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Day Seven Puente La Reina to Estella

22.5km, 6.5 hours, 350m elevation

We left Puente La Reina around 7.30am via the bridge the town is named after. Crossing over to the new bridge we got beautiful sunrise views over the old bridge and the city.

It was a very steep uphill start to the day, and I was grateful for any small patch of shade. I remembered I could wet my buff and wear that to cool down which helped a lot. While walking I chatted to Ned and Cathy from California for a while.

The countryside is changing from Basque to being quintessentially Spanish- creeks, vineyards, olive groves, market gardens and dry open landscapes.

There were a few beautiful little towns along the way today. We stopped in Mañeru for coffee, and enjoyed walking through a town set on a hill, Cirauqui.

Graham and I had lunch in the shade on the side of a bridge. At the top a hill after that was a lovely donativo food stall that Toni and Dan tried. We met up with them again in Lorca where they were having lunch, and Graham found a Calypo icypole which made his day. Unfortunately Toni is not very well, and I admired her fortitude getting through today in 30+ temperatures. She walked with a wet scarf around her head/shoulders, which was remniscent of Our Lady of The Way.

The last 5km was hot and hard, we arrived at Estella around 3pm. Estella is a beautiful town, quite lively but that may be because it’s Saturday night?

Quad room with private bathroom, comes with free linen and towels. Proper towels are a blessing after using ultralight hiking towels for a few days! Cost $24 euro per person.

We've been to the supermarket to get lunch for tomorrow, will update this post if we come across anything else interesting.

Update- spent some time this afternoon watching the boys of town play soccer from my hostel room window. How amazing to see kids out playing together and not on electronics. This town is like being transported back in time.

Then we went to look for some dinner. Toni got caught by the same shop lady as me and ended up leaving with a pair of pants. We paid a short visit to a beautiful cathedral in town, Iglesia De San Miguel. Discovered an annual 'old music' festival in the town square, where we had a lovely meal at Restaurante Monjardin.