Day 4 - 22.3km - Pamplona to Peunte la Reina

The best thing each day has to be the shower. I cannot explain how something so simple as hot water can change everything about how you are feeling. Tiredness, sweat and aches of the body and mind can be washed away by hot water.

This morning started with us leaving our apartment happy and content after some excellent burgers and an amazing shower last night. The first few kilometres followed roads leading out of the city before we hit rolling hills of green and fields of yellow. The weather has turned and the sun of our first few days has given way to grey skies and light rains.

We met Liz from Rotherham (now lives in Durham) who we walked and talked with as we made our way to the challenge of the day. The hill to alto del perdon.

The climb was fairly steep, though our legs are now getting used to the daily stresses so we made good time up the hill.

Alto del perdon is an iconic vista overlooking Pamplona with a silhouette of pilgrims marching on the top of the hill. It was great to reach such a recognisable point, and to reach it in much better shape than we expected.

We bumped into Rachel from Portsmouth, who was at our accomodation from the other day. She is a walking encyclopedia of pilgrims. She knows everyone's name and story so we had a good chat " have you met x person", "how is y persons feet doing".

The descent was hard. The path was loose stones and quite steep, though we glided down elated to have completed what we thought was going to be a very hard day's climb.

The path was mostly off road, leading through farmers fields and small hamlets til we arrived in Puente la Reina, a small town which is the main stopping point for pilgrims today.

We checked in as almost the first to arrive and went to enjoy that amazing moment where the days worries are washed away.

We ventured out to explore the town and met the "Social Group" in a nice little bar not far from our base. Liz from this morning arrived, along with Maggie from earlier in the week. The dinner choice was rested squarely on Andrew who led us to a small bar where we were ushered through to a back room all to ourselves. Three courses of food, more courses of wine and beer than we can count and good conversations all round. Tomorrow is likely to start with a headache ....