Day 3 Espinal to Puenta le Reina

Day 4 Saturday 23rd June 2012

Espinal to Puenta le Reina

44.96 (total 102.47)



Erro, another big hill coming up!



Although getting over the Pyrenees the hard way had been quite a buzz there was some concern about the low mileage achieved and the impact this would have on our arriving in Santiago. This was a recurrent theme as we knew that we were tight for time, especially so as we still had to arrange to get ourselves back to Bayonne and there remained many mysteries about how that would be done. When riding into Espinal we were still discussing whether or not to carry on to get a few more miles in as the guide book said the terrain was relatively flat to descending overall. Local opinion was otherwise, however, mentioning that there were some climbs ahead.

Breakfast was provided for us and after that we were away by 8:30 keen to get a few miles in the bag. The first few miles were very pleasant with plenty of downhill until we came to Erro where we met our first Spanish hill, long and steep being the order of the day. The road hair pinned its way up the Alto de Erro for a couple of miles being unrelentingly steep all of the way. There was little traffic but the odd lorry passed and I kept listening for a change in engine tone that suggested some slackening in the grade. It was a long time coming but I straight away appreciated changing the inner ring on my bike as the extra low gears gave me plenty of scope to get up the climb. We stopped a while at the summit to enjoy the views, to cool down and to drink. What I had forgotten was that we were still at high altitude being at about 3,000 feet, and it was hot too, so keeping hydrated was going to be important.

The descent from Alto de Erro didn’t disappoint either. It was long and twisty reaching speeds of 40 mph and more. Being Saturday there were lots of local riders out too with gangs riding up in the opposite direction. It was all very friendly with waves and Hola’s. Even white man van was blowing on his horn, not in anger, as in the UK, but with a friendly wave towards the Camino shell hanging from the bar bag. The rapid descent steadied into a gradual downhill just about all the way to Pamplona where we gathered together on the outskirts before entering what the guide book described as a busy and confusing city.



Church in Pamplona



The first job in Pamplona was to find a bike shop to get the broken spoke on Ricky’s back wheel replaced. We experienced real kindness from a man who guided us first to one bike shop that was closed and then to a second where the repair could be made. This took a good quarter of an hour but he declined our offer of coffee. Whilst Ricky’s wheel was being fixed we took up residence in a cafe in the park and realised we were on the Camino route out of town. We also realised just how cheap everything was with coffee and tortilla costing just €2.90.

After collecting Ricky’s fixed bike we were stood in a plaza debating what to do when we our English voices attracted a couple who had walked the Camino three years before and had since married and moved to live in a village just outside Pamplona. The girl was from Burnley and the man from Capetown. They advised us to get inside the church on the plaza quickly as they had never seen it opened before but it was open now for a wedding and was stunning inside. We did just that and they were quite correct about the beauty of the place but we had only moments before the bride arrived and the wedding commenced. We then rode back through Pamplona to the cathedral to collect their stamp on our credentials before setting out once more. It seems that we were there on a festival day as there were bands everywhere, and very loud firecrackers. In fact, most days seemed to be festival days throughout the whole trip.

Typical Pamplona street - no bulls today!

It took a while to find our way out of Pamplona and we sizzled as the temperatures went over 30 degrees. The guide book had warned about roads being upgraded and that bikes were no longer allowed on the A12 route. Being warned, we had studied maps and found a route through Cizur Menor and Cizur Mayor onto local roads but even this proved problematic as a new development had plonked a huge (and I do mean huge) car park serving office developments (all empty) where we had expected the road to be. Eventually we found a way through using the car park and a dirt road beyond it to link up to a roundabout and on to the local roads. In the meantime, Malcolm had been dissuaded from riding along the A12 and we later learnt from some people that did just that, that they had been escorted off the Autovia by a “Camino Support Vehicle”.



Aubergue in Puenta le Reina



Our next big climb was now on the horizon and covered with windmills! The Alto de Perdon (Hill of Forgiveness) was gradually getting nearer and looming large. This gave us a climb of about 1,000 feet in height gain over just a couple of kilometres making it fairly short if pretty steep. It was a slog on a very hot afternoon but once topped it was a fast, cooling descent down the other side (42mph) and from there it was downhill generally all the way to Puenta le Reina and our night’s destination.

We stopped at the first aubergue in Puenta le Reina to scrub up and wash out clothes. The aubergue had a big garden with lots of bike racks, the only down side that we had to carry the bikes through the building next morning to get on the road again.

Roman Bridge in Puenta le Reina

Puenta le Reina itself proved a good stop. We ate at a local cafe, again from the Peregrino’s menu, before having an explore of the place and a walk across the Roman bridge. It was an evening to match the day and everyone was out and about in the streets as we returned to our beds for the night