Day 3 brings us our first exposure to a major city. The opportunity to finally buy equipment we need is somewhat overridden by the pain of walking many hours through the paved streets of Pamplona (and outlying). Also, we have no real idea where to buy things. The are the farmacia, which work well for blister pads, knee braces, and creams, but the only store we saw that had backpacking supplies was a "pilgrims supply store", where I picked up a replacement hat (lost mine somewhere, and realized that the full brim hat doesn't work well with a tall pack) and a knife, and Annalea picked up a pair of walking poles. Here is my temporary hat solution which I would have kept using if I hadn't wanted a brim:
We also stopped for Turkish food, and got some beer as well. Which was wonderful, although perhaps not the greatest idea for the middle of the day, for my muscles immediately started cramping up when we started back on our way.
My theory on the pain is that we spent day 1 and 2 exhausting our stabilizing muscles going over mountains and such, and don't have the finesse to walk on paved roads without jarring our joints.
This was our toughest day so far, and I think it's only been cause of the 2 days preceding it. We were resolved to push through Pamplona and spend the night in Cizur Menor, which we did... Barely. There is the slightest of hills leading into town... The sort of thing I would normally sprint up if I were running... we were so hobbled we had to walk very slowly and take lots of breaks when the pain became unbearable. We rolled into town and stayed at a Templar hostel.
We are considering taking a rest day, or at least a very slow and careful day tomorrow. None of us wants to get any injuries just for the sake of making it one town further in a day.
