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Day 4 Camino Francés: From Bizkarreta to Zubiri · WCBH

• 0:25
  Good morning. It's the beginning of day four. We're back on the track.
• 0:29
  We've just left Biz Coretta, where we stayed last night.
• 0:33
  Vice accommodation, private room, private en suite, shared kitchen,
• 0:38
  lounge area, but very comfortable.
• 0:41
  A lot warmer than what we had the night before.
• 0:45
  We're on a bush trail, I think, for the whole of today, which is great.
• 0:50
  Most of the trial we've been on so far has been a bush or forest trail.
• 0:55
  There's only been small parts early on where we had a little bit of road walking.
• 1:02
  Yesterday we had some issues with the sound, just trying to record with so much wind around.
• 1:09
  Made sections or segments two, three and four.
• 1:14
  We couldn't really hear that, so we didn't publish those, but we stayed in Biz Coretta last night.
• 1:21
  The plan was to walk to Laris Serona today.
• 1:26
  That would have been about 16 kilometres.
• 1:30
  Previous couple of days, we've been more 12, 13 kilometres, but we haven't been
• 1:34
  able to get private accommodation in Laris Serona.
• 1:37
  So we've made the decision to walk to Sabiri, where we have got private accommodation.
• 1:42
  You know, we still haven't ruled out doing other albergue dormitory stays,
• 1:47
  but we're definitely leaving that as the last resort option.
• 1:53
  And it's fine, depending on what type of Camino you're trying to have.
• 1:58
  But for us, we'll try and have pension or casa accommodation.
• 2:06
  Now, the original plan was for us to be using the porter service.
• 2:11
  So what that is, is companies that take your bag from one town to the next town
• 2:17
  or one accommodation to the next accommodation, allowing you just to carry a day pack and then just,
• 2:25
  they take some of the heavier items that you might have in your backpack.
• 2:28
  It's not like where you bring a suite of suitcases. It just means you can take
• 2:34
  a few heavy things out of your backpack, send it forward and.
• 2:39
  They should only be a few euro each, you know, maybe five euro to ten euro.
• 2:46
  We bought a duffel bag, which, you know, is weight as well.
• 2:49
  But the plan was to put a few things from each of our three bags in the duffel bag, send that forward.
• 2:55
  And so we were walking each day with a lighter pack. But not everything is up
• 3:01
  and running yet for the season.
• 3:02
  Some of the accommodations are closed and the porter services haven't been operating.
• 3:08
  So when we've contacted them, they've been, yeah, we can do it,
• 3:11
  but it's going to cost you.
• 3:12
  And it should, like I said, be between five to 10 euro.
• 3:17
  This stage, but they wanted 30 euro. So we've actually been carrying all of the weight on our back.
• 3:26
  And that's one of the things I suppose before you come away is you're fairly,
• 3:31
  you watch a lot of YouTube videos and you're fairly aware that keeping the weight down is key.
• 3:37
  So it's a, what do I put in my pack and what don't I put in my pack?
• 3:41
  How many sets of clothes and things? But there's some things you can't get away from.
• 3:46
  You need wet weather gear. Last time that Cheryl and I walked five days of the
• 3:50
  Camino, probably three of the five days that was from Saria to Santiago were wet.
• 3:58
  Cold and the wet weather gear that we had bought which
• 4:01
  we were fairly unaware of at the time
• 4:04
  must have had a very very low waterproof rating maybe a thousand or something
• 4:09
  whatever the the the measurement is that measures waterproofing and so we would
• 4:15
  have been better off just wearing a garbage bag over our heads but this time
• 4:18
  we're we've got much higher rated waterproofing gear,
• 4:24
  pants and a jacket we haven't gone
• 4:27
  the poncho option pants and a jacket so there's a little bit of
• 4:30
  weight there so we've got to have that obviously walking at the end of winter
• 4:34
  and being from the tropics we need some warm gear so that carries weight and
• 4:39
  you know we're going with the option of wear one wash one in terms of sets of
• 4:45
  clothes so two sorts of socks two sets of pants,
• 4:49
  two sets of shirts, et cetera. Wear one, wash one.
• 4:52
  And then there's other things, you know, we've got our shoes and we've also
• 4:56
  brought a pair of sandals each just so we can put something else on at the end
• 5:01
  of the day, allow our feet to breathe,
• 5:03
  but just something different from wearing your shoes, which may need the opportunity
• 5:07
  to air out or dry out depending on the day. So yeah.
• 5:12
  We've done first four days, we'll end up doing 12, 13 kilometers each day.
• 5:17
  Today's a bit shorter, so instead of going to Lara Sirona, we'll be going to
• 5:21
  Zabiri, which is about 10 kilometers.
• 5:23
  But the great news is that from tomorrow, we've been able to pick up,
• 5:29
  well, from tomorrow, from Zabiri to, stop,
• 5:35
  from tomorrow, Zabiri to Pamploma, we've been able to pick up a port of service
• 5:42
  just as we cross the road.
• 5:45
  The path goes across the road here.
• 5:48
  You might have heard that car in the background, me telling Chan to stop at the road.
• 5:54
  So we've picked up the port of service. So four days of relatively short trails
• 5:58
  but tomorrow it certainly picks up.
• 6:00
  To go from Zabiri to Pamploma is about 20k so
• 6:03
  the port of service couldn't have come at a better time
• 6:06
  then we'll have a rest day at this stage is the the plan in pamploma and then
• 6:12
  we will will continue to the next town so the plan was shorter days at the beginning
• 6:18
  get used to the packs on our back gets get used to walking the trail each day,
• 6:26
  and then start picking the kilometers up so that all starts for us tomorrow longer trails.
• 6:33
  Body's holding up good, it's remarkable how,
• 6:36
  much the body restores itself. Good night's sleep, plenty of water, some good food.
• 6:43
  Yesterday I had the first issue with my feet, nothing major, just my pinky toe.
• 6:50
  Manages to cut back in on the toe that sits next to it with its nail and just
• 6:55
  rubs along there, a little bit of a hot spot, a little bit of a cut there,
• 6:58
  but applied a bit of compede.
• 7:00
  It's like a second skin to the affected area, and that sorted that out.
• 7:06
  Just at the start of this walk, ran into someone who had started in Ronson Valles
• 7:11
  this morning, so he's racking up the kilometres today.
• 7:16
  We've met a number of people on the path so far, as you would expect.
• 7:20
  It's obviously not peak season, but there's still numbers around.
• 7:24
  Not walking with people each day, but you come across some people.
• 7:29
  We've had some people obviously from France and Spain. Italy,
• 7:33
  Norway, Denmark, Wales, United States, Brazil, come across another Australian, Russia.
• 7:43
  South Korea.
• 7:45
  Yeah, it's a popular thing, the Camino from St.
• 7:51
  Jean-Pierre de Porte through to Santiago, enjoyed by many people around the world.
• 7:57
  I mentioned yesterday that we're a bit short of cash
• 8:00
  heading into our next town but
• 8:03
  we're able to resolve that one easily there's not a lot of atms around
• 8:06
  but we did find one yesterday that had some power
• 8:09
  on and working so that was good just need to
• 8:11
  carry a bit more cash than we thought we would you know
• 8:14
  when you're booking through some of the booking websites charges to your card
• 8:19
  and there's no need to exchange money at the accommodation but there are some
• 8:24
  places whether it be cafes or accommodations that are only dealing in cash so
• 8:30
  there is still a need here to to carry some cash,
• 8:34
  Food's been good, I've mentioned food a number of times, been enjoying the food
• 8:39
  here, and bread, a bit like Oprah Winfrey here, I love bread,
• 8:44
  but I'm not used to eating this quantity of bread, the baguettes.
• 8:50
  It seems to be featuring in most meals. So yesterday, because we had our own
• 8:55
  kitchen to prepare things in,
• 8:58
  my son and I did what we usually do, is bought a big packet of cereal,
• 9:05
  a litre of milk, and had cereal for dinner, then backed it up with cereal for breakfast.
• 9:09
  It was something that we've both been missing and craving from home.
• 9:15
  Just like a piece of toast with
• 9:18
  butter and vegemite would be nice about now as
• 9:21
  well but we're not going to get our hands on those but the ham's
• 9:24
  been good it's very salty it is it is nice the fish has been great the bread's
• 9:28
  fantastic really you know you're up there with some of the best bread that i've
• 9:32
  eaten france spain senegal vietnam anywhere that has fantastic bread I just tend to enjoy it.
• 9:43
  We'll see what today brings in the culinary menu. We're making good time today,
• 9:48
  about five kilometres away from Siberia.
• 9:50
  As I said, it's not a big day. Been really fortunate with the weather.
• 9:54
  No wind today. That's made a huge difference. That wind, that icy cold wind
• 9:58
  just cuts through the body.
• 10:01
  We don't have that today.
• 10:03
  There's even been times where I've taken my jacket off and have just had my
• 10:06
  Australian Kangaroos rugby league jersey on representing over here.
• 10:11
  But yeah, the weather's been good, no wet weather.
• 10:13
  I suppose we've been really lucky there, touch wood, because we've come across
• 10:17
  some fairly large rain puddles on the track today, but we seem to have dodged
• 10:22
  it so far. Let's hope that can continue.
• 10:25
  You follow the path, or the way the path works is you follow these yellow spray-painted
• 10:31
  arrows, all these little blue signs that have the Camino scallop shell with
• 10:36
  a little yellow arrow on them.
• 10:39
  And arrow just links up with arrow and they're
• 10:43
  reasonably placed you know you do walk sometimes and think oh
• 10:45
  am i going the right way oh there's another arrow and that's
• 10:49
  the way it works but there's these other markings i'm
• 10:52
  seeing on trees painted white stripe and a red stripe a horizontal white stripe
• 11:00
  at the top red stripe at the bottom i don't know what it means and one of a
• 11:03
  few of them we've seen is actually white stripe up the top and green stripe
• 11:07
  down the bottom i'm not too sure if it's to do with the Camino,
• 11:10
  the forestry, a north-south thing.
• 11:12
  No ideas. If you're listening, and it's the 3rd of March today,
• 11:16
  so if you're listening and it's around about that time, message me on WCBH,
• 11:21
  Facebook or Instagram, and I can respond to it in the next couple of days as I record.
• 11:27
  And that really goes for any matter if you've got a question or a comment or
• 11:30
  you've got some information or if I'm saying something wrong or totally got
• 11:35
  something around the wrong way,
• 11:36
  feel free to message me on Facebook or Instagram at WCBH and I'll respond to
• 11:42
  it in the next couple of days whilst recording.
• 11:45
  Well, that's the end of day four. We're in Zubiri now at our accommodation.
• 11:50
  Beautiful house. The descent into Zubiri is one of the more difficult sections of the Camino.
• 11:59
  There's often jagged rocks, a lot of loose underfoot areas, something that you
• 12:04
  need your sticks for and you've got to watch your knees, et cetera, as you come down.
• 12:08
  It's really a steep decline down into Zubiri.
• 12:13
  But we got a bit lucky there. It looks like they've done some maintenance in
• 12:18
  the off-season and graded and laid some new stones and pushed the dirt over.
• 12:24
  So the path is good. It's still very steep. You still need your sticks.
• 12:28
  But it wasn't like some of the images that we've seen posted or when we watched
• 12:33
  some of the clips on YouTube. So fortunate there.
• 12:36
  It's good that there is maintenance done on the road.
• 12:39
  But I must say, it is also very nice walking the trail without an overkill of
• 12:46
  safety signs, safety barriers, parts closed because there's an element of risk, etc.
• 12:52
  It still has that feel to it that you do need to be careful and make good decisions, etc.
• 12:57
  It hasn't been over-sanitized. So we're in Zubiri. We'll have one night here tomorrow.
• 13:03
  We're excited because we've got just our day packs on. We're going to be sending
• 13:08
  forward most of our backpack with the career company to Pamploma.
• 13:13
  It's going to be our biggest day in terms of distance so far.
• 13:17
  Day five, we'll be walking 20 k's into Pamploma.
• 13:20
  Then we'll have our first rest day, which we're also looking forward to and exploring Pamploma.
• 13:25
  Running of the balls, not on at the moment.
• 13:28
  Yeah, if it was on, would I run? I don't know, 20 years younger,
• 13:32
  I probably would have, but probably not these days. But yeah,
• 13:35
  really looking forward to getting into PAM Plumber tomorrow.