Today’s Beatitudes:

Blessed are you pilgrim, if your knapsack is emptying of things and your heart does not know where to hang up so many feelings and emotions.

Blessed are you pilgrim,if you discover that one step back to help another is more valuable than a hundred forward without seeing what is at your side. 

Another day in paradise. Or at least another clip on our ticket to paradise.

It took an hour to get out of Pamplona. About 15 minutes through the old town, deserted except for street cleaning trucks hoovering up the detritus from last night’s party, and the delivery vans that are allowed in for a short time to service the shops. Then street after street of apartments in the “new” town and finally through the park like university.

Looming up ahead of us was the Alto del Perdon. A long but not arduous climb through farmland with a rise of 350m. There were fields of wheat, rape seed and other silage crops. By the side of the path were thistles and red poppies. Along the skyline there was a gargantuan line of 40 wind turbines.

About half way up the climb we stopped at a tiny village and bought a coffee and a potato and onion omelette filled bocadillo.  The usual filling is ham and cheese, both cut so thinly they are transparent. We have found that if you get the omelette bocadillo, wrap it up tightly in paper and let it stew in your pack for a couple of hours, then the razor sharp crust softens up.

At the summit you are right under the swoosh, swoosh, swooshing turbines. There are marvellous views back down to Pamplona and on the other side the Arga Valley where we are heading. At the top of the path, right on the skyline is a steel sculpture of life size pilgrims in silhouette. The sculpture was commissioned by the owners of the turbines and some believe it is a cynical sop to public opinion as the turbines sort of destroy the atmosphere of the Camino. I think it is really cool.

At the sculpture it sort of works if people arriving spend a couple of minutes in front of it to have their photo taken, and then step aside. Two French cyclists arrived and promptly propped their bikes against the sculpture and took photos of themselves, then each other, then look at the view, then shot a little video, then had a little chat, some more photos etc for about 10 minutes and then wandered off to read some information boards. Everyone else had to have their fricking bikes in their photos. I was watching this and getting really pissed off with them. One came near Barbara and in perfect French she asked him to please shift his bike. He was actually very good, immediately saw the issue, apologised and moved the bikes. Once again Saint Barbara came to the assistance of the pilgrims. No wonder there was a statue of her in that nuns’ chapel the other day.

The walk down the other side was a steep rocky path but surrounded by dozens of varieties of wild flowers in blue, lavender, white and yellow. This is the best time on the Camino for wild flowers. We stopped and ate our now softened up bocadillo. The rest of the day was spent walking through fields of peas, broad beans, asparagus, olives and grapes.

Near the end of the day I convinced Barbara that we should do a detour that would add an hour, to see one of the most important Romanesque monuments in Navarra. It is a beautiful little octagonal church dating from about 1170. It is thought to be associated with the Knights Templar and based on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Unfortunately it was closed on Mondays but still worth the extra effort to see the exterior.

The region we are passing through is Navarra which is Basque. The Basque are fiercely independent, sometimes violently so. Historically they have fought everyone, the Moors, the Francs, the Castillians. Even though the Basque Country has a lot of autonomy there is still a separatist movement. We see graffiti on buildings and walls saying “This is not Spain”  and “Welcome to the Basque Country”.

One of the problems I am having is that I am walking too fast. Barbara is always telling me to slow down. On a journey of a million steps it is important to pace yourself and most of all to walk softly.

So the Ipod theme song for today was from Simon and Garfunkel: Feeling Groovy

Slow down you move too fast, you’re got to make the morning last. . .