When you start at sea level, unless you are in Death Valley, there’s only 1 way to go. We started climbing as soon as we left the beach area. The first mile was on road through town, but we quickly got to the country and actual trails.
I woke up at 5:30 and it was raining. I thought we can sleep a little longer in this nice dry hotel room. At 6:45, there wasn’t any rain (that I could hear) so I got up to shower and get ready. Pam slept until I was done in the bathroom. We headed out hopeful that we were going to miss the rain. As soon as we stepped outside, our hopes were dashed.
We stepped back under cover and put on our rain gear. It was more of a heavy mist than a rain so we’ll be ok. Often times on the Camino we had philosophical discussions with other pilgrims along the lines of “I’d rather hike in the rain than 90+ heat”. I’ve just got to keep reminding myself how miserable the heat was.
The trail takes a pretty direct route out of town. We were hoping for a cafe along the route since we got up and left before the hotel opened for breakfast. No such luck.
After a couple of miles, we came to a small village with 2 bar/cafes and a hotel with a restaurant. We thought for sure we’d find something here. Both bars were closed so I went into the hotel. It was a very classy place, the type that doesn’t like to see me on their doorstep. I looked at the menu, and I shit you not, they wanted 11 Euros for coffee. I’m not cheap, but, yes, I’m too cheap for that.
After the village, we started to do some steep climbing (on empty stomachs). After a short bit, I got Pam to stop to split a snickers and have a banana each. This is not the most hardy breakfast, but it beats the two bread heels that we started the Camino with.
Next we played the rain guessing game. The rain would stop and the sun would come out. We dropped our packs and took off our rain gear. 10 steps later it was raining again, so we dropped our packs and put on our rain gear. After doing this a couple of times, we decided the best approach was for Pam to wear her rain jacket and I wouldn’t wear mine–we would play a little mind game with the rain gods. This worked for about a mile.
We climbed up a nice stretch to give us a great view of Hendaye behind us. We also got a stupendous view of the rain coming up the valley that was currently beating the crap out of Hendaye. We made tracks thinking that we were about to go down the other side of the mountain.
Instead, we had another rise in front of us. We got to climb the mountain the rest of the way in the rain. Fortunately, it was only strong winds and horizontal rain without lightening. By the time we made the top, the bulk of the storm was past us. There were horses free grazing on the mountain as well as sheep. We could see some trees down in the next valley and we aimed for them for a rest spot.
There was a lovely spot in the trees that was dry and protected from the rain. We stopped for another fruit and snickers break. Pam has been going strong today and not complaining at all in the bad weather. I haven’t been complaining either, but I am hurting. I don’t have energy and my Achilles’ tendon on my right foot is tighter than a drum. After we sat down in the woods for a break, I said we’ve got to either get moving or set up a tent because I’m starting to get very chilled in the rain.
Pam said let’s set up the tent. I’m always a compliant husband when Pam says something I want to hear. We had the tent set up by 1:30 when a French man stopped in the trees for a food break. We talked to him for a bit. He recognized our Z Packs tent and we started talking gear.
While we were talking, the sun broke through the clouds. We started thinking maybe we should head on. Another lone hiker, a woman from Switzerland stopped by and we talked to her a bit. She had walked around the mountain we came over. Our guidebook is actually in St Jean and we’ll get it in a few days. In the mean time, we bought a French version of a different one that doesn’t believe in using distances. For some reason, Europeans like to use times as distances. To make it worse, the publishers go find some steroided up hiker to run the trails and give us his best times when the day is clear, he’s not carrying any gear, and he has just had a fresh shot of roids. The book sucks. It took us 5.5 hours to do what the book says is 2.3 hours.
While we were talking to the Swiss woman, the French guy took off and another solo French woman came up. While we were all talking, the rains started again. The girls took off and we went to the tent. We were inside lying down under our quilts by 2. An Airedale came up while we were setting up the tent and everyone that came by thought it was our dog. Even the Airedale came to believe she’s our dog.
We fell asleep with the constant sound of rain on the tent for the next 5 hours. The dog is lying outside of the tent protecting us. The worst part is that she’s more afraid of thunder than Pam so she barks at the storm. Once she gets started, the dog won’t stop either.
Looks like we’re going to break our tent record we set in Mt Rainier. We’ve already got 7 hours in and it’s not even close to dark yet.