next morning and we are getting a bit faster at the preparations. vero has been told of the fountain of wine at the monastery village of irache. we head away from the camino to visit it. the well is dry,but we bump into an eccentric american fruit farmer from southern california, who is walking the camino to provide content for his radio show at home. vero obliges and gives her opinions on the state of (in)humanity into his tape recorder.

the fountain has been replenished but we hurry on our way conscious that having taken the first three days easy, we have over one and a half stages on the 15-day cycle itinerary to make up. we have only 14 days available, and we both agree it would be nice to make up time in this flatter section, maybe leaving more time to see santiago.

we arrive into logrono approaching 14.00. the men of the city are filling the shaded bars to talk football, politics and get out of the heat. it also helps to bide the time while their lunch is prepared at home! we find a nice cafe and have spanish tortilla, glass of wine and a coffee before leaving on our way to navarette, and its campsite. a rush of blood to maurice's head while passing the beautifully restored medieval alberque results in our staying, not there, but on the concrete floor of the hall under the library! a belgian couple complete with pack donkey, evict an italian woman, together with her three children from the refuge as unworthy of the charitable facility, to stunned, yet sadly unacting pilgrims (us included) and warden.

we go to mass in the church of the assumption with its amazing huge baroque gilded altar. then a snack sitting at the bull-ring and off to sleeping bags and the orchestre de ronfleurs!