Welcome to the Camino de Santiago de Compostela!

Words mainly by Elaine, photos mainly by John, but not necessarily, so right from the start we have you wondering!!

Long haul flights don’t get any easier or more enjoyable. It seems to be impossible to get comfortable in the cramped seating and, no matter how hard you try to sleep, you always seem to arrive feeling quite drained. And not quite ready for the hassle of catching shuttle buses to hotels and stuff.  We only had an overnight stay in Paris with an early morning train to Bayonne.
One false alarm just after midnight when someone looked at their watch upside down and declared the time to be seven o’clock and that we had missed our train!  Normality was soon restored, however, and back to a rather fitful sleep. Made it to the train only to find it was running a VLine timetable and was one hour late, Fortunately we had booked 1st class and so did the slow trip (on a Very Fast Train!) in some degree of comfort.  BUT...of course missed our connection at Bordeaux and so joined the plebs for the hour or so journey to Bayonne. 



Bayonne & Cathedral

Lovely old hotel nestled in the old quarter of the city - and about 3 minutes walk from the station - which allowed us heaps of time to explore during the two days we were there.  Walks along the river which is tidal even though Bayonne is 10 kms from the coast, exploration of the many nooks and crannies of village life in rural France, and a visit to the Cathedral, which of course, is undergoing severe restoration!  However, the delicious meal of fresh fish eaten in a quaint little restaurant along the riverbank more than made up for any short fall in sightseeing. 
Next day and we were off to St Jean Pied de Port in a little rail motor with most of our fellow passengers also fellow pilgrims... some with bicycles but mostly planning to walk.


St Jean Pied de Port


We collected our "Credentiale de Peregrinos" from the Officino de Camino and had to fill in a form about our intentions and reasons for undertaking the pilgrimage...whatever we ticked was obviously acceptable!Some confusion with directions to our homestay - our French, their English??? - led us a merry dance until finally we were welcomed by our host, Jean Francois – a genial Frenchman with a wicked smile, twinkling eyes and, believe it or not, a great sense of humour. The meson is a tastefully renovated building providing very comfortable accommodation. When we explained our desire to depart at around first light – about seven am – he explained that most of his guests were "tourists who didn’t want breakfast until nine o’clock" so we were treated to a guided tour of the kitchen - including the ‘fridge – and the light switches and invited to help ourselves to the goodies he would leave on the kitchen table. We took his advice to eat at a restaurant which catered largely for locals, specialised in specialites locale, and was reasonably priced. We ordered the 'menu pelegrino' (pilgrm's menu) which turned out to be a huge pot of vegetable soup, chicken or lamb (gigot) with either frites or pasta and for dessert basque cake – and only12 euros!  A bonus find for the restaurant owner when cleaning up for the night - a pre-owned Aussie-style hat to wear!!!

Morning dawned overcast but not cold, so we set out, uphill, of course, and only one wearing a hat, to tackle the Napoleon Route, to Roncesvalles in Spain, over the Pyrenees. The first 20kms or so is pretty much all up hill as we climb a total of 1200 metres then lose 500 metres on the descent into Roncesvalles – the toughest day for the entire journey. The plan is to take it nice and slowly all the way with regular rest stops for water and food.  We have our wee stove, the mighty MSR 'Pocket Rocket' to boil the billy, so our 'elevenses' are very civilised with ham and cheese baguette and a dried apricot!  What we hadn’t planned on was the drizzle that began shortly after we began and continued throughout the day eventually forcing us into our blizzard jackets. Although we were probably as wet from condensation the jackets provided protection from the cool breeze.

Most of the route is on a minor paved road through relatively protected farmland and light forest to exposed high moors which could be very ugly in bad weather.  There is only one refreshment stop on the route - at a lonely little restaurant/auberge at Orisson about a third of the way across. However an enterprising Frenchman had taken his campervan, put up the annexe, and was offering refreshments to weary walkers just short of the Spanish border - not that we actually know where that was...no signs to announce the fact and certainly no border security!!We walked variously with Koreans, Italians, Poles, Swedes, French, Spanish, Swiss, Japanese, English, Americans and Canadians today. Some we met in a little refuge hut at about 1200m where we were having our second cuppa for the day. The hut has a communication radio to alert rescue crews if required.  Locked cupboards contain equipment that might be needed.  Most people are finding the going tough, some due to lack of preparation (not enough food and drink), others haven't done much walking at all, others carrying too much and others just not understanding that 27kms in the hills is a bl---dy long way!!  



Approaching Orisson



At 1402m a choice has to be made - take the road or take the short cut.  We had planned to take the road because the information given to us at St Jean Pied de Port was that the short cut was a bit dangerous after rain - very steep and slippery.  Unfortunately we broke our own rule of listening to other people...in this case a young Spaniard who allegedly knew the route...and ended up on the downward short cut.  Fortunately it was not that steep and hardly slippery at all - although one of us did trip over a tree root!! (She now has a healthy bruise...not telling where!)



Good news is that we made it to Roncesvalles in good spirit, quite wet, ready for a hot shower, a good meal and a comfortable bed....all of which were forthcoming in the fullness of time.