Day 3. Roncesvalles - Zubiri [Part 2/2] (A Pilgrim's Diary)

Camino de Santiago Shell

Join me at the start of the Camino HERE

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Day 3. Roncesvalles - Zubiri (Part 2/2)

The shell of Camino de Santiago engraved in a tile in blue and yellow, led me down to a snow covered forest path and, shortly after, to a picturesque little rocky bridge jumping over a small shallow creek. I strolled along, leaving a trail of heavy footprints on the fresh snow. There weren't any other footmarks, which meant two things: first, that since the previous day, I was the first one to go through that trail, which felt a bit like exploring, but it also meant that, without any reference, it was easier for me to get lost, so I took a mental note not to let my mind drift into wandering thoughts and make an effort to pay attention to the Camino signs that guided me.

That whole forest trail, leading to the village of Espinal, looked as if it was taken out of a fairy tale book. I went drifting along an enchanted forest, as the falling snowflakes kept dressing the landscape in white and, one after another, small rocky bridges jumped over silent streams, their surfaces a thick layer of frost, but alive and flowing underneath. No movement and no sound, except for my feet rasping against the pristine snow. The beauty of untouched Nature!

A very hasty notebook sketch

Arriving at the village of Espinal, I stopped to rest and eat something, protected by a roof outside the church and surrounded by the deserted village. I spotted a couple of old men chatting in a small plaza and a car suffering the snow covered streets, but beside that there was no one in sight.

Later, carefully stepping down a wide granite staircase that descended the mountainside in a spiral, I found Natalia and Micha, whom I have had met in Roncesvalles, just standing there in the snow.

"Hello!", Natalia greeted me as I came closer.

"Pee time!", Micha explained to me, pointing to the middle of the forest. Apparently, Lenny took a pause somewhere in the trees. I greeted them and proceeded to descend the icy steps of the huge stairwell with extra caution not to slip.

For much of the route we made that day, I outpassed them or they outpassed me, depending on the places we chose to rest.

Towards noon, I found them resting in Biscarret and sat with them a little. They pointed out how that my backpack was way too big. And indeed, by comparison, it was about twice the size of theirs. It should weigh about 18 exaggerated kilos at the time. I hoped it would become lighter as I would use the rice and the bottles of gas. Natalia was from Argentina, but had lived so long in Brazil, that she spoke Portuguese with a certain ease and the lightness of the typical Brazilian accent. Len and Micha were from Austria. The three of them also met each other travelling.

Then we decided to get up and went on chatting as we walked through the streets of Biscarret.

"It's really amazing, how you don’t see nobody in the street...", Natalia pointed out and, in fact, if not for the occasional puffing chimney, proof that the houses were indeed inhabited, it would seem that the villages had been abandoned.

At the other side of the village we found our first tienda. After the terrible famine that I had suffered in the Pyrenees, to enter that cozy halogen-illuminated epitome of modern logistics distribution, showcasing all those types of food was somewhat of a shocker - biscuits, chocolate, fruit, yogurt, water, cheese, bread and EVERYTHING else someone could ever want ...

"That's it! Today I’ll sleep here “, I chaffed with them.

"Ahah! You should do that ", Natalia replied.

I bought some tasty cheese to go with the bread I had bought in Burguette, a liquid yogurt for calcium, a banana for magnesium, which is essential to the joints, an orange for vitamin C and some chocolate cookies for my own self-gratification. I sat with them at the door of the supermarket, chatting while we enjoyed our feast and we shared what we had bought with each other. I even took the time to leave a small entry in the guestbook for the nice lady at the counter, something like:

"After the Pyrenees, this place is like a little HEAVEN!"

After the meal, the three of them got up and prepared to return to the road, I stayed for awhile in the little wooden stool, enjoying the comfort of a full stomach, feeling contented as a king!

During the rest of the way to Zubiri, one comes across tombs of pilgrims all along the trail. Those who passed while walking the Way, taken either by sickness, the elements or, if a long time ago, maybe bandits. The tributes in granite and marble, often decorated with flowers, kept their memory for the pilgrims who would follow them. I was thinking to myself that even though they died on the Way, they shall also forever live in the Way, as that tomb in the Pyrenees expressed so clearly "Je suis le Chemin..." – “I am the Way”.

And then, for the first time the clouds parted and the sun shone as small snowflakes danced merrily into the ground, in a rain of gold, as if someone had opened all the treasures of Heaven.

A Fairy Tale

After 22 long kilometers since Roncesvalles, I arrived to the small town of Zubiri, a little after 3pm. The path had been hard at the end, many ups and downs of forest roads filled with mud and slippery rocks, so I was really anxious to arrive. I went directly to the local municipal albergue, but it was closed for renovations till the end of March.

“Damn”.

Uncertain about the next step, I remembered that somewhere in Roncesvalles, I had found a flyer publicizing the albergue Zaldiko in Zubiri, which had printed on one of the sides a map of the route from Roncesvalles to Zubiri with good detail, that had actually given me a lot of help that day.

"Clearly a sign" I thought for myself and walked towards that albergue, which was immediately after the ancient Roman bridge that made entrance to the city. I left my walking staff leaning against the wooden statue at the entrance and opened the door to a nicely decorated and warm entrance hall. Although a little pricey for being a private albergue (10 euros), the hospitalera was very friendly and the conditions were very good. shea led me to my room where I encountered Danny and the two Austrian ladies I met in Roncesvalles.

"Hello! Danny como va, hermano?”, I greeted to the room.

I took my food out of the backpack to find that the olive oil I kept inside a plastic bottle had frozen, due to cold mountain air during the trip.

(Who takes olive oil in a pilgrimage… I know…)

"Well, less weight...", I thought, and threw it out.

Along the route, people kept pointing out the size and weight of my backpack and they were right, I had to cut some weight for the 780 kilometers that were still ahead of me. The oil had just been the beginning of it.

I asked the hospitalera if there was any tienda near, where I could buy some dinner and she pointed out two that were almost next door to the albergue. Of course being Spain and mid-afternoon it was siesta time and the tiendas would only open at 5pm. I took some time to unwind, took a shower and read some more of my half-a-kilo-in-the-backpack "War and Peace" book. At five, I went out and bought my dinner - a banana, a pear and a yogurt.

Before bed I wrote the following words in my notebook:

The philosophy which states - "Life is a journey, not a destination" - becomes all the more true in a journey like this, because if our mind is focused only in the GOAL, throughout the whole way we will suffer nothing but effort and austerity, but if one allows himself to get immersed by the voyage, aware of each step, each landscape, each flower then the entire path is SERENITY and BEAUTY...

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Day 3. Part 1/2

Index:

Day 1. Saint Jean Pied-de-Port - Orbaitzeta
Day 2. Orbaitzeta - Roncesvalles
Day 3. Roncesvalles - Zubiri (YOU ARE HERE)
Day 4. Zubiri - Pamplona
Day 5. Pamplona – Puente de la Reina
Day 6. Puente de la Reina - Estella
Day 7. Estella – Torres del Rio
Day 8. Estella - Logroño
Day 9. Logroño - Najera
Day 10. Najera - Grañon
Day 11. Grañon - Belorado
Day 12. Belorado - Atapuerca
Day 13. Atapuerca - Burgos
Day 14. Burgos – Castrojeriz
Day 15. Castrojeriz - Fromista
Day 16. Fromista – Carrión de los Condes
Day 17. Carrion de los Condes - Sahágun
Day 18. Sahágun – Mansilla de las Mulas
Day 19. Mansilla de las Mulas - León
Day 20. Léon – Hospital de Órbigo
Day 21. Hospital de Órbigo – Rabanal del Camino
Day 22. Rabanal del Camino - Ponferrada
Day 23. Ponferrada – Vega de Valcarce
Day 24. Vega de Valcarce - Tricastela
Day 25. Tricastela - Ferreros
Day 26. Ferreros – Palas del Rei
Day 27. Palas del Rei - Àrzua
Day 28. Àrzua - Santiago

Disclaimer. I did not carry a camera with me, but I will do my best to illustrate these texts with free for use images found around the web and later sent to me by my fellow pilgrims. All images that are not mine will be attributed to their rightful owner at the end of the post, even if no attribution is required. When no attribution is stated, the image is from my notebook.

Thanks to the following authors for kindly providing the CCO License Free To Use photography that illustrates this post:

Camino de Santiago Shell - Donations_are_appreciated (Pixabay)
https://pixabay.com/en/users/Donations_are_appreciated-30101/

A Fairy Tale - Lichtmagnet (Pixabay)
https://pixabay.com/en/users/Lichtmagnet-14706/