Puente la Reine to Estella
It's the 18th December 2011 and my birthday it turned out I was not the only one that didn't sleep last night everyone complained of the poor guy coughing and the other guy who was snooring and their broken sleep,funnily enough everyone apart from the one that was snooring!.
Everyone set off together in the rain just as it was getting light,I decided to stop in a coffee shop and as it is my birthday I treat myself and have fresh orange juice followed by a couple of chocolate croissants and a hot chocolate drink to wash it all down with,mmmm.
The walk today was hard because of the length 22ks of ups and downs, and theres an old roman road to navigate along in the middle of it for a few ks,all old cobbles and not one of them laid flat.beautiful countryside surrounding me and by 9am the rain had stopped and the sun was trying to come through the dense clouds,I even managed to get a few shadow shots of me on the path with my camera.up until now I had been using just one walking stick for support and the knee on my other unsupported leg started to get painful in the end I had to strap it up with a crepe bandage and smother it in tiger balm.by the time I was 8ks from Estella the pain was unbearable so I result to ibuprofen and singing at the top of my voice,fortunately there wasn't anyone in sight or sound to hear my primeval type screams resembling a song,in fact it's so peaceful and solitary on this walk this time of year.the assault on my senses being my main company and my inner voice constantly guiding and pushing me along.just outside Estella there's a section of the trail that's just been worked on but not finished and it had started to drizzle with rain again.the mud had a lot of clay in and seemed to just clump In my boots and by the time I was over this bit I had platform boots made of mud that didn't help with my knee pain.
It was well.worth reaching the albergie in Estella as I was given a plate a paella by my hosts.later when all the other pilgrims had arrived we all.had a lovely salad followed by really tasty chicken soup,I was then treated to a video made earlier that day by the Koreans singing me happy birthday in English and korean they even drew a birthday cake on the path in the video complete with candles.
I decided that I would not want to be anywhere else in the world than right here right now.
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