Charging windmills....

  Today I left Pamplona and you climb up to this ridge lined with power generating windmills and also art figures of pilgrims and the Camino. My recollection of it 3 years ago was how hard it was with trail conditions and steepness of the climb, but this morning I went up it with fair effort, but not nearly as bad as I had expected. I met Alfonso and his wife Patricia up there for pictures and then lunch again later. They are the Spanish mt. biking couple that I see almost daily and sometimes several times today. Patricia showed me her bruises from two days before from falls she took in the pass. 

  There were a few hard up hills today, but what got me was the heat. High 80's and with the uphill sections, I just roasted. I ran out of water twice and saw a vending machine in a small town and put a bunch a money in for bottled water to see me through. 

  I came across this small chapel in the hills right before Estrella that I went to on my last trip. It was very poignant then as it had notes inside left by pilgrims. I went in and the same as before. I read some of them and decided to leave my stone I bought the day before in Pampalona. 

  I'm in Estrella tonight and staying in the same small pension I stayed at before. Clean but very basic rooms. I met a couple from Sacramento in town, Chris and Jenny and we had dinner on the square. Chris turned out to be a Cal Poly grad so we traded some stories about college and wine in Paso Robles.

Buen Camino

Dave

Staring out in the morning sun

Rocky section I had to walk

Stone piles made by pilgrims

Chapel with notes

115 km done 668km to Santiago

For Pauline