Day 8 - Los Arcos to Logrono

As planned we set off at 6:20am this morning and managed to reach the first village before our normal start time of 7:30am.

The plan was a good plan as, although it did not rain as forecast, it was hot and dry.

It was also good to see the sun rise.

The negative was that we did not get to see as many people as normal. Normally we start later and pass most walkers by the time we get to the destination. As we left early, most were behind us for the full day and probably thought we were having a lay day.

The walk was 27km and comprised many short hill ascents and descents. Some with quite steep gradients. We completed the walk in 6'15" for a door to door speed of 4.3 km/hour. A slower pace than yesterday but enjoyable.

We walked most of today with an Irish couple from Cork and Vicki, the photographer, was too busy talking to take as many photos as normal. She will be punished tonight.

Our hotel in Logrono is lovely, but best of all has air-conditioning which allowed us to have an afternoon nap on arrival. We are also getting the laundry done.

During post-walk drinks at the central plaza on arrival in Logrono we met an English lady who is 72 who lives in France and is currently riding her 10th Camino. She lives in Bordeaux and often travels and is always looking for house sitters. We will get her address.

I gave my fancy walking shoes the flick today and went back to my ASICS sneakers, which was my original plan. The result was a much more comfortable walk. I should not have listened to the pretty sales assistant in Sydney.

We also heard a tale today where a young Korean walker was accosted by two guys asking for her papers. When she presented the papers they robbed her of this and her money. Locals said that they were Romanians. You have to be wary wherever you are in the world. 

Tomorrow, we have a 28.5km walk which appears to be a gentle uphill gradient. We will check the weather forecast but will probably depart early again (unless the air-conditioning causes us to sleep in).