After the madness of Logroño it felt like a relief to get back on the road again heading for the quiet blink-and-you-miss-it village of Ventosa, just off the camino and the motorway. It would be another unproblematic distance, we thought, as we headed out of town wading through the debris, smashed glass, wine leftovers and still-drunks.
Once outside the city centre we followed a park out of Logroño. It was lovely and quiet, only pilgrims, joggers and dog walkers were braving the morning after the night before.
The park path carried on towards the lake, which was our first stop of the day. The café there provided rest, cold drinks and brunch of sorts, while more still-drunks enjoyed trying to play table football. Top tip – bring toilet paper!
It was getting very hot already as we aimed for Navarrete, but the bull on the hill took our minds off it for a bit.
In Navarrete we decided not to go to the first bar, like all the other pilgrims, but go to the second, which probably didn’t get as much business. Good plan – but for the fact that we’d suddenly walked right through it and had to walk back again! We found a bar just off the main trail, and thoroughly enjoyed their selection of king prawn themed tapas. We were after all owed a lot of tapas after missing out the night before. It was tempting to stay in Navarrete but we had a room in Ventosa and finally got going again.
The camino basically follows the motorway from Navarrete, and it was another dry, dusty, hothothot walk with no shade. Luckily we had filled our water bottles and also one of the water bags, but it was scorching and we also had to cover up and wet our necks and heads at regular intervals. It was like walking through treacle! Italian cyclist Pascuale stopped with us under a bridge and offered us energy bars and drinks which we were very grateful for. The last km was really hard work, but we got there.
When we arrived at Ventosa and checked in, we could have just stayed in the cool room. There was an option to eat at the hotel, but we decided to go to the bar at the bottom of the road instead. We stayed there, just cooling down and chilling, until the sun went down, the other pilgrims drifted back to the San Saturnino albergue, and it was bedtime again.
Somewhere Slowly 