After our day of bliss, we set off nice and early to get the rest of that awful hill over and done with.
See those mountains in the distance? Yup, already climbed those ;)
Though the climb was very difficult for me, I have mastered the art of pausing to take photos of the scenery (in reality: catch my breath). It makes me look like I have myself together.
Once we got to the top of the hill, we were rewarded with the iconic monuments to the Camino de Santiago.
Of course, Noni and I had to pose with them.
We're so funny and original that we are surely the first to pose this way with these statues.
After clowning around on the top of the hill, we had a steep descent on the other side...
...with loose stones as our path. I can see why so many people get injured on the Camino. This was hell on mine and Noni's knees and ankles.
After surviving the descent, the scenery was incredible. We were surrounded by fields of a flower called rape, which is used to make rapeseed oil. Noni found it absolutely hilarious that I screamed, "RAPE!" every time we passed another field, didn't you Noni? Yup, she definitely wasn't ready to kill me.
One of my favourite things about walking through Spain is the beautiful wild flowers that are everywhere. Everyday we walk past daisies, poppies, cornflowers, and a host of other gorgeous flowers whose names I don't know but need to learn. Oh, and RAPE!
Our last town we went through before arriving at our destination was Puente la Reina, which was a gorgeous medieval town with this lovely Roman bridge spanning the river. Of course.
We then had about 7km to our next and final town. With about 3km to go, my feet were really struggling. Not with blisters or anything, but just pain from walking all day on hard surfaces. Noni was also in pain, so she put on her other pair of sneakers. She has tiny feet so shoes don't weigh as much for her. My giant feet mean that extra sneakers would weigh a tonne. But I do have something else with me.
It was also around this time that Noni's knee started really playing up. Cirauqui was up a hill to get to, so we hobbled up and into the town, through the winding streets until we got to the albergue. The hospitalera was a super friendly lady who saw Noni hobble in and instantly diagnosed her with inflammation. As soon as the farmacia opened later that evening (because of course everything has to shut from 1 until 6pm for siesta), we got her some voltaren and a knee brace. Hopefully her knee would fix itself soon.
We chose to have the pilgrim's menu at the albergue. These menus are always hit or miss, but they contain 2 courses and dessert, and generally only cost €10. We were very lucky this night as the food was all local specialties with wine made in the town and was absolutely delicious!
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