Day 4 - Pamplona to Obano (14 miles)

     The last 24 hours have had some minor hitches, but the silver-linings were much brighter than any of the dark spots.

    Our hotel room had no air-conditioning - the bellman from the front desk tried twice to fix it, but was unable, and there was no other room for us.  I am guessing our room was running north of 85 degrees.  They did give us a small portable fan unit, which was very much needed.  We were both able to sleep a lot better than prior nights (at least a few hours of off-and-on sleep); we are still working on getting our sleep cycles in synch with Spain. 
    In the morning, the front desk apologized, and said they were not able to adjust the rate (we asked), but they did allow us a complimentary breakfast buffet - which was amazing (not Holliday Inn Express - but cured meats and cheeses, fresh fruit, lots of pastries, jams, juices, a slice of honeycomb to scrape honey from, espresso-machine...)  We had been expecting a few oranges, blueberries and apricots that we had picked up at the store the night before.

    After breakfast, we sent our one Camino bag forward to Obano ('donkey service'), and took our other (cruise) luggage bag on a taxi-drive to the Post-Office, to mail it off to Santiago to await us there (now that it is Monday and the PO is open).   In theory, we would have walked the 10-15min to the post-office, but the cobble-stone streets meant the suitcase-rollers would not work well, and the 'lug' in our 20kg luggage... the cab-fare was more than worth it.  We were at the PO as they unlocked the doors (Ticket = Enviar #5).  15 min later, and 20kg /36 Euro lighter, we left the PO to begin our walk.  If that adventure had not worked out... we would have been badly stuck.  So we were feeling more than just a little optimistic on the upcoming fortunes of the day.  Our goal shifted luggage to reaching the summit and making good progress on our descent before the projected thunderstorm hit.

    As we rejoined the Camino path, we quickly met up with a fellow walker, who we learned was also from Portland (and a chemist to boot), and hung together for a couple miles until she stopped at a breakfast cafe (and rejoined and separated a number of times throughout the day, as our rates are a bit different, and lengths of rest-breaks are different).  We are starting to get to know a number of our trail comrades this way.  We also no longer feel like *everyone* is passing us by.  Today, we very much felt we were within one-sigma of mean. 

    The walk itself was a LOT of uphill/downhill, with a total rise of over 1500 feet, and descent of over 1670 feet.  Most of the rise was in a single stretch, to a summit with a famous sculpture (photo below) that shows up in most Camino literature.

    The descent was steep/rocky, and some sprinkles, but the projected heavy rain held off.
    After we completed the descent, we had a 2:30PM lunch, which was by far our best meal to date (hamburger with sheep-cheese and roasted peppers for me and a vegetable piadina with roasted peppers and caramelized onions and a romesco sauce for Jana).  Shortly after leaving, the rain started, but was not too heavy (much less than the projected 0.5 inch).  We arrived at the hotel at 4:30PM, 8hr and 15min after we started, walking 14 miles (and 35,500 steps on Jana's pedometer). 
    Other than some minor aches and soreness (and being a little weary), we are feeling pretty good, and optimistic that we have the stamina to make it through the next couple of long-ish days of similar duration and total ascent/descent stats as today (but no long-steep climbs that compare to today... we think).  Tomorrow, we are off to Villatuerte

    Most of the terrain today was through rolling farmland, with buffer-rows of hedges and wildflowers along the path.  This more open landscape did help us to see/identify more birds, though most of them remained hidden tucked in with the crops.  We identified 30 species today, 9 of those being new to us today.

    On To The Photos (OTTP!):

    As we left Pamplona, we walked through rolling farmland.  So many wildflowers!

See that ridge in the distance?  That is our summit for this walk.

Another view further along.  Our summit is even with the windmills at the top.

Vast fields of grain, with the wind pushing it in waves.

    A European Stonechat:

    Non-bird nature photo of the day - a painted-lady butterfly sitting on a flower at eye-level:

    A Yellow-Wagtail (upper-left) in a field of grain:

A Corn-Bunting in a field of not-corn.

A Greater Whitethroat (at top of frame):

Looking forward, making progress towards our summit; and a reminder that sometimes you need to turn around and look behind you (in this case, to see what looks like an old fortress):

    More progress, and you can see that today there were many ants on the trail; and a look backward toward Pamplona:

    making more and more progress.  Oh - and the weather is getting a bit more dicey:

    At the summit!  We did not linger here to take more photos due to some rapidly changing weather up top.

And now down, down, down:

    More wildflowers:

A field of grain with a single poppy:

A house-sparrow with some unusual white accents watching us eat:

More wildflowers:

A mural as we passed through Murzábel:

    Non-bird nature photo #2.  A snail on a stalk:

    A last short climb, approaching our destination at Obano:

Church of the day - the cathedral at Obano:

    Note the nests of the Western House-Martins in the apse of the arch (they were flying in-and-out, though I did not capture one in flight in the photo):

    Just off of the church is a gateway, with a small blue sign for those who are walking the Camino.  Our hotel (a room in the 3rd floor of a house) was a short walk after the arch: