Camino Day 5: Larasoaña to Pamplona

Day 5 Larrasoaña to Pamploma by bus

We really wiped ourselves out during that last stage, carrying our packs on what we thought was a flat day and during a day with intense heat. My knee swelled over night so we decided to bus it to Pamploma from Larrasoña and take a day off! We realized that the Camino was much more of a difficult challenging than we suspected and knew we had to make some important adjustments. We decided to:

· Ship backpacks on harder stages

· Limit our walking to 10-12 km per day

· Use hiking poles for support!

We realized that our grit was all that allowed us to get through the Pyrenees and now it was time to adjust to a more sustainable way of walking the Camino that would allow us to enjoy it more fully.

We check in at Hotel Beran right in the heart of the Pamploma outdoor business district. It was very lively! We strolled through the streets and found a great small sporting good where we bought poles. We practiced walking down the street. We found Casa Ingles with an amazing sporting goods store – we purchased a duffle bag to dump heavy items in to lighten our packs. We’d send the duffle ahead to our next hostel via Barricot which has worked great! I bought a new lightweight hat to block the sun. Mom bought a book to read - the same one that I had made her leave behind at Hotel Beilari due to lack of space in her bag.

We had churros, ice cream and then dinner at a Mexican place. Dinner places don’t open until after Siesta so we reversed the order of our meal with dessert first and dinner last - no complaints! We luckily feel asleep to the din of the outside crowds still having late dinner and drinks below. This was the break we needed!