Day nine - Najera to Santo Domingo de la Calzada

The long and winding road

Today was a deceiving little devil. After 30km yesterday, the 20.9km showed on our plan seemed a breeze. Little did we know that by the end of the day we would have clocked up more than 23km. Not only that, but the predicted cloud never arrived, there was no shade and it was hot.

The red cliffs at the outskirts of Najera.

We started out walking past the imposing cliffs that fringe the town of Najera. Straightaway the road tilted up. We were feeling pretty good. Every night we feel twinges from our old bodies and wake up hobbling and stooped, but every day we get fitter and stronger. We'd waited for breakfast at 7.30am at the Hostal Hispano and it was worth the wait - coffee, fresh orange juice, toast, croissant, cheese, ham and all the jam-like things your heart desired. I couldn't manage it all so stuffed the croissant with a pile of ham and cheese and saved it for Ron (Later Ron). In fact, let the record state that we loved the Hostal Hispano, including the soft beds and the big balcony, where we were able to string a good clothesline facing the afternoon sun.

We're regularly logging kilometres in 12 minutes or so, although we slow down as the day progresses. Our average speeds early on are impressive, but we're inclined to take as many breaks as we can. That's not always easy when the road stretches on, no shade, no shelter, no place to rest your weary bones, and as you get older the ground is just too far away to lower yourself down to.

Prime real estate in Azofra.

We looked forward with enthusiasm to the first village on our route - Azofra. The coffee was weak and the village was very old - in a scenic sort of way. There's a story here in the decay of some of the old Spanish villages. Who lives here? What do they do? There's a very limited business going on serving coffee and snacks to pilgrims, but there's a lot of crumbling real estate for sale.

When we left Najera, we were walking with people of different nationalities. The English we heard spoken seemed to be by people for whom it was a second language. Sitting outside the bar in Azofra, we realised that some of them were Irish - who would have known? We found it easier to understand the two Germans who sat down at our table - astonishingly, they were pushing all their luggage - and a baby. They didn't seem to think that pushing a baby (including over the difficult sections before and after the Pyrenees) was unusual, but they were punished by the cost of having all their luggage transported every day (and so they pushed it all).

After Azofra, there wasn't much shade and the sun was beating down. There were no villages and so when we saw a big shady tree we pulled over and took a standing break. We got into conversation with Diana from the USA and Linda from Scotland about language - who was speaking what and whether or not we could understand them.

In many ways, that stop was more satisfying than those where you can sit down with a formal structure of cafes and coffee. We made a bit of connection with other pilgrims and that's an important part of this walk.

At one stage, we were looking for an arrow (the yellow Camino arrows that guide you on your way), when a couple of lines of a song came into my mind - it may have been that the woman walking ahead of us had a big bottom, something I unashamedly appreciate. The lines were "where she's narrow, she's as narrow as an arrow, and she's broad where a broad should be broad". For the life of me, I couldn't remember that song - I had to search for it on YouTube when we arrived in our hotel - and here it is - today's song: https://youtu.be/XjHFQDJbozk

The next area of settlement was the township of Ciruena Opcion - an extended area of habitation. Some bright spark had apparently decided it was a good place to set up a golf resort, with extensive townhouses and sports clubs. There didn't appear to be any infrastructure, such as shops, pubs, and so on.

The idea didn't seem to have worked. Although there were signs of habitation, we didn't see a live person, only a few faces in expensive cars. There was certainly nobody playing golf of the lovely-looking course,

At the end of the town was the old village of Ciruena Camino. It wasn't quite on the route, but we in need of toilets, rest and coffee (in that order), so we detoured off the route for a welcome break.

Predictions of the distance to our destination seemed to be growing, so after the excellent coffee at Jacob's Bar, with hopeful hearts we set off back to the trail and past the sculptures on the roundabout.

It was long drag until our destination hove into view. In the far distance you can see the spire of the cathedral. Although it looked close, we had to walk nearly another 5km until we reached it.

We eventually arrived at our modern accommodation, not at all redolent of history, but very convenient and comfortable. We crashed, as you do, but have since showered and rested and will soon be ready to check out tonight's dinner options. But first, the endearing tale of the Cathedral at Santa Domingo de la Calzada: https://www.mundiplus.com/en/blog/leyenda-de-santo-domingo-de-la-calzada

Check out the Relive video: https://www.relive.cc/view/vwq1Bp1YyBv

Had a nice dinner by the cathedral, joined by Linda and Diana. Drank too much. And so to bed.

And here's the day's photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/3Uge4YhQcYkDQ4C76