Ruesta

Every day I try to think of what makes this 'stage' different from all the other stages I've done.  Farm animals, terrain, weather, meeting people, the 60km day, etc.

Today was very nice in terms of weather, terrain, etc.  Not particularly hard although it rated 3 out of 5 difficulty stars on gronze.com (I'll never intentionally do a 5 in one day).

The local people were the standout between Arres and Ruesta.  There were absolutely no services (bars, restaurants, water fountains *) along the 28km route, but it really seemed like the region goes out of their way to bolster their reputation as camino-friendly.  Lots of smiles & waves but what got really got my attention was the drivers.

The majority of the route was on dirt roads, which are pleasant until a car, farm van or tractor goes by - especially when its' sunny and dry; they kick up a lot of dust.  Today, every single driver seemed to go way out of their way not to make a dust storm.  The ones coming from the opposite direction slowed down when they saw me, and sped up after they passed me.  Those going in my direction slowed down as soon as they reached me.  A couple of them (including the biggest tractor of the day) drove with one wheel on the grass strip between the dirt wheel ruts.

Obviously it was a slow news day on the camino.  Which is good!

Two more days until this route joins with the main one at Puente la Reina.  What I'm looking forward to most is stopping for lunch, bing able to buy sunscreen and normal stuff like that.  The other 'peregrinos' are for the most part very nice.

I met a couple of Americans today who stopped about 10km earlier than me.  They were doing an oddball route from either Jaca or Somport to Puente la Reina and then backwards on the main route (Camino Frances) through Pamplona and Roncesvalles and crossing the mountains to finish at St. Jean Pied de Port.  The woman explained that they had already done the camino six times.  She then pointed out to me a different style of route marker than the plain arrow.  Sometimes people really want to be helpful and share the knowledge that comes from experience.  Still it reminded me of a French Canadian guy who on my first camino (from Le Puy) who warned me that the barbs on the barbed wire hurt if you brushed up against them.