Through Pamplona now, taking a rest today

Thank you for your comments, everyone, on my last post.  Two full days have passed since that last update and I now have around 75km of the Camino behind me.  Thankfully the weather has gotten colder and cloudier, making the trek easier physically, but the pack is not getting any lighter (well, actually, I have discarded a few items, but a few litres of water seems to cancel this out).  I´ve been heading westward away from the Pyrenees so the terrain is more forgiving now - rolling wooded hills interspersed with farmland with bright yellow hay.  The path has crossed the Rio Arga a few times, a small river we´ve been following.

I´ve been hiking with a great group of people.  There have been six of us since Day 2, all individual travellers who have met up along the way.  Some started in St Jean, others further back in France.  There is Gerd, the bearded German who I like to think of as "The Elder" and is clearly the group leader, and Anna-Katherine and Charly (both also German) who are both tai-chi instructors and have stopped a few times to do tai-chi in serene settings along the Rio Arga, and there is Claudia (from Austria) who I have walked with on and off since Day 1 in St Jean, and lastly there is Petra (from Slovenia), the youngest of the group who we adopted after we came across her tending to her blistering feet beside a water fuente along the way.  The group has gone separate ways now, however, due to injured feet, plans to go home from Pamplona, and ambitions to go on ahead.  I am still with Claudia and Anna-Kathrine resting in Cizur Menor (just over 5km from where we all stayed in Pamplona last night) but I am feeling the need for some alone time on tomorrow´s hike to Puenta de la Reina, so we may all split soon enough.

Pamplona is a wonderful city.  Once you get over the fact that it hosts the Running of the Bulls (San Fermin festival) every year (in early July), you realize that there is much more to the city.  Lots of trees and parkland and beautiful old walls around the city.

Clockwise starting with Claudia (in pink), Anna-Katherine, Petra, Charly, Gerd

This stop sign has the right idea