Day 5 – El Camino – Pamplona to Puente La Reina

Pamplona to Puente La Reina, today I started the Camino by myself. Matt and Aaron went to the Post Office to send stuff ahead so that they could lighten their backpacks.

I took a bus from Huarte to Pamplona centre and walked over to the Camino track.

On the way I stopped by the ATM to take money for the next few days. There was one I passed, it had a sticker in the middle of the screen but I could read around it. I put my card in and asked for 500€. The screen went white for five minutes. After pressing all the buttons it gave my card back, but no money.

I called CBA to make sure that the transaction hasn’t actually been effected. I went to another ATM around the corner and found out that 300€ was the maximum that could be dispensed.

As I kept walking to rejoin the Camino track, a lovely lady was waving me over from about 100m away. She pointed me in the right direction and I was set.

As we did not stay in Pamplona city, we hadn’t had our Pilgrim Passports stamped. I passed the Universidad de Pamplona, where a sign at the front indicated that they could do a stamp.

I walked in and it appeared as though everything was closed. A security guard saw me and called me over. He yelled out to a window two floors up and told me to give the man my Pilgrim Passport. He stamped it no issue.

I continued to walk and eventually found the ‘starting point’ for this day, according to the guide book it was Cizur Menor. This is about 5.1km from Pamplona centre.

As I walked up, Matthew came up from behind and surprised me. We walked together from here, essentially starting the walk together. Aaron caught the bus to the next destination, Puente La Reina.

We walked past a field of sunflowers which was nice. The hike up the mountain took us to a small village where we bought lunch. 2€70 for a sandwich and drink.

We climbed another 200m in altitude over 2.4km to reach the highest point of the day. We walked alongside Wind Turbines, listening to the soothing drone of each rotation.

At the top, we began our (rather fast) descent down the mountain. We made quite a distance in good time, 3.5km in 35 minutes.

In the next town, Matt petted a pony and dog. He asked me to feed them some apricots, but I didn’t feel like it.

After another hour, we finally reached our destination, Puente La Reina.

The hostel has 96 beds in ten rooms. For a fair price, 5€, we could rest here for the night.