Day 2, 3 & 4 - April 29, 30 and May 1 - Roncesvalles to Zubiri to Pamplona

I have not had decent internet service until today. We left Zubiri about 7 am and arrived in Pamplona today about 1 pm and made our way to a hotel with very good high speed internet. It is 8:30 pm and Stoney is sleeping. He is coming down with a cold. Please pray for him. He also fell today into a ditch as he waited and turned around to see if I was making it up the incline. We were walking with two doctors from a French Basque town. I have pics of them but they are on my camera and I have not had time to move them to my Ipad. Nick walked with the husband and I walked with his wife. Sure made the miles pass faster. Stoney had a cut on his finger and ear and she pulled out two bandaids and antiseptic wipe. He hit his head but we are grateful nothing was broken. When I topped the hill and saw him in the ditch. That was a shock. He wasn't moving. My first thought was this could be the end of our Camino. It was hard for him to move to get us with his pack. He got some mud on his pack and seat of his pants and was very embarrassed by all the attention. Several guys pulled him up out of the ditch and we walked on.  (No pics taken) but I'll never forget it. So glad he was not seriously injured except for his pride.  But, hey, don't we all need a little more humility.

Day 2 - Orrison to Roncesvalles. Incredible!!!!  Long climb but so worth it. It began looking like this.

 And then it started to clear... WOW !

 It was a road walk for a good part of the day - UP.

 Not hard to smile walking this road UP all day when we had such incredible views.

 Getting closer to the top.

Walked some with 27 yr.  young nurse from Australia, Amy. 

Also walked with Louis from South Africa and Gunwar (below) from Denmark but living in Australia. 

 Boot sucking mud coming down. 

One of the few pictures I have of Stoney with me in front of him looking back.  He won't admit it, but he intentionally slowed so he could watch me, see where I sunk into the mud and avoid those places hoping to keep his shoes clean ...hahaha. He does not like dirty shoes but they were baptized in mud today. The leaves on the side provided some help from the mud.

 The sun came out.

 We are heading down - a very long down!

 And down ... notice how the trees are growing

 In the center of the V in the trees below is our first view of Roncesvalles - our destination for today but it will be awhile before we get there.

I was so tired when we arrived.  I thought I took pics of our cubicle for four. Maybe I just dreamed it. My third stamp and my shoes in the entry of the albergue. We had to put on our clean sandals and check our shoes in a special room for dirty shoes before we could go upstairs to our bed.

First pilgrim Mass and Blessing was here.

 St. James side altar.

 

Day 3 - Roncesvalles to Zubiri

I awoke about 5 am having slept soundly. We were in 4 person cubicles (180 of us). Lights went out at 10 pm and the silence was incredible. At 6 am music started to play. Then guitar players walked by singing and playing Wake Up Little Suzy. That got young Harry's attention and he got up. He had told us it was difficult for him to get up in the morning. 

We left the very clean and new municipal albergue about 7 am after a good and restful night. It had filled to capacity(180) and they opened the old one for about 40 pilgrims. There are lots of pilgrims on the Camino. Rained a lot again today. 

We walked until 10 am and stopped at a bar. I was MORE than ready to sit down. The place was tiny - about 10 ft. wide by 16 ft long with seating for about 22. Backpacks were everywhere and we found a spot for ours. I must have looked dreadful. A man got up to give me his chair but we chose a long table with bench seating. I spoke briefly with a woman from Australia who grew up in Scotland. She was about finished eating and when she left a woman from England (72 yrs ) sat down. She walked the entire Camino when she turned 60 and wanted to do it again. We had an omelet with cheese served on delicious French bread. Each one was about 10 inches long so we ate half and carried them with us for later. I had a coke and Nick had coffee. Wish I would have taken a picture of it.  Because of the weather I did not take many pics today.

This seemed odd - a paved trail. It was slippery but it sure beat the mud and rocks.

The final descent to Zubiri was dangerous. It was very steep. The picture below was taken before the very really vicious decline began.

Thick and slippery mud covered rocks on a descent which would have been difficult on a dry day made this very frightening. At times I felt like I was skiing on muddy rocks. My soles were so thick with mud so as to make the tread nil. My trekking poles helped a little but they slipped too. We were lucky not to fall. At one point I literally froze (thinking about my falls on the AT) and all I could do was keep repeating  "I am going to fall, I am going to fall." Stoney turned around and saw me stuck there afraid to move but sliding nevertheless and pointed to the side and said go for the grass on the slope. I made it down. Many people arrived with mud on the seat of their pants and backpacks from falling. 

Welcome to Zubiri

 My pedometer recorded 16 miles; the guidebook said it was 13. Either way I was done! We arrived about 1 pm and opted for a private room with shared bath at Usoa (3 private rooms).

Price was 16 Euros per person compared to 8-10 E at an albergue where we would be in a bunk bed in a room with 8, 10 or more. Stoney isn't too enamored with that environment. Here we have full use of the kitchen and living room area. It is very clean and quiet. The young girl who is running the place while her parents are on vacation offered to let us do laundry but it had just been done last night. Nick cleaned all the mud from our shoes and I cleaned it off our pants' legs. We hope our shoes dry by morning. We have them stuffed with newspaper but there wasn't any sun to set them in. 

Stoney went to the little supermercado and bought Aquarius (like Gatorade). We had chorizo and cheese from SJPD and we finished it for dinner along with a potato and ham thing they call a tortilla (it's like a heavy quiche). 

I had a bath today. What a treat. 

Population of Zubiri is 400. The church is in the center which we are very near and the bells toll the hours and rings once on the half hour. We wonder if they ring thru the night. It is hiker midnight and we are in bed. Nick is already asleep. He may be coming down with a cold. I hope not. 

Day 4 - Zubiri to Pamplona

Again a 7 am start after a great night of sleep. Stopped at bakery for treat to have on the trail. We had made Starbucks Via coffee before leaving room. 

Terrain was gentle compared to previous days. It rained some and drizzled off and on. There were stretches of slippery muddy rocks on descents but less dangerous overall. 

Again stopped after walking nonstop for 3 hours; that's the max I can do and then it is imperative for me to sit down. We split a cheese and ham bocadillo and Coke; Stoney had Cafe Americano (expresso with hot water added so it's more like our black coffee). Sat across from Louis and Gunwar

who had walked further to Loassana yesterday and they had stopped here for an early break. They said we must be having a good walking day to have made it there by 10 am. All I knew was that sitting down was heavenly. Breaks are very short, 20 min., but if we sat for longer, we might not be able to get back up. 

After the break we walked with a young couple

from the Basque region of France not far from St. Jean Pied de Port. Arno (misspelled) and Amaya are doctors. He surprised her for her 40th birthday with the gift of walking 4 days on the Camino and staying in VERY nice places (breakfast in bed type places). It was wonderful to talk with them and enjoy a slower pace.

We arrived in Pamplona about 1 pm.

It's a good sized city but we found our way.

 I had hot chocolate that was almost as thick as pudding and churros. Very rich.

  

This is Veronica who served us

I would like to write more and post more pics but it is 9 :30 pm and I should be sleeping. 

Day 1 - St. Jean Pied de Port to Orrison - April 28

Come now, you who say,
“Today or tomorrow we shall go into such and such a town,
spend a year there doing business, and make a profit”–
you have no idea what your life will be like tomorrow.
You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears.
Instead you should say,
“If the Lord wills it, we shall live to do this or that.” James 4:13-17

 If the Lord wills it is often in piety referred to as the “conditio Jacobaea,” the condition James says we should employ to qualify all our plans.

James,  the patron saint of all pilgrims, tells us that we should always use the expression ‘if the Lord wills it’ when we talk about our plans. Otherwise we are nothing but arrogant fools. So as we begin our time on the Camino de Santiago hoping to walk the entire way, we say “Si Dios quiere.”

Prayer for Help from the Angels (Based on Daniel 10)

"In the name of Jesus, we plead the Blood of Jesus upon ourselves, our loved ones and those for whom we are praying. In the name of Jesus, we ask You, Lord, to dispatch Your holy angels to fight with us and for us against the enemy. Just as you sent help to the prophet Daniel, send us angelic warriors to occupy the enemy and enable the answers to our prayers to come through.

We pray especially against any obstacles placed by the enemy to keep our prayers from being answered. Let Your holy angels wield their swords to penetrate the darkness and break through any bondage or obstacles to our prayer.

We pray confidently that having sent Your holy angels to the aid of Daniel, You will send them to help us as we call upon them now. We make this prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen." 
(Prayer composed by Al Mansfield)


It was a misty morning as we began. Young women from Venezuela asked me to take a pic of them on the bridge leaving St. Jean Pied de Port and they reciprocated for us. Sweet. I did not think we would get this photo together. 

The rain began in earnest and I did not take many photos of the first day. We stopped to get out our umbrellas. We started out with our pack covers.

You can see fellow Pilgrims in front of us in the picture above. The first of many sheep we would see along the way.

 Most of the day looked liked this ...

Stoney's umbrella will attach to his pack strap and waist belt so it can be used hands-free but since he's an "in control" type person, he prefers to carry it.

We met a nice group of guys from Ireland who were moving fast. We knew we would never see them again. It was really raining at this point and we stopped for about about 10 minutes to chat under the tree.

Boy, this was a welcome sight! Arrival at Orrison Albergue - our first 5 miles on the Camino completed. Sure happy we could reserve a room here to rest before the butt buster tomorrow. 

It was very crowded and chaotic here with people coming in out of the rain to eat and rest. We found a seat in the corner at the end of the room. This is an American woman who has lived in Costa Rica for 30 years. Her maiden name is Money and she is walking the Camino with two sisters; they call themselves 'The Money Girls.' A young man from Korea joined our table to have a bowl of soup before moving on. Most people walked to Roncesvalles on this first day because overnight space is very limited. I was so grateful we could spend the night here.

We were offered a private room with no heat and we took it. It worked out fine. With the extra blankets and our sleeping bags, we stayed warm.  Getting out from underneath the covers the next morning was another story. 

We were introduced to timed showers here.  We were given a coin to insert and I think we had 3-5 minutes of water.  However, after just a minute, the water stopped. I was a bit irritated; I knew I had not used 3-5 min. worth of water at that point.  I punched the water handle and it restarted. I guess it was timed to shut off after each minute or so and I eventually finished my shower. 

We slept well and we were ready for the climb to proceed up the Pyrenees. This was our fist view on the morning of Day 2. We could see something and it was not shrouded in fog or low clouds. 

Arrival in St. Jean Pied de Port - April 27, Sunday

At the Pau train station I struck up a conversation with this group and they were headed to the Camino too.  We had a 90 minute van ride together and I'll let the video take it from here:

It was a delightful ride with this group. Since they were starting at Roncesvalles 15 miles further up the Camino, we didn't expect to see them again. We said good bye and "Buen Camino!" -- the first of many that would come out of our mouths on this journey.

 

"Arrival -- This is a great moment, when you see, however distant, the goal of your wandering. The thing which has been living in your imagination suddenly becomes a part of the tangible world." ~ Freya Stark

Five days, two airplanes (one to Brussels/one to Biarritz), one rental car (Brussels to Chievres to Charleois), one taxi to Bayonne train station,  two trains (first to Lourdes and then to Pau) and one van (to St. Jean Pied de Port).  We are now officially on foot (a pied). 

Looking back at the arch we walked under as we entered St. Jean Pied de Port

 We came with Pilgrim Passports from American Pilgrims on the Camino but decided to wait in line at the Pilgrim Office (it was closed for lunch) and obtain the Carnet De Pelerin De Saint-Jacques "Credencial del Peregrino".  The reason, it is larger and there are more spaces for the stamps we would obtain along The Way. Since we will walk slower and spend more time on the Camino we thought we might need more spaces for the stamps.

Caroline issues our passports and gives us some good information.

We chose a shell from the basket which we will tie onto our backpacks to denote that we are Pilgrims. I chose a chipped shell - it seemed to call my name when I looked into the basket. I picked it up and then put it down and looked at many others but went back to it.  I'm a little rough around the edges too !

We have met pilgrims from many places already - Holland, Belgium, Brazil, Ireland, South Africa, Canada, Spain (on bicycles they will do 500 miles in 12 days), Australia, France. All are eager to begin the Camino. We are feeling pampered with a private room and bath at Gite Azkorria just a few houses up the street from the Pilgrim Office. 

This afternoon we walked around the town. It's a beautiful place. 

We climbed too many steps on the old wall to count

Still headed up

I stopped for a photo break and to catch my breath

Stoney has completed the steps and now just a short hill awaits ...

The climb warmed him up and he removed his jacket.  Good practice for the Pyrenees.

Bought Basque cheese and chorizo for our first lunch tomorrow on the Camino. On the way out in the morning, we will pick up a fresh baguette from the bakery. 

We will probably begin around 9 am after breakfast. We have a reservation at Albergue Orrison. Just being a 5 mile day, it will be difficult for Stoney. He would rather finish the first day in Roncesvalles - a 15 mile first day. Maybe he will see the wisdom in a shorter first day after arrival.

"Lord, grant that I may always allow myself to be guided by you,
always follow your plans, and accomplish your holy will.
Grant that in all things, great and small, today and all the days of my life,
I may do whatever you may require of me.
Help me to respond to the slightest prompting of your grace,
so that I may be a trustworthy instrument of your honor.
May your will be done in time and eternity--
by me, in me and through me.  Amen." ~ Saint Teresa of Avila