Day 11: Navarrete to Azofra (20km)

Today was another uneventful day of walking. In fact, it was really difficult to discern between this day and the next in composing this blog entry, as all I remember was that the weather was gross and Noni and I just weren't in the mood for walking. This picture pretty much sums us up:

Noni began the day dressed as a speed skater. This is generally our uniform on cold days.

The walk was through Rioja wine country. After awhile, you've seen one vineyard, you've seen them all!

The worst part though was a very big hill upon leaving Navarrete. The incline on its own was bad enough, but it was mostly made of loose dirt and stones. It made the trek really rough and difficult to navigate.

The view at the top was stunning, but unfortunately, it was a lot more of the same old tricky loose dirt to navigate on the way down.

We ran into John while we were stopped for lunch at Najera. He had sent his bag forward with a bag transportation company and had planned to stay in Najera. We farewelled him and decided to keep going to the next town.

Of course, it started pouring the moment we hit the dirt (now muddy) road. 

We passed two German pilgrim's who had a donkey with them. I guess the donkey was to carry their belongings, but to be honest, it didn't seem to make their trip any more productive- they were quite slow, and the donkey just seemed quite cumbersome, but it made for some interesting conversation.

On our awful 6km in the pouring rain to arrive at Azofra, we properly met Chris, the 73 year old Aussie man who was a walking machine. He had a particular pace and just stuck with it, despite the obvious pain in his leg. 

Noni and I spent most of the walk joking about how John must be looking out his hostel window at the pouring rain, all snug and warm and showered, laughing at us silly girls for continuing onto the next town. Bastard.

We arrived at Azofra and booked ourselves into the Municipal Albergue. We were worried about doing so as munis are very hit at miss as they're the council-operated albergue, and normally quite spartan, with oversized dorms. This one was lovely, with double rooms for everyone! It was such a relief!

When we arrived, who should show up 10 minutes later but John! Apparently, Chris and Noni, with their various injuries, inspired him to keep going. That's right, Noni, you're an inspiration to everyone ;)

We had a great dinner with the two men and managed to have a decent night's sleep in an albergue. Possibly the only one.

Luckily we haven't heard of any eaten pilgrims. Yet.