Day 5 on the Camino – (More) Bikers, Cirauqui, and GPSing Our Way to Hotel Yerri

Sunday, September 26th – 13.6 miles to Estella

Here we are getting ready to start out on Sunday morning with a pride of bikers on the Puente la Reina behind us.

Of course, Kathie had to get a pic of the hams – I mean, bikers.


Over the next 5 kilometers, we ascended about 375 vertical feet. Cirauqui is a medieval village at the top of the ascent. (Those are grape vines and olive trees in the foreground.)


We sat on the ground to eat lunch in a quiet area almost half way between Cirauqui and Lorca, then encountered this medieval bridge over the Rio Salado (Salt River).


Here’s a heart rock for Joan – Kathleen noticed it on the ground by the bridge.


Walk, walk, walk - a little bit along busy highway, then through Villatuerta (I just love that word for some reason!) and on to Estella, which – with a population of 15,000 – was one of the larger towns along the walk. According to the book Iberia, Michener just LOVED Estella, a hot bed of Carlists. I kept waiting to see him sitting in some sidewalk café, but I was really too busy trying to find our way to the Hotel Yerri with Kathie tracking along on her GPS behind me…plus the fact that he’s been dead for 13 years.

Tomorrow, on to Los Arcos.