Day four - walking from Pamplona to Puente la Reina ( 25km)

For anyone interested in walking or rather hiking the camino I highly reccommend spending time training in advance. Choose trails with lots of hills, carry a backpack with a decent weight and wear the shoes you plan to use for the Camino. Things I should have done. Today I got my fourth blister and my muscles are still sore and stiff. It was quite entertaining this evening when a group of us literally hobbled into town to buy food at the grocery store for supper. With blistered feet, sore knees and sore shoulders we were not moving very quickly.

I finally found a town with a pharmacy and one that was open. Saturday I couldn´t get to one because of the short hours (10:30am to 1:30pm) and then Sunday most shops were closed. I was trying to find a cream called ´Nok´which is supposed to prevent blisters and I think can only be found in France. I finally got to by earplugs and some special patches called Compeed that seem to be the cure for blisters. I think when I arrive in Santiago that I should not only get a Compostela, but a certificate in foot care as well.

Today was nice and sunny and the trail lead us to the top of a hill called ´Alto de Perdon´ from which we had a great view, but then as the saying goes what goes up must come down the descent on small rocks was quite challenging. One of the Spaniards in the group I was walking with today described the path as leche or milk and I thought he was referring to the white rocks. However there seems to be an expression in Spanish to describe things that aren´t very nice as milk. I don´t know if you could try to used it in English ?

The Spanish and the French describe the camino in etapas, which the British girl translated as legs of the trip. In that case it means today I am on my fourth leg.