Tag 5 - Puente la Reina nach Estella

It somehow becomes a habit that I am the last to get up and leave the hostel. After 300m I reach a bakery where I have breakfast. Then I cross the Queen's Bridge, which was built especially for pilgrims. Tradition says that if you walk barefoot over the bridge, you will have luck for the rest of the Camino. But since I don't have any pain in my left foot, I decide not to take my shoe off again. In the picture on the bridge are Kat from England and Viky from Spain. I walk the first few meters with them before I leave because I'm walking pretty quickly today. I chat to pilgrims a few times, but only briefly, and then I move on. After half an hour I see a group of pilgrims at a fork in the road. There is a sign there that says there are two directions. Up until now it was relatively clear, but now no one really knows where to go next. One small path leads towards a forest. The other, a little longer, continues along fields. I decide to follow four men on the small path. It leads into a fairly overgrown and untouched landscape and there the path winds up and down, sometimes very steeply. A short time later I come to a very old mountain village with small streets and very old stone houses. It started to rain, as heavily as it had ever rained before, but it stopped soon after. At another fork there was a sign saying "Paradise loading" and you could see flowers blooming. 50m behind it was a small spot with tables and chairs under olive trees and you could get wine, water or snacks there for a donation. There were lots of things hanging on a tree that pilgrims had hung on it. Then the rest of the path is lined with corn and rapeseed fields and the first vines appear here and there. We went through several very small and old villages and today above all over a lot of bridges. I walk the last kilometer with Tom from India. Tom has a lot of problems with his knee and hip. This is due to the descents, as he is walking without poles and therefore has to endure a lot more pressure. I don't think he will make it and will either have to take a break for several days or give up completely. We'll see how he feels tomorrow morning. I reached Estella at around 2 p.m. and today I'm staying here in the municipal hostel. Tom is my neighbor today and so I'm really excited to see if he'll be able to walk tomorrow. As we walk through the town with other pilgrims, the topics of conversation revolve around preparing for the Way of St. James. How could you have prepared for it? Lots of walking? Gym? Lots of hiking? The Camino is so varied, so many different surfaces, so many uphill and downhill gradients. I don't think you can really prepare for it or train for it. This is also confirmed by an Italian who lives in the mountains and spends a lot of time in the mountains. It's just something completely different when you're under this strain not just for 1-2-3 days, but for weeks. The best training for the Camino is to walk the Camino. Listen to your body and take it slowly so as not to overexert yourself. Adva from Israel does it this way. She only runs around 15km a day because if she runs any more her body starts to go on strike. Everyone goes their own way and everyone at their own pace.
I bought food at the supermarket with a few other pilgrims and we are having a kind of buffet with various things and bread in the hostel. Afterwards, we are going to play cards in the evening.
Tomorrow we will continue and the day's destination is "Los Arcos".

Cost of the day:

Accommodation 9€ without breakfast

Breakfast 3,80€

Food on the way 11€

Dinner 5€