Category: 2017 El Camino de Santiago

I was dragging after the night we had last night. I should have stood up to Pam and refused some of the beers she kept making me drink. We didn’t get up until 9. At one point, I woke up and didn’t know where I was. While I was trying to remember, I heard a voice “Pamplona, P L O N A”. I was thinking “where?” when I heard it again. “Pamplona, P L O N A”. I found out later that Rob was talking with his mother for Mother’s Day and I heard a part of the conversation.

We got ready to head out thinking everyone was already up. Instead, Shaun, Rob, and Michelle were all being lazy as well this morning. We all headed down to grab some breakfast about 9:30. When we got near the free WiFi area by the information center, everyone checked their phones. We got a text that George was in Pamplona sitting at a cafe near our hotel–he had taken a taxi from Zubiri to here first thing this morning. This definitely saved his feet from the pain we went through the last 4 miles yesterday.

Everyone waited while I ran back and got him settled in. When we got back down, Santiago and Eva from Sweden were there. We talked for a bit then headed to San Nicolas to find some food. We ended up eating at an outside cafe right in front of the Church of St. Nicholas.

The rest of the day was sightseeing, rest, errands and food. After Pam nearly got attacked by a little woman in St. Nicholas Church for taking a picture, we decided to switch from the religious sights to what Pamplona is known for.

All of us headed to the Plaza del Toros to see where the bulls run to. We spent a couple hours touring the bull ring and learning about the running of the bulls. We then retraced the route the bulls take and those mentally unhinged enough to run in front of them.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing for our return to the pilgrimage in the morning. We are looking at a 12 mile day which will be our average amount of walking most days from here on out.

Six of us went to dinner at Cafe Iruna where Ernest Hemingway “loved to go”. It was one of about a dozen places claiming to be his favorite. Nonetheless, we had a great 3 course dinner including bread and wine at a reasonable price. When we were finishing up, Santiago dropped by our table and recommended that we go see the new “Running of the Bulls” sculpture just south of the plaza. George and Shaun passed, so we went with Rob and Michelle. It was worth the trip.

Once again, sleep was not that great last night. Shaun started snoring right away before I could. I woke Pam up to get ear plugs and then I got my revenge. I felt sorry for the German woman that was in there–between Shaun and me, she had to have a crappy night. She was still in bed when we headed down for breakfast at 8.

Because we were late getting in the refuge last night, we got the second seating for breakfast at 8a. I got down there a few minutes early because I didn’t want an upset hostess again. The breakfast was a nice spread of carbs, coffee, and juice which we overate (yes, we are Americans).

Shaun doesn’t seem to be too much of an early riser if given a chance to not be. Closer to normal departure time for us today at 9:30. The trail was ideal: nearly level, in the woods, and along a river. We were making good time once again. We picked up another pilgrim along the way–Jack, aka “Santiago” a Flemish man from Belgium. I talked a little history and politics with him for a while. It made the trail time go faster. He walked with us for a couple of miles to Zuriain.

There was a nice old stone bridge across the river and we saw a bunch of pilgrims picnicking in the grass behind a cafe/albergue. Once we got in, we saw Rob and Michelle and they asked us to join them. We had a nice break with coffee and M&Ms–the world is good.

The walk after the Zuriain was a pleasant stroll through the woods adjacent to a river. We were meeting and talking to people so time and miles were flying by.

As with all hikes so far, our bodies tend to stop about 2 miles before we need them to. Today was no exception. As soon as we entered the tunnel under the interstate, the path turned to concrete. We had 3 miles of painful concrete walking ahead of us.

I got to wondering what George was doing. I thought he might already be in Pamplona because he had started to shake from cellular withdrawals when we left him yesterday. I knew he needed a sim fix bad.

After walking with people all day, the streets were eerily deserted. We hardly saw any pilgrims walking. We were still on the path but everyone must have opted for taxis instead. We contemplated a bar to get a few beers to deaden the pain in our feet. Instead we pushed on and were eventually rewarded with exactly what we needed to forget our pain–Pamplona old town.

As soon as we entered the Portal de Francia, Shaun’s luck started paying off. He ran into Richard who he had hiked with the first couple of days. Richard had found a cheap room in a Pencion which had extra rooms. He took us there and the owner met us at her door wearing a house coat. She was 4′ of pure spitfire and spoke absolutely zero English. That’s only fair since our Spanish is non-existent. She forcefully made everything very clear though. We got rooms for two nights so we could enjoy the city without worry of being kicked out of our beds at 8a.

Showers and clothes change were quick because the desire for beer was quite strong. We met Richard again and he took us to a bar he hadn’t tried yet. Richard has been in town since noon and has been walking the streets finding out where all the action is. He was a great tour guide. We think he might have been on the payroll of the City of Pamplona Tourism Council.

Richard took us to the cathederal where a service was happening.

We tried to make our way back to another bar, but there was a triathlon going on and we couldn’t get around the streets. We continued to explore until we headed back to the Plaza Consitorial where we ran into Rob and Michelle with ring side seats in a bar on the triathlon route. We were set for the night.

Actually, after 3 or 4 rounds and pixtos we decide to change locations to get some better people watching views. We made it to the plaza we were originally shooting for. We got a prime table and set up shop. We continued seeing people we knew including the couple from Pennsylvania that got their credentials just before us in St Jean–Pat and Steve.

George got a text through to us telling us he had made it into Zubiri today and was feeling much better. He was going to catch a taxi into Pamplona in the morning to catch up with us again. Since we were feeling no pain and feeling lucky, we decided to test Pam’s homing skills to see if she could get us back to the hotel. Anyone brave enough to think a slightly inebriated Pam has a better sense of direction? I’ll give you an address where to send any money you would have bet on her.

Today’s feature photo on loan from the personal collection of Shaun Perks.

At 6a, the lights came on and hospitaliers started walking through making sure that everyone was awake. Everyone has to be out by 8. The only thing missing was a drill sergeant banging on a trash can to wake everyone up.

Because we were so late getting in, they wouldn’t let us get a ticket for breakfast. We decided to just make a cup of coffee and eat a few snacks then get breakfast in Burguete which was only about 2 miles down the road. While we were eating first breakfast, Shaun walked by. We called to him and he sat with us for a bit. We decided to walk together a bit today.

The trail leaving Ronceveaux is nothing like the one entering it. There were over 150 people all heading out at once and it was a nice level trail. We made the 2 miles in about 40 minutes. We stopped for a late second breakfast (as if 8:30 is late for us) while Shaun just had a coffee. After our meal, we stopped in the grocery store to pick up a few items to have a picnic lunch later.

We covered the next 2.5 miles in about an hour and a half. None of us had slept well last night with 40 people in each dorm. There was plenty of snoring, coughing, and aches from the previous day to keep us awake. Our recovery was less than complete with George’s being almost non-existent. When we got into Espinal, George wanted to quit for the day. It was not even 11 yet. We decided to split up with George staying in Espinal and we would head to Zubiri with Shaun. We’d take a zero day in Pamplona to wait for George to catch up. That would give him a light day today after the killer day of yesterday, and only 22 miles to cover in the next 2 days for him. He can do the mileage, he just usually doesn’t want to push himself to do it. But he’s proven his ability by the 16+ miles yesterday on the roughest terrain of the whole pilgrimage–it will be more of a mental challenge for him from here on out. I was worried about leaving him, but he’s a big boy.

With Shaun leading the way and setting the pace, we knocked out the next 3.5 miles and made it into Viskarret by 1. There was only one moderate climb out of Espinal and then a somewhat steep descent into Viskarret. The trail wasn’t too bad. Most of it was forested so there weren’t a lot of great vistas, but it was very pleasant walking.

Shaun said there was a bar when you entered the town, so that was our goal. We got into the bar and Shaun saw some people he knew from the hike the last couple of days–Rob and Michele, also from Australia. There seem to be a lot of Aussies on the trail. They might even outnumber the Germans. There’s instant camaraderie with most people you meet on the trail. I would say I haven’t met anyone yet that I don’t feel comfortable around which is pretty amazing considering the sheer numbers of people starting every day.

Rob and Michelle finished up not too long after we got there so they let us have their table. We made our baguette sandwiches and ordered cokes from the bar. It didn’t take us long to catch up with Michele and Rob once we got back on the trail. There was one more moderate climb out of town which slowed Michele up a bit allowing us to catch them. Once we caught up, we kept leapfrogging each other the next 4 miles.

When we got to the high point of the day, we crossed a road and there was a vending truck sitting there (with a sweet, pleasant odor reminiscent of marijuana emanating from the attendant). We decided to stop for a beer as a reward for our good performance of the day and to keep us going the final 2.5 miles. While we were having our beers, Rob showed up and got one as well. Michele was just a few more minutes behind, but she arrived just as he popped the top.

The final stretch into Zubiri was all downhill. We were making pretty good time trying to beat the darkening clouds. The clouds won; we stopped to don our rain gear. Once we got our packs back on, we were pretty cautious because the trail went from being steep to being steep, wet, and slick. Rob stayed behind to wait for Michele to catch up.

Pam set the pace for the rest of the way. We got in by 4:30. The first 2 refuges were already full so we ended up at El Paleo de Avellano. Shaun, Pam, and I got into an 8 bed room and only 1 other person made it in before bed which meant we had 2 showers and a water closet between the 4 of us.

We dropped packs and headed for beer. There was a restaurant with outside seating only 1/2 block away so we headed there. We all had sore feet and ankles from the descent into town. When we got there, Shaun met some other people he knew: English Rob and Aussie Paul which meant that Megan was there as well. She showed up a few minutes later and I was right. Not only had she forgotten who I was, she had transferred my name to the 2 of diamonds (which is the card that gets left out of the deck when playing 3 handed games, and everyone she has met since us has been placed on Kings or Aces. Shaun, Pam, and George were still secure on the Queen of Spades.

Rob and Michele showed up after a bit. Michele had taken a slight tumble and hurt her pride. She was fine, but was just hiking slower than usual to be extra cautious.

Pam and I went back to the refuge to get caught up on some little things (blogging, journaling, etc). I headed down to the common area while she was gathering her stuff. I ran into Veronic and Alex who had started the same day we did. We talked for a bit. Pam came down after she had talked to our other roommate who was from Germany. It’s still neck and neck between the Germans and Aussies for the Camino attendance award.

Shaun made it in just before curfew. We were afraid we might have to ground him for staying out so late but he got in time to see the lights shut off.

There were 10 people in our room last night and Pam was the only woman. This was her excuse for being the last one out of bed–she wanted all the guys to leave before she got up. When she finally got out of bed around 7, only George and I were left in the room and Peter hadn’t left yet, but he was upstairs eating. I tried to tell her and George we needed to get upstairs to eat because we had to be out by 8. Neither one thought that the 8 o’clock rule was strictly enforced so they took their sweet time getting ready.

When we got upstairs, an old French woman was sweeping the hall and Peter was washing his dishes. She came in clearly exasperated with us and asked us what we wanted to drink–coffee or tea. We all said coffee. She motioned us to sit down. Then she brought us 3 finger bowls of brown water. Peter had already told us the French drink out of bowls rather than cups, so we recognized this as coffee. George tried to ask for black coffee and was unsuccessful in his attempt to get something different. After she gave us the coffee, she tossed a basket of bread with 7 heels in it and waved her hands over the basket and said “finis”. This was our first breakfast on the Camino.

We were on the road by 8:30. Peter stuck around until we were ready and walked with us down the main street until he had to turn off to catch the GR10 out to the coast (he’s walking the coastal route across northern Spain and will rejoin our route about 60K from Compestella). We all hugged goodbye.

This was an early start for us. The cobble roadway leads uphill from the river to an old gate which we stopped at for pictures for the start of our trail.

The goal for today was to make it to Orisson to give us an easy day to get reacclimated to hiking. As far as pilgrims go, we are carrying extremely heavy packs because almost everyone plans to spend every night in a refuge. I would guess the average pack weight to be around 10 pounds and we are weighing in close to 30.

The hike up to Orisson starts out relatively level but then quickly climbs to 1750m from our starting point of 175m. The pilgrims office told us to be sure to turn right onto the route de Napoleon and not take the bike route. We just followed the crowds out of town. We were quickly meeting people walking along the road with us. Lee and Sandy were from California in the Sacramento area. Georgie from Scotland who had spent time in Arizona. And a young German woman who was struggling a bit with bad blisters already and a pack that seemed too big for her–I don’t think she could cinch the waist belt up enough to get the weight off her shoulders.

After about 1.5 miles, we were still not climbing much so I was convinced that we had missed the turn. After a panicked conference in the road, Pam and I decided to turn back to get on the official route. George decided to go on. Lee and Sandy wavered, but Pam and I turned around. Less than 1/2 mile back, we ran into another group of hikers from England that convinced us that we were on the right track. We turned around to see Lee and Sandy walking our way. I motioned to them to turn back. I felt bad making them walk the extra distance.

Not too long after we turned back, the road started climbing steeply. By the time we caught back up with George, he had already gone another mile and climbed several hundred meters. He waited for us under a shady tree once he saw us behind him.

The rest of the way up wasn’t terrible, but definitely required effort. We made it to Orisson by 11:30. They were full. We had 2 choices: 1) catch a ride back down to St Jean to stay over night and get transported back up in the morning; or 2) push on. Pam wanted to push on, George said he’d try if we took a good break, and I definitely wanted to keep going.

We headed on about 12:30 after a baguette sandwich. We still had 600m to climb and another 11 miles to go. As we climbed, the views got better and the people got fewer. The afternoon climb was not as steep as the morning, but we were going slower because our adrenaline had run out. George really had his heart set on Orisson as the end of the day so he wasn’t prepared for this extra effort.

We made frequent stops to take off our shoes and cool off. Around 4 the cloud cover grew dense which was good, but the clouds were black, which was bad. We thought we might get lucky and have the storm pass us. For the most part it did settle in the adjacent valley, but we could still hear the thunder and it did rain on us.

By 5:30, we were finally heading down to Roncevaux, but what a hill! Apparently, switchbacks haven’t made it to northern Spain. This was tough going. The fear of falling was real for all of us. George was worried about his knees. Eventually, the the trail flattened out somewhat. We were the last ones to arrive in Roncevaux around 8:30.

When we approached the monastery, it appeared to be an abandoned building. The way around it is not well marked and we ended up entering the back door of the hostel. Once we got inside, we were amazed at the completely modern and newly finished interior. We got 3 beds on the top (3rd) floor. After dropping our packs and getting out of our boots, next order of business was food.

Some say I get cranky when I’m hungry. We tried going to a restaurant in the complex but it was only for hotel patrons and we were easily identified as pilgrims by our smell so we were asked to move on. The next restaurant was crowded and seemed to be overwhelmed by it. We couldn’t get served and we were getting concerned about being back in the dorms by 10p because they lock the doors. It was already 9.

We ended up eating out of the vending machines, but even that didn’t work out well because the one with dinners got jammed so only Pam could get a hot meal. We went to our beds and were just getting organized when the church bells started chiming 10. At the 10th bell, all the lights went out. They have a very strict lights/quiet hours policy from 10-6. I still took a shower to try and relax before I finally made it to bed by 10:30. George was still looking at stuff on his phone.

Megan and Shaun got up and left in time to catch the 7:45 train. They were kind enough to turn on the hot water heater on the way out so we could have hot showers when we got up.

I was right on my projection of when we would leave today. We made it to the train station by 9:30 to buy our tickets to St Jean Pied de Port. With a little help from a sales manager, we bought our tickets from an automated machine. When we got done, she showed us the button in the lower left corner which would turn all the displays to English.

We had over an hour until we had to start getting nervous about making the train so we decided to go get some breakfast. Not speaking French is going to be a bit more of a problem than I thought. Almost all of the French people we have run into speak a little English but are not confident in their ability so they defer–it is not rudeness. More of fear of making a mistake. We were able to successfully order 3 expressos and 3 chocolate filled pastries. While we were eating, a woman came and asked in French to sit at the table next to us. I thought she was French but she turned out to be another Aussie. Veronic is also from Melbourne.

We shared the train ride with Veronic but we didn’t do much talking because we were in awe of the scenery and I was still amazed that I was in France. It was an hour long train ride to St Jean.

As soon as we got in town a little after noon, we headed straight for the Pilgrims’ Office to get our credentials and to get advice on where to stay and store our extra gear. They were very efficient in getting us set up. They may have done this before–we hear that we are averaging 250 pilgrims starting every day right now (this is NOT the busy season).

We had time enough to grab a quick bite before we could check into the Auberge de Pelerin (a pilgrim’s hostel–10 Euros including breakfast). As soon as we checked in, we met another German hiker, Peter, who has been hiking all the way across France to get here.

After we tried unsuccessfully to exchange our money for Euros and dropped off our luggage, we went out for a few drinks with Peter. Peter is mostly camping along the way and occasionally staying inside when the weather is bad. He’s been on the trail for a little over 3 weeks so far. His parents hiked the Camino in 2008 & 2009 and told him he needs to get out and do it as well. He is contemplating a career change now so he’s found the time to be right.

Peter went to the grocery store to get some food for supper and we went to try to get some supper. We thought we’d keep it simple and order pizza. Fortunately, the restaurant had an English version of the menu so we were able to compare and learn a few words (which we promptly forgot after our 3rd beer).

Everything is in place for us to begin hiking tomorrow. Once we got back to the Municipal Hostel where we are staying, I headed up to the kitchen area to try to keep caught up with the blog (yay for me). Peter was up there and I was just too interested in seeing what he had been doing on the trail so far. We looked at pictures and talked for a couple of hours. We are going to try to keep in touch on the trail through FB. His plan is to hike the GR 10 back to the coast and then take the northern route across Spain where it is easier to camp. He’ll rejoin our trail about 60K from Santiago.

We have a breakfast included in the hostel that runs from 6-8a and then we have to be out by 9. If all goes well, we’ll be done hiking by noon. We are only planning on about 5-6 miles but it’s all uphill. It’s storming out as I’m writing this so I”m going to have a great night’s sleep–Pam won’t get a wink because of her fear of lightning. It will be an interesting day tomorrow.

We woke up at the YHA Hostel in London this morning to the sounds of Karen packing up her stuff. George and I went down and had a cup of coffee with her while Pam took a shower. Then we all went back to our room to say goodbye.

After Karen took off, we got down to the business of going through our crap and throwing stuff out. We managed to reduce the amount of stuff we’ve brought with us through the trash bin and sticking some in George’s extra bag to get it to fit in just one smaller bag to check and our carry on.

Now that we were organized, we headed for the train. We stopped for a late breakfast along the way (bagel sandwiches and tea) on the way to the tube. Because George and Pam were there yesterday, they approached it like old pros–they had forgotten they had ever been there, couldn’t remember the last time they had been on a train, and wet themselves.

Actually, we had no problems getting out to Stansted Airport but have no idea why it’s considered a London airport when it’s half way to Scotland. It took us much longer to get there than we had planned and had less than an hour to make our plane by the time we arrived. We got help from a Ryan Air representative that sped us through the check in process and didn’t charge us the 50 Pounds to print our boarding passes.

Once we landed in France, it was a breeze getting through passport control and retrieving our luggage. We were at the information counter trying to get a map so we could walk to the rail station knowing that we had already missed the last train today when a nice young lady came up and asked us if we would like to share a taxi with her and a friend. George was all for this after we found out that it was over 5 miles to the train station. The woman at information said we could catch a train for 1 Euro each which would be cheaper. The bus it was.

George picked up the fare for all five of us. On the bus, we all introduced ourselves. We talked with Shaun & Megan on the bus ride. Megan just graduated with her Bachelors and is taking a year off to travel before starting medical school. Shaun is already a bit of a world traveler and is doing the Camino because he’s taking it as a personal challenge for growth. As an added bonus, Megan speaks a bit of French since she spent some time here as an exchange student in high school.

When the bus dropped us off at the station, we just all kind of kept together trying to figure out where we were going to stay tonight. I guess we were all hoping for the magic of the Camino to show itself right from the start and it did. After checking out a few overpriced hotels, Megan found an apartment that would accommodate all of us for the night for a very reasonable 109 Euro ($115). We went up to check it out thinking that it was a bedroom and couch only to find it was a four bedroom apartment with a full kitchen. We dropped our bags and went back down to pay.

Now that we had shelter taken care of, food was next on the agenda. While we had been looking for a hotel, Pam had smelled food. There’s a few rules with my wife: 1) don’t wake her up before a full 8 hours of sleep (10 now that she’s not working); 2) don’t rush her in the mornings; and 3) trust her to find good food when she’s hungry. We went to where she thought she had smelled it to only discover it was a bar. The bartender directed us to the restaurant next door where we had our first meal in Europe. The food was fantastic. We had beers, talked, and got to know our first 2 amazing Aussies in France. I am thrilled to death to meet new people and have new experiences. I’m just disappointed that they will be leaving before us tomorrow and won’t remember me. There’s a good chance Pam and George made a good impression though.

We headed back to our place for the night and decided to have one more beer before turning in. It was just too perfect of weather to call it a night. We sat out and had more conversations on the street outside the bar where we are staying. Eventually, Pam got tired, so it’s time to let her start her 10 hours.

Megan took out a deck of cards that she is carrying on this trip. She is planning to put the names of people she meets on the cards in the deck. Since we’ve been playing “Hearts” a lot, she chose the Queen of Spades as our card–the one card you don’t want to get. We’re the first card in the deck.

Megan and Shaun are going to catch the 7:45 train in the morning. It was 10:30 before Pam hit the hay, so we are looking at more of a 10ish train. It was amazing that Shaun and Megan didn’t know each other before tonight nor we them, yet all of our needs coincided and we got to know 2 great young people (hell, at our age, 90% of the world’s population is young people).

We woke up in London this morning and are going to sleep in Bayonne, France. I’m excited.