Rock on

In the last 3 days we did 36km to Arre, 5km to Pamplona and 46km to Estella.

We have managed much shorter distances because we have been doing some serious mountain biking in some serious heat. Incredibly rocky, lots of loose boulders and incredible inclines both up and down. Obviously the concept of switchbacks was not invented by the pilgrims of yester year. On many up hills we have to push-carry the bikes and some downhills simply have too many loose rocks to bike, you just sink into the rocks like you would in deep sand. But we believe the hardest is over..

We popped into a Camino shop in Pamplona and the owner advised us to skip parts of the route as its too hard for cycling. After some deliberation we decided to ignore his advice and now we can proudly say we have been sticking to the original route :)

In Pamplona we did some touristy things like walking the path of the bull run and having some Pinxtos, which is the Basque version of Tapas. And we rested :)

It has been quite an adjustment to join the camino, with camping we always had our own space and now we are always staying in packed dorm rooms. The facilities in the Auberges is really good so far. The hardest part is all the snorring - pilgrims snore soooo much - perhaps because they are all so very tired :)