Etapa 9: Logroño to Nájera

I was so exhausted after arriving in Nájera that I couldn’t make myself write anything, so here it is, a bit late.

In Logroño, after my last post, we had dinner all together and the man in charge of the albergue gave a nice talk about the history of the Camino and how it wasn’t always safe (I’m assuming because the Moors were in charge at the time). Pilgrims would call out in Latin “Ultreia”, and respond with “Et suseia”, to identify each other in a hostile environment. We then sang a section of the “Camino guide” of the time that included these words. After eating we were invited to evening prayers, which we attended. As the church was closed for the evening, but we were staying in what was essentially their back rooms, we were taken through a little secret passageway to get there. It was pretty cool!

The next morning we set out on our longest day yet: 30 kilometres. The first section was just walking through the streets of Logroño, trying to get out of the city. On the outskirts of town we walked through a nature reserve / recreation area. There was a big playground, biking and walking tracks, a small lake where men were fishing despite the “No fishing” signs, and a rarity in Spain: public toilets! We saw a squirrel and some geese, but I’m afraid I didn’t get a picture.

The path from there for most of yesterday’s walk was pretty flat, with just a small incline. Over the whole day we gained about 200m of elevation, but then lost half of it again coming into Nájera. It wasn’t difficult walking, it was just a lot of it! By the time we arrived I was entirely pooped. We had a wee wander around town in the afternoon but we didn’t see anything particularly interesting, so we just slobbed for the afternoon. We’re running into a lot of the same people over and over again now, both out on the trail and in the albergues. With some people it is lovely to see them again and again, while others cause a bit of an internal groan (or at least I try to keep it internal!!)

We had an early night, in non-bunk bed which was a nice change, ready for another day of walking in the morning…