Startpoint: Obanos. Endpoint: Villatuerta. Steps taken: another 28,950 or so, bring us up to a total of 160,000 give or take.  Distance walked: 22km, bring us to about 111km total. Condition: very hot day from the off, some sunburn, one insect bite, four sore knees, four sore feet, one sore ankle/calf between us.

Now this is what I expected! It´s boiling, lads – it´s feckin boiling! Probably about 30 degrees today and every Irish person on the Camino is sweating like a fat whale in a small sauna. We were a little late leaving Obanos this morning, partially due to the night out with the Irish crew on Friday. We started walking at about 8.20 and caught up with the five Irish folks just outside Puerte la Reine, shortly after nine. They´d left a good 30 minutes before us, but got distracted by the complexities of life. Despite the mapbook´s instructions, there were quite a few hills on this leg.

Upon leaving Obanos, Dad and I  hadn´t quite decided whether we´d stop in Estella or Villatuerta, so we let the sun decide the matter for us. We passed Lorca at lunchtime and had a bite to eat there and were in Villatuerta by 2.30pm too hot, dusty and tired to go much further.

Today was a day of firsts: the first day we wore sunscreen (but not the first day we needed it); the first day we wore insect repellant (but not the first day we needed it); the first day I ate sunflower seeds straight off a growing sunflower (they tasted exacty like shop-bought sunflowers amazingly); and the first day I got a sunflower splinter embedded in my finger (surprisingly dangerous things, sunflowers, they look so friendly).

As we stopped in Villatuerta, we´re left with a bit of a difficult choice tomorrow. Should we have a very easy day and go just as far as Villa Mayor (13km), or push on and go as far as Los Arcos (25km). I´ll let the ould fella make the call once we see what the weather is like in the morning. Our decision may be (very slightly) influenced by the location of Irache, where the public drinking fountain serves the local red wine instead of water.

After five days of walking, we´re getting into the swing of things. Here´s how a typical day on the Camino is beginning to pan out:

• c. 6am: Dad wakes up and begins mooching about
• c. 7am: Dermot wakes up and begins mooching about
• c. 7.30: we have a bit of breakfast and finish packing the bags (we´re getting good at it now, and each only need one or two repack mulligans)
• c. 8am: hit the road, thinking we should really have left a bit earlier
• c. 9am: pass the first group of people who left earlier than us, but stopped to take pictures of interesting snails
• from 9am to 1pm: pass-out and get passed-out by the same recurring groups of people. Congratulate ourselves on the overtaking and make good excuses for being overtaken. Comment that the hills are steeper than the guidebook suggested. Take some photos of big old churches/castles/monasteries on hills surrounded by vinyards/sunflowers/olive groves.
• c. 2 – 2.30pm, give in to the heat and tiredness and stop off in the next Albergue we find (usually about 4km short of where we´d hoped to end).
• by c. 3.30 – 4pm, have a shower, find a bar, have one beer to rehydrate, another beer to relax and a third to recuperate. Then snooze until the pilgrims´meal at 7pm – 7.30pm.
• c. 8pm, ask for extra (free) wine with the pilgrims´meal. Discuss the steepness of the hills, the value of the meals and the loudness of the Spanish with the other pilgrims.
• c. 10.15pm, realise that you´ve missed lights out and try to sneak quietly to bed.

Someone asked about the five Italian gents who´d been tracking us. We haven´t seen them since Pamplona, but have heard stories of them in the wind, so to speak. There are stories in the Pilgrim community of five men whose talking, snoring and farting habits are more powerful than you can possibly imagine.

Today my Dad and I discovered that Dad is far from the oldest man on the Camino, as a 75-year old French man checked into the Albergue just after us. However, we still believe Dad is probably the oldest man on the Camino who was sent by his wife to babysit his son.

Buen Camino!

D