At Gaineko Etxea

Diary week. 5 July 4
Had tried unsuccessfully to make a booking at Arroue but should have done it before the weekend. I did the maths and decided to carry on to Arroue despite the fact it was a smallish gite and quite a few people I talked to already had reservations or were planning on stopping there. I walked for a short while with young Pierre-Benoit who told me he never makes bookings on the theory that no one would want him to have no where to sleep..apparently this has worked for him so far..he is a young engineering student who is carrying his violin as he plans to carry on to Ireland and play in pubs. He looked a bit like Ton with his long legs and curly blonde hair. Then I walked with Swiss Marco who was also reservationless. We arrived to find a list on the door announcing that there were 3 beds "disponsible" and that some one would be around at 5.30 or so to collect the money. We were a little worried that the last 3 beds might be assigned to some one else over the phone but as I couldn't get any phone reception and Marco's phone card didn't seem to work in the phone box, we have simply added our names to the list and moved in.
Later...that seemed to work..they seem to have cupboards and a fridge full of food for pelerins to buy and it is also possible to order baguettes and pain au chocolate to be delivered fresh in the early morning.

Tuesday 5 July. Arroue to Ostabat..a funny days walking as it was very hard to tell from MMDD just how far it was as there were so many variants and the don't mark distances on the variantes. What I thought would be about 25 k seemed much less..not a bad thing as the last hour or so was pretty hot. We are now well into Basque country..every placename has a Basque variant..usually full of Xs. It has also gotten hillier over the last day or so. 
I was told a few days ago that there might be difficulties with bookings in Ostabat as several trails all merged here but that doesn't seem to be the case..in fact Regula and I are so far alone in a 9 bed dortoir.