My first Burning Man was a life-changing moment, even more so now that I look back eight years later.
I first heard about Burning Man in 2014 during lunchtime discussions at work. At the time, I thought it was a wild festival where hippies partied hard with blasting music. I wasn’t into that, so it didn’t interest me. But in 2016, when my friend Rahul asked if I wanted to go to Burning Man, I said let’s go.
Peyman and I shared a room with two other guys. One of them, a guy from Germany, snored so loudly it sounded like thunder. For a moment, I thought a tank was passing by. I reached for my earplugs, but at the same time, Peyman got up and put his phone near the guy’s nose to record the sound. What a guy.
After a hearty breakfast and coffee, we set off.
We walked from the outskirts of the town to the center of Pamplona in the dawn and passed through the old city through the medieval walls watching the sunrise. The whole town was asleep except for the pilgrims.
City wall of Pamplona,a city built in 74 BC by the Roman military. The Basques calls it Iruña, meaning 'the city' As we walked out of the city, I saw a massive wheat field splashed with red poppies.
My whole body was sore during the sleep. The Aussies on the other side of the room snored hard, woke up, and made noise getting ready at 5am. I surely was irritated, and Peyman could see it.
The walk started along the river, and it was nice to hear the sound of the flowing river.
The walk started along the river, and it was nice to hear the sound of the flowing river.
With the noise of people fighting with their backpacks, I woke up and felt barely recovered from day 1. Nevertheless, the day started with a leisurely walk along the wood and the creeks, and we passed several cute small villages.
I often thought Spain as a very dry country, but we passed along many rivers and creek during the entire walk I was expecting the Camino won’t be as busy this year with COVID still going on, but it was not.
I could not easily fall asleep with excitement and partly because of the snores in the rooms. Pilgrim’s office warned me about the heatwave, so most of the people in the room had already left when I woke up at 6. I got a cup of coffee, and started walking. The trail was already full of people.
The high route over the Pyrennes is called Route Napoleon even though Napoleon did not set a foot on the path I met my Camino buddies in the first two hours of the most challenging section of the entire French Way.
