Somewhat surprisingly, I woke up this morning to discover that I was still alive and even more incredibly, not one part of my body had gone on strike overnight either.

An excellent pilgrim dinner and a couple of glasses of red had combined with all that exertion to good effect – I felt well-rested and ready to tackle the next section of the Way.

That said, I was a little bit surprised to see that, according to this road sign, I was apparently now further away from Santiago than when I started yesterday.

I guess we Peregrinos must take a few shortcuts along the Way.

Notwithstanding the lack of physical effects from the baptism of fire on the first day, there was still the minor issue of getting used to sharing space with an interesting mix of humanity.

Many of my fellow travellers had proved capable and willing to make noises come out of their bodies that can only be described as unusual, alarming and/or medically unlikely.

That comes from staying at the Albergue de Roncesvalles, which is best described as a bunk bed Travelodge, with more than 150 Peregrinos packed into a medieval monastery with IKEA beds, and almost certainly the loudest toilets in the Western Hemisphere.

If all that sounds like a bit of a whinge, it isn’t.

It was a haven of calm and a melting pot of cultures, including the Slovenian girl in the bunkbed above who treated me to a stretching lesson and her foot cream, the rustling rucksack Americans sharing our cubicle, and Mauro, a Tanzanian who was doing his fourth Camino.

Over our pilgrim dinner, he complimented me on having crossed the Pyrenees for no good reason at all.

It seems that rather a lot of people start here, on the Spanish side.

How sensible of them.

Why didn’t I think of that?

By comparison, today has been an easy enough stage, apart from some unhelpfully diagonal super slippery sliding rocks on the descent into Zubiri, punctuated by actual conversations with other human beings, given that I had both more oxygen and mental bandwidth to get involved in that sort of thing now.

A light rain fell for most of the morning, forcing an early deployment of the poncho, but a cheerful chat with Gythlian and Elizabeth from New Zealand and a generally downhill path kept my spirits high.

I liked this alternative use for old jeans.

I took the guidebook’s advice about not over-extending myself on these first few days, so I pulled in at Zubiri just after midday.

After securing an early berth at the riverside Albergue Rio Arga Ibaia, there was plenty of time to relax and chat with my fellow pilgrims.

Four pints of Estrella and a plate of chicken wings later, the world has been set to rights by Robin from Ohio, Ricardo and Elena from Milan, Jordi and his daughters from Barcelona and Lea from Germany.

One of those evenings when it’s proved – once again – that we’re all pretty much the same and it’s only our politicians that let us down.

Accommodation Report:

Albergue de Roncesvalles

Slept on a lower bunk bed with a Slovenian girl upstairs and two Americans on the other side. We didn’t snore – they certainly did.

No bedbugs, no mosquitoes.

Result.

Health Report:

Left Foot and Right Foot are now working more closely together and there continue to be no blisters, no hot spots and therefore no worries at all.

Left Shoulder has stopped whinging, but Left Knee has sent up intermittent abuse reports. I’m ignoring these, for now.

Trips, Slips and Falls: 0 (0)

Applications of Factor 50, even though it wasn’t sunny: 0 (4)

Filling of Water Bottles: 0 (4)

Number of times “Buen Camino” was said: Well down on the first day, less than 100, with basic levels of normal human interaction restored.

Poncho deployments: 2

Stupid Juvenile Observation:

These cows, passing silent judgment on us silly humans walking off somewhere when there’s good grass to be chewed right in front of you.

They’re not as silly as they look.