chicken, rice pudding with two Danish gnomes and Katerin who is German and an aircraft engineer working on the Airbus planes in Toulousse.
The next town with anything likly to be open was 12km away. Walked with Ana from Chezck Republic for the first 5km or so. We drifted apart and walking on my own I noticed that my pack was awfully heavy and I started thinking of things I could ditch from it. Great trail through forested areas with lots of trail runners out just before I reached Villava. I liked this town immediately - maybe it was the sound of church bells riging as I arrived just after 9am. This being Good Friday there were people walking towards the church. I was relieved to find one pattiserie shop open. It is here that I found the magic pudding and the power of coffee. After a coffee and a fried doughnut with and sweet eggy custart filling I was out the door with spring in my step and song in my heart. My pack suddenly felt like it was 5kg lighter. The transformative power of coffee and fatty sugary sweets. I loved this town even more now. It is also famous for being the hometown of 5 time Tour de France winner Miguel Indurain. I skipped out of town and very quickly found that I was in Pamplona. I was in the rhythm of the walk and as it was still too early to stay I moved on and by the time I was on the other side of town a slow rain started to fall. Unfortunately I did not look at the description of todays walk. The next stage was climb over a ridge with a string of wind turbines I could see in the distance. The ridge is called Sierra del Perdon. The wind and the rain did not let up. I can see why they put the wind turbines up there. The rain got heavier as I climbed, the temperature dropped and the rain turned to snow/hail. It was miserable walking but the wind turbines did look rather magestic standing proud agains an inky grey sky. Could not wait to get off the ridge and out of the rain. Got to an Alburgue in Uterga just before 3pm. Walked 34km over nearly 8 hours powered by a cup of coffee and a fried doughnut. Pleased to get out of my wet muddy clothes have a hot shower and some lunch. Not sure how non-coffee addicts managed today. Had a great dinner of lentil soup, roasted chicken, rice pudding with two Danish gnomes and Katerin who is German and an aircraft engineer working on the Airbus planes in Toulousse. 
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