Day 4 - Pamplona to Puente la Reina

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After the torrential rain while we were out and what seemed like a repeat performance during the night, it was a relief to wake to clear sunny skies. We dropped our bags for collection at a nearby hotel and went for food at a local bakery.

By 8am we were on our way again heading west out of Pamplona. Ahead of us on the horizon were a line of wind turbines, we needed to reach them and go beyond them. They were in our sights almost all the way, you are going to be very familiar with then after this post!! First photo was taken as we passed through part of Navarra University.

They really are there on the horizon in each of those pictures!! 

Most of the day was through farm land. All arable today. The last three days we have passed through mostly livestock farms and the soundtrack to the walk has been the cow bells, worn here by cows (obviously), some sheep but mainly horses. 

So this felt quieter and you could also see for miles as you can tell. It was very hot today but enjoyable walking and we took advantage of any shade we came across.

After a steep climb out of Pamplona, we stopped in the first village, Cizur Menor, for a drink then headed up to the beautiful village of Zariquiequi for lunch under the church bell tower. 

We went into the church to stamp our Pilgrim Credentials and as you can see it was beautiful 😍

We carried on up to the wind turbines and finally reached the summit of Alto del Perdon.  And there as you look back towards Pamplona is the famous sculpture The Monument to th Pilgrim.  It depicts a caravan of pilgrims through the ages. 

After the photo call we walked across a small road, which I assume is for the maintenance of the turbines, and continued on. We were a little over halfway way to our destination. The view down the other side we think stretched to our destination but it was hard to pick out.

The track down pretty steep and heavy going with large pebbles under foot for a good part of it.

But we managed to negotiate the lumps and humps and finally reached Uterga and a great bar to help us regroup!

From there we still had about 8km to go, a third of today's distance. So we sauntered on, through Muruzabal and then Obanos and we finally reached Puente la Reina. 

Bench made for giants on way to Uterga

The Virgin Maria outside Muruzabal

Fiona head towards Obanos, holding her hat on as the wind picked up 

Beautiful church in centre of Obanos

An unusual sculpture you can walk through

A finally into Puente la Reina, with a Pilgrim to welcome us. 

The apartment is fabulous, we have a small balcony with a washing line and the views from it were great when we arrived, the second has those darned wind turbines if you look close enough and the last some storks nesting on a roof

Soon we showered and headed out for a drink with a plan to mooch around and find somewhere for dinner but in the end we just stayed put. It seemed the easiest option and the food was great!  View along the street from the table, this is the way we go tomorrow!

Today's route