Day 2 - Viscarret to Larrasoaña (10 miles)

     A good day.  We left shortly after sunrise, at 7:20 AM for our adventure.  There was a lot of steep elevation change today (some up, mostly down), so we are feeling it a bat.  The 3 days to Pamplona is definitely helpful (vs 2) to get us started.

    A little less forest today, and more pastureland and open fields.  Wonderful weather - it was sunny, starting at 45F and ending at about 70F.  Since we started/ended in 'nonstandard' places, we saw many fewer folks today than yesterday.  I think we have now been passed by a couple hundred folks, and I think we have passed one person.  We are consistently being told by others that the Camino is not a race, but an experience.
    The birds continue to serenade us, but continue to hide.  We did stop to search some of them out today.  Our checklist today was 27 species observed during the walk (that we were able to identify), of which 13 were new to us today.  And very few sat long enough to pose for photos.
    We did fortuitously run into the same Korean trio three times today - once we caught up to them as they were having a backpack breakfast overlooking a valley (and joined on their log to eat ours), and again at Zubiri where we had an early lunch at a bakery/deli as they were finishing (Jana and I had very tasty foot-long baguette bacon/egg/cheese sandwiches), and again at Larrasoaña at a pub where they were finishing up and gaining courage for another 5km (though we were done).  An afternoon snack at the grocery store patio of oranges and a tub of cherry tomatoes got us to 2PM so that we could check-in.

    Tonight, we are staying at a hostel, though we do have a 'private room'.  We are looking forward to a group dinner tonight.  While we were doing our laundry, we met a 78 year old woman who was on her 38th Camino, 26 times on this particular path from France (there are a few different paths).

    And now for the photos:

    The view leaving town this morning:

    Jana ascending, and surrounded by a beautiful valley (you might have to mag-up to see Jana):

    These signposts keep us headed in the right direction:

    A log along the path with some cool mushroom patterns:

    Non-bird nature photo:  A Wall Brown butterfly:

    A steep descent (the camera doesn't show it well, but this is a steep descent over uneven terrain):

    A Coal-Tit that popped out of hiding long enough to photograph, though it stayed in the shade:

    This dog trained me today.  It came up to me, then went to the water fountain/spigot, and kept looking from me to the spigot.  I pushed the button and he drank up.  Later, he was able to coax a treat (ice cube) out the window from a waitress where we were eating lunch.  A smart dog.

    A grey heron flying overhead:

    A white wagtail on a rock in a stream:

    Another pastoral scene:

    Bonus non-bird nature photo: an oak eggar caterpillar

    Another view of our path - millions of people have walked it.  But this section is single-file:

    Explicit instructions on a private drive offshoot from the path, presumably directed to those walking the Camino:

    A Melodious Warbler with nesting material:

    One of the trio we kept running into: