Squirrels and Sandstone
Thursday, September 8th
Los Arcos to Logrono
27.8 km (17.3 miles)
Weather: cool this morning turning warm this afternoon. Temperatures up to 28°
I was lucky enough to get an early start at 7:15 in near darkness and as you will see from the photographs we had a fantastic sunrise and made good progress. Wonderful countryside today through vineyards galore and some olive groves again.
The route was undulating which added to the interest of the day and we stopped at a couple of wayside stalls, one to buy a drink and the other for a souvenir.
We passed through the town of Viana which, as with all the towns we went through today, is located on the top of a hill, with a beautiful church in the town centre. You may notice in the photos that there is fencing alongside the town square and fence posts just before the church of Saint Pedro. It is understood that they have bull running through this town as well as through Pamplona, although the streets here are particularly narrow so you wouldn’t wish to be anywhere close when the bulls come flying down them!
I arrived in Logrono at lunchtime and spent an enjoyable hour in the town square close to the cathedral. It’s very noticeable how once you move away from the old part of the town the hustle and bustle of the city comes rushing in.
Tomorrow is another long day of 28.9 km (18 miles). Unfortunately breakfast tomorrow morning is only at 7:30 so it will be a rather late start to the day by the time I get away.
Friday, September 9th
Logrono to Najera
18 miles (although I took a small diversion to a little village so it ended up as 19).
Weather: warm first thing and hotter towards end of the day.
After leaving the outskirts of Logrono, which took nearly an hour from the hotel, we encountered a country park (with a performing squirrel — see video!)
[EDIT: it’s been pointed out in the comments that the squirrel video was missing. I’ve had a word with my editor and it’s now been fixed…!]
After that it was out into the open countryside and for most of the day (apart from a boring stretch against the motorway), we’ve been walking through vineyards and olive groves, much the same as yesterday. The hilltop town of Navarrete is a typical Spanish town with narrow streets and an absolutely fabulous church.
Again beautiful scenery today, much of which is hard to capture in the photos although I’ve tried to give a flavour of what we have been walking through.
After two long days tomorrow is relatively short one 21.3km (13.3 niles)
Saturday, September 10th
Najera to Santo Domingo
Weather: hot and sunny
Today we walked again through vineyards and staggering sandstone scenery. On the way to Azofra the countryside was just bright red with the sandstone rock and soil. Many pilgrims were out early today to try and get into Santo Domingo before the heat of the day took effect. Nevertheless it’s been pretty warm and I know that some of the pilgrims felt the heat.
Santo Domingo is named after a peasant who tried to become a monk but found he couldn’t live a monk’s life. So instead he decided to set up hospitals and hostels for pilgrims way Santiago. The cathedral is extremely impressive with an extensive museum area illustrating the early life of the church in this part of the world.
I’ve met a new set of people today, including a guy from Hawaii with whom I had breakfast, and this evening I’m meeting a chap called Dom (although as yet I don’t know where he’s from).
Along the way today I also met a fellow scout from Spain who recognised my neckerchief. We exchanged the scout sign and it inspired me to renew the Scout Promise which I made about 67 years ago! Hopefully Group Scout Leader Jonathan back home will be able to organise this for me.
Tomorrow is another short day, although judging by the forecast it’ll be another hot one.
