Distance 13.25 miles 6 hours elevation gain 1400. Easy to moderate
We left Estella at 7:45 AM about 45 minutes earlier than other days. Normally we buy a picnic lunch in the morning somewhere and then head out. We bought fruit and chips last night just in case so we would have something but no sandwich. When we went out early to look for a sandwich nothing was open so we left town.
Estella is a bit of an odd town. It has a 2 or 3 block historic look and the rest of the city is stuck in the 60’s and without many Kodak moments. We kind of wanted to just leave and find lunch on the way in one of the few towns we would walk through.
That said each place has something to talk about and for Estella it’s the free wine tap as you exit town. All Camino books have a picture or a mention of it and that would be our highlight for Estella. Tradition says we drink a sip from our shell we carry and that’s what we did. Our rating – there’s a reason people don’t fill jugs. But it’s a tradition.
The scallop shell signifies we are pilgrims on a pilgrimage. Our guess is it is worn by about 90%+ of those we see. Another Camino tradition is to place a stone on one of the signage pillars while saying a prayer for a special intention. The pillars appear often.
We had a choice today as the Camino splits. Go one way which is shorter but steep and goes through one town or another that is longer, less steep and goes through two towns. We didn’t see the split and ended up on the shorter and steeper path which turned out to be the better choice. Both routes recombine about 5 miles from Los Arcos.
This very small town of Luquin has one cafe and we had lunch -really good! In Spain they make a really good quiche/omelet called a tortilla. If we would have taken the other route we would have missed out.
The Camino will soon start to get flat for a long time.
The age and geographic diversity is impressive. Today we met – a mother and daughter from Florida, a single woman from Columbia, a single young man from Korea, a couple from Mexico, a young couple from Scotland, numerous from Spain and heard a few speaking German.
