day 33 - draft - Thursday, 5 October 2017 - Torres del Rio to Azofra

day 33 - draft
Thursday, 5 October 2017
Torres del Rio to Azofra
57 km today (17 walked and 40 by bus – see below)
205 km on Camino Frances - 938 km from Le Puy - 582 to Santiago

During the wee small hours I had done my blog and looked at a strategy for the day ahead.  I surprise my self by waking as late as 07h, with lights on and most of the 15 or so others in the albergue quietly busying themselves. I pack and join the end of the breakfast rush and away shortly after 08h (which is daylight and before sunrise).  Quite a steep pull up and after about 30 minutes pass my Austrian of last night sitting with a cigarello: we acknowledge one another.

Some time later I encounter an American in his fifties: we have a double entendre about left and right (geography or ...) and we keep in step for a few kilometres and encounter two men (looking like grandfather and grandson) doing something around a tree.  My companion speaks Spanish and he an the elder have a spirited conversation. They have spread a large fine net around the base of the tree and they beat the branches with what could also be used as walking staves.  The elder takes the outer smooth husk of two and gives them to me and my companion.  Now they look like almonds shells that I remember from way back when: my companion tells me inside is an olive.

A woman passes (whom my American had told me when we passed her 100 metres earlier was a Kiwi) and I decide to chat with her.  She is from Kapiti Coast. So, chancing my arm, I ask is she belongs to a forum about the camino to Santiago (yes) and did she ask a question about hill training opportunities in her area (yes) and did she find the walk up to Field Hut from Otaki Forks helpful (yes).  Was that you, she asks (yes).  We continue chatting and the remainder of the trip into Viana passes quickly enough, arriving about 10h30,  We have a light meal together opposite a large open church, finishing just after 11h.

Now I will reveal my strategy for today.
You will recall last year I suffered pulled muscles and Estella was my effective stopping point.  Not quite right: I had bused forward to Logrono and after a few days “rest” walked, over two days, the 30 km to Najera.  So today I will bus the last 10 km to Logrono and another bus to Najera.

The bus stop at Viana takes an act of faith.  I first ask the driver of a postal service yellow van.  He asks an old man, who takes me in hand.  Its about 100 metres down the road I was going to take anyway, then a left turn to a road that parallels the main road below.  We stop at an X intersection and by sign language am told this is the bus stop.  I can see one woman standing in the sun on the edge of a very wide pedestrian crossing and some large collection bins for clothing, but nothing else.  But the woman and the old man are content.  So I shake his hand to thank him.  It is about 11h15 and the bus is due at 11h30.  I then notice a man (about the same age as the woman) in shade on the opposite side of the road.  I get the impression he also is waiting for the same bus, and (I find out later) will see its imminent arrival long before we do.  (Why, I ask myself silently and with these facts before me, is the male of the species the more intelligent).  As we close up on 11h30 a small crowd has gathered and the bus wooshes up the main road to stop by the clothing collection bins.

For the last 2-300 metres into Najera the bus and the walking way share the same space and I see many pilgrims (peregrinos) doing it the normal way.  Shortly after arrival I importune a woman to take a photo of me against a backdrop of almost sheer red cliffs and then retire for three hours into a small bar and cafe I encountered last year for lunch (and just one beer!!!).

I set off about 16h30 and arrive at Azofra a little over an hour later, passing though mainly vineyards.  While quite warm, a gentle breeze is most welcome and none of the stickiness and voluminous perspiration of yesterday.  Azofra, Wikipedia tells me, has almost 300 residents and an ancient history with the name having Arabic connections.  The albergue is a veritable oasis: three stories and offers 60 beds (not bunks), kitchen, laundry, large refectory and even larger outdoor gathering space with an ornamental pool and fountain. All provided and maintained by the (not large) Municipality of Azofra.  Being a relatively late arrival, I am on the top floor, but I am not last in.  I walk around the village, buy some food for Friday lunch and return to recharge my tablet.  Just after 20h I am starting to drop, despite having not walked much today.

And so to bed.