It’s a fantastic morning when I leave Ventosa, with clear blue skies and brilliant sunshine, and there is the moon still lingering in the sky. I’m the last one out of the door just before eight o’clock.

The typical morning pilgrim shadow, where each pebble is magnified by the low-lying sun.

Leaving Ventosa behind, I stop and look back.

Suddenly the path changes character and looks more like the bottom of a riverbed than a path made for walking. But yes, the yellow arrow is there. Can you spot it?

Here I catch up with Kristine and Rachel. Poor Kristine must have been battling with this awful, stony stretch for quite some time. The children Amalia and Ava walk when the path gets challenging, in fact Amalia walks a lot and even pushes the cart herself. We spend some time walking together into the next town Nájera.

The cliffs made of the rich, red clay soil of La Rioja, acts as a backdrop to the old part of Nájera and the river Río Nájerilla runs right through the town.

Rachel and I stop at a café on the riverbank for breakfast, but Kristine presses on, as she wants to get to her destination before it gets too hot.

Here Rachel walks ahead through this very characteristic landscape. It’s going to be a long day for her, but she is well protected against the sun.

I pass a little stone hut that looks like a giant beehive, called Poyo Roldán. Roland was in Charlemagne’s army and legend has it that he confronted and killed a giant named Farragut – a Saracen warrior said to be 9 feet tall and supposedly a direct descendant of the biblical Goliath. 

This is my destination for today, the small village of Azofra. This village basically has two restaurants and a small shop that has the most basic food and household items. I’m staying in a small but very nice pension where I have my own room.

I start with the usual washing of clothes. But since there’s no place outside to hang them to dry here, I decide to try a walking pole hack I saw in a Facebook group. It works pretty well, at least until the next day, when it turns out the walking pole never quite recovers and eventually breaks completely…

After this I decide to go to the restaurant closest to me. I ravenous as usual and want to have the menu del día, and I’m directed to an interior part of the restaurant that is dimmed down and looks completely empty. Not so much fun I think and ask if I can’t sit here where the bar is, or outside at the tables there? No, this apparently doesn’t work at all. So inside I go, and it turns out that it isn’t completely empty. A man is sitting quietly in the corner eating his dinner, and I take the table beside him. We start talking and I’m about to hear about the journey of this amazing pilgrim.

His name is Sebastián and he’s a frenchman from the north east of France, and he has been walking on his pilgrimage since he stepped out of his front door. He has hiked three of the four trails in France before crossing the Pyrenees. And this is not the usual crossing of the Pyrenees that everyone else does, we are talking about. He showed me his photos he has on his mobile, which he has been loading while we are eating. No, he crossed the mountains where it’s over 2400 meters, where the snow still lay and where there are small lakes. Even more astonishing is that he sleeps outside, without even a tent! When he crossed the Pyrenees he didn’t eat for two days, he tells me. Up until now he has walked 18000 km!

What for a moment ago looked like a boring dinner in an empty restaurant has suddenly turned into an unprecedented storytelling event and I am spellbound!

He tells me that he walks around 30 km per day and he has calculated that it will take him three months in total to get to Finisterre, which is his end point. He already thinks it’s too long, because it turns out he has a wife and four kids at home and he misses them.

The Pyrenees was by far the highlight of his journey. He is not too impressed by Spain I gather because as he says; I already have vineyards aplenty back home in France.

I suspect he doesn’t talk to many others, because he doesn’t take part in the pilgrim community at the usual meeting places in the albergues. He walks alone, eats his lunch in some village or town, walks some more, takes his dinner in another village or town, and then walks every day until 10 p.m. when he is out in the countryside again. If so it’s a pity, because others are missing out on the opportunity to meet this very likeable and soft-spoken man and share in his incredible adventures.

Sebastián is of course my highlight today, and has left a lasting impression on me. I am humbled and grateful to have met such an extraordinary pilgrim!

It’s time to say goodbye to Sebastián and head back to my pension. It’s raining heavily at night and I can’t help but think about him and sincerely hope he found some kind of roof over his head. Tomorrow Santo Domingo de la Calzada awaits.

Check out my earlier posts to get the full context of this pilgrimage and the one I did the year before, and sign up to be notified when the next post is released.

All photos copyright Anita Martinez Beijer © All rights reserved