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Day 9 - Camino Francés: Estella to Los Arcos · WCBH

• 0:26
  Good morning, day nine, back on the path, on our way from Estelle to Los Arcos, 19 kilometres today.
• 0:34
  There's lots of iconic things about the Camino that you'll see in guidebooks, and on YouTube, etc.
• 0:42
  We've just passed one, Bodega Irachi,
• 0:47
  which is where the monks have have flowing red wine coming out of a tap just
• 0:55
  on the street like it's a water spigot.
• 0:58
  They've got water, agua and wine, Fuente del Vino.
• 1:04
  The sign says that there's a provision of 1,000 litres per day. Wow.
• 1:10
  But I imagine in the summer months, everyone coming past all wants to partake in sampling the wine.
• 1:17
  Put a cup underneath, you don't get hay.
• 1:20
  You don't get a glass. You just get enough, really, to fill the bottom of a cup, barely.
• 1:28
  So you can sample the wine. How would I rate it?
• 1:32
  It's definitely nothing like a full-bodied Australian Shiraz.
• 1:39
  I would describe it more of a cask wine that you probably got in Australia in
• 1:46
  the 80s and 90s, a Lambrusco.
• 1:50
  That sort of uh,
• 1:52
  type of wine, but I did try it to partake in the tradition and then washed it
• 1:57
  down with a large cup of agua.
• 2:01
  So 19 kilometres ahead of us, our third big day, back to back to back.
• 2:08
  Body feels good again in the morning. Imagine it'll be tired in the afternoon.
• 2:13
  Look, it's early March, I think it's March the 8th, losing track of days.
• 2:18
  Um it is sunday i think
• 2:21
  it's around march 8th so if
• 2:24
  you're listening to this as we record and release feel free to send questions
• 2:29
  and comments through the social media wcbh instagram and facebook i'm happy
• 2:36
  to incorporate your questions or comments into our pod darwin's a particularly flat town,
• 2:44
  flat city, where we are in the Camino, in the Navarre region,
• 2:49
  is the opposite. Very, very hilly indeed.
• 2:52
  In fact, just standing to my right is a rather tall mountain.
• 2:57
  We can see the bottom of it, but then the top of it, which is covered in cloud,
• 3:03
  but that cloud starts from very, very low. Low cloud today.
• 3:07
  Did rain overnight, hasn't been raining this morning, and we're So confronted
• 3:12
  with a sign, the path can go left, path can go right.
• 3:16
  Both end up at Los Arcos, one's 16.8 kilometres. The other is 17.9 kilometres.
• 3:23
  And if we take the left path, the next city is about 6.4 kilometres.
• 3:28
  And if we take the right path, the next city's a bit under two kilometres.
• 3:32
  Sherilyn, any thoughts on which way we're going to go, left or right?
• 3:35
  No thoughts at the moment, except what I see is a massive hill on one side and
• 3:40
  the other one looks a bit flatter.
• 3:42
  What do you reckon, Chan? Left or right? No.
• 3:45
  The sun was lying.
• 3:51
  We'll get back to you which one we decided. All right, drumroll. We have decided.
• 3:56
  We've decided to go left at the fork in the road, 1,100 metres shorter.
• 4:03
  Now, that's not the reason we chose this path.
• 4:07
  Chan thought the right path looked a little bit muddier. The left path certainly looks steeper.
• 4:14
  They both end up in the same place, but we've got everything we need on our
• 4:18
  back, so we don't need to go the path that has more towns and services on the way.
• 4:25
  We're going to take what we think is the more scenic and rural,
• 4:29
  happens to be the more hilly route, it was 1,100 metres shorter.
• 4:36
  We'll never know the other way, will we? We'll find out anyway if we've made
• 4:41
  a good decision a little bit later on.
• 4:44
  Walking up this mountain, walking through the forest, question for you,
• 4:52
  when is it the forest, when is it the woods?
• 4:55
  Now rainforest, I would imagine, is determined by the quantity of water and the types of plants.
• 5:03
  This is wet, but it's not rainforest, so potentially woods.
• 5:09
  Remember something about geography wet sclerophyll and
• 5:12
  dry sclerophyll this is very wet but that's
• 5:16
  one for you when is it the rainforest when is it the woods when is it the forest
• 5:20
  are they all interchangeable i'm ruling out rainforest but i'm saying the forest
• 5:24
  or the woods here anyway it's a bush track and it's wet and clay but beautiful
• 5:30
  there's mountain bikers on this mountain the The paths are narrow, clay-based paths,
• 5:36
  it's wet and slippery, steep incline.
• 5:39
  Mountain bikers are just having an absolute ball flying around this course,
• 5:44
  going down the mountain.
• 5:47
  Looks like a lot of fun. Well, this morning was very much steep hills,
• 5:53
  forest, mountain climbs, etc.
• 5:56
  And then for the last hour or so it's really just been rolling hills,
• 6:03
  absolutely rolling, green, perfectly shaped with crops on either side of us.
• 6:12
  We're on a large sandy road that runs through the middle of it,
• 6:17
  a lot of grapes being grown here, vineyards, we think canola,
• 6:22
  and a number of other crops but we're just in this beautiful just beautiful
• 6:27
  stretch of just rolling green acres with crops very picturesque.
• 6:33
  Now, the scene that's right in
• 6:35
  front of me is like one straight out of the Wizard of Oz, or maybe Wicked.
• 6:41
  We're walking on a light rock path.
• 6:46
  It seems to be going for miles, and then it snakes off into the distance.
• 6:51
  It's a very flat section, but in front of us there are hills that start to form, all green,
• 6:57
  different colours of green, a little bit of brown in there as
• 7:00
  well before we get to some mountains and
• 7:04
  it's almost like this this
• 7:08
  is straight out of wizard of eyes you could
• 7:10
  film it here dorothy and toto and scarecrow and tin man and the lion would not
• 7:19
  be out of place in this scene right now i'll take a photo and share it later
• 7:24
  on but this year this does feel like we're on our way to the Emerald City.
• 7:29
  Well, we've made it to Los Arcos.
• 7:31
  Accommodation here is basic to say the least, but it's okay.
• 7:37
  Tomorrow, we've got 19 kilometres. Today, we did 21 kilometres.
• 7:42
  Tomorrow, we're heading to Viana.
• 7:44
  And we've found if we have our accommodation booked for the next two nights,
• 7:49
  that's a big enough buffer to manage the accommodation at the moment.