This morning my mom and I woke up in Pamplona with our bags reorganized, our hair washed and we were ready to go! We left before the sun came up again because today’s hike was a longer one with a fairly steep mountain in the middle. Before the day started we had tossed around the idea of my mom skipping this day because of the steepness of the mountain, both uphill and downhill. We got our back packs on, headed out the door, made it to the edge of Pamplona, took one quick look at the mountain ahead and agreed to have her find a cab and meet me in Puente La Reina. We split ways and she got here early enough to get a nice 10 mile walk in around the village.

I ended up getting 23 km done in 5 and 1/2 hours (around 14 miles) and it was beautiful.

Doesn’t this look like a scene straight from “The Wizard of Oz”? The first hour of the trek was COVERED in spent sunflower fields. I can’t even imagine what this sight would have been two weeks ago when they were fully blooming. A part of me was a tiny glad that they weren’t at their potential today because I would have been sad that my mom missed all of their beauty.

I managed to find two in full bloom. One for me and one for my mom.

The hike up and down the mountain side was really nice to do alone. It went by fast and for the first portion I listened to my headphones. My music definitely got me going at first, through some villages and side streets but as soon as we hit the sunflower fields, those suckers came off. I find something really calming in listening to music but I don’t know, it just felt wrong to be filling my ears with sound when all of my other senses were being fulfilled.. it was like I couldn’t really take in everything I was seeing when I had a soundtrack going on in my head. I enjoyed the sound of my feet crunching against the rock more than any of my favorite artists. That is saying a lot because music is my life. It was just so peaceful and quiet out.

Once I got to the top where all of the wind turbines were, the wind was enough of a soundtrack. Everything was whistling louder than I’ve ever heard, it was pretty amazing.

At the top of Alto de Perdon there was a monument to the Pilgrims. You can see the wind doing its thing and you can also see a sliver of the view which was looking back on the city of Pamplona.

The rest of the hike was fairly easy and if you were hungry, unprepared or just over trusting, need not worry! Plentyyy of wild berries!!

One woman picked some blackberries and offered me one. I’m surprised I didn’t slap her hand away. Haha, just kidding.. but I did politely decline and she was very sweet for offering. The last thing I need is a poisonous berry situation.

I ended up meeting a nice young man from Germany who only had ten days to do part of of the walk. He was great company, especially during the end when my feet began to hurt, he was cracking jokes and I actually thought they were pretty funny.

I also met an older gentleman who had a heart attack after climbing the route that we had trouble with a couple of days back. He spent the last two days in a Hospital in Pamplona and I almost dropped to the ground when he said that. I was so concerned about him and all he said was, “We’re all gonna go some time, why not go out doing something courageous.” I guess he is half right, we are all gonna go sometime but meeting him scared the bajeesus out of me. It made me thankful my mom and I are being careful about pushing our limits. Don’t worry everyone, we are doing just fine! We’re tending to our blistered feet and giggling over a batch of fresh grapes. Resting up for tomorrow.