18 miles
Another long day, so we decided to start early to reach our destination with time to relax, before we fell asleep in our soup! A cool, invigorating morning turned into a much hotter day.
We left this large city through another beautiful park area and public walk/cycling way, which led into a large public park with a lake. The path was easy for several miles and we were grateful for this start to our longest day yet.
Navarette
The main city on our way to Najera was Navarette, a lovely spot with a great cafe conveniently located next to the ancient church. We refilled our water bottles at the plaza fountain, and after our potato tortilla, bread, & OJ, we bought a baguette sandwich and fruit for later. It’s a good thing we did!
On to Najera
Nothing for the next 10 miles…nada! Just road and sun…zero shade. The one resting place was a group of picnic tables, and 3 small gazebo shelters with benches on a little pine Grove. We stopped, removed shoes and socks, ate our sandwich, fruit, and Trail mix, and rested at Wayside area with gazebos and benches under pines. After about a 30-minute break, we re-filled our water bottles and were back on the road.
As we were reaching what we thought was Najera, the road curved away towards another town, and then curved again to a completely different town, which had not been visible. This was Najera at last! We were again routed around several industrial areas to finally reach the city. Going through the modern areas, we crossed the river Yalde with inviting green space on either side, to enter the old city.
Wining Down
Our pension, named Apartementos Vino y Camino, provided a bottle of local wine for us to enjoy! We washed clothes, showered, changed and cracked open the bottle. Our apartment included a little roof-top patio where we enjoyed the wine and take-out kabobs! A comfortable king bed gave us a very good night’s sleep.
Believe it or not, two IWJers are ahead of you on the same trek
So cool!! Depending on time spent in various towns, we may catch up.