mud,sweat and ...

no tears
yesterday we came across the famed mud of the camino.
as we set out from pamplona it was raining. it rained for most of the day. the mud started after we left cizor menor and continued to uterga. it was an almost continual climb over very muddy trails. we don´t mean to be the slowest in the pack but it seemed hundreds of people were skipping and running past us whilst we were travailing in the mud. the trail is surprisingly busy and i think there was a school group on it yesterday.
being so behind the group slowed us down because we were walking through their churned up mud so it was quite an experience. we had to keep stopping to clean our boots as they were getting so heavy with the mud.
however we did have a glorious day. the slopes we were climbing offered great panoramas once we arrived at the top. there are a lot of wind farms in spain and we were standing under them looking out across the plain. for the last two days we have had wind farms in continuous sight.
last night we had a late dinner with a group of young men who had ridden their bikes over the mud. they were very lighthearted about what must have been gruelling day. they were drinking and smoking and obviously planned to be up a lot later than us and then be ready to do it all over again today. we were in a restaruant that had big kegs of cider in the middle with a grill in the floor all aorund it . they showed john how to hold the glass out from the spout and catch it in the glass. what was missed went down the grill. not quite the same as the apple cider we are used to.
we are in estella tonight and preparing for bed early. the tiredness really hits you in the evening. john is writing his diary and i will read a little more of pilgrim's progress and then this little pilgrim will go to bed