Category: Camino 2022

Walked: Today: 7.0 mi/Camino 2022: 21.6 mi

We had planned to have our taxi return this morning to the Virgin de Baikorri, where we finished yesterday. But on our trip up the Pyrenees by taxi, we decided to cut ourselves some slack for today’s walk. Our driver, instead, drove 2.2 miles past the Virgin to the Croix de Thibault, located at the point where the Camino leaves the pavement and heads upward toward Spain. So the Croix (Cross) is where we began today’s walk.

Immediately, the path became very steep and more like a wash of deep rock laden gullies. This continued for nearly 30 minutes until we finally reached a wider path/ narrow farm road that took us to the Fountain of Roland at the Spain/France border… which was a cattle guard/gate (unattended).

Several miles later we passed the emergency shelter that we and a dozen other pilgrims used in 2012 to get a half hour of relief from gale force winds with horizontal driving rain. dense fog and 50F shivering temperatures. We always stop here for a few minutes, to take a break before the final steep climb to appreciate the beautiful clear, blue sky, refreshing breeze and be thankful for this special, strategically placed refuge.

For the next half hour we climbed a final steep, pebble covered road, passing a beautiful Basque horse (we bet our grand- niece, Abbie, would like to ride) and continued until we reached the summit of the Col de Lepoeder, to begin the trecherous descent into Roncesvalles.

The most difficult 1/2 mile of the Camino, thus far, was the struggle to maintain footing and avoid a major leg injury on the initial descent down the mountain from Lepoder toward Roncevalles. We used our trekking poles to hold us back and maintain balance over the root and rock covered wash-of-a “path”. But even with this extra precaution, each step risked becoming a potential Camino ending disaster. When we finally reached a more manageable walking surface our legs had become like jelly, near collapse.. and we struggled the final few miles into Roncesvalles. Our photos, don’t adequately portray what we experienced. Our photos are also limited because we were too involved trying to survive, to let go our our poles to free our hands to hold a phone to take a photo!!

Our backpacks were waiting for us at our hotel. We began to recover as we sat down while checking in and then made the way to the our room. Our room was roomy, upscale and comfy. The recovery process continued as we lay down and within a half-hour we were seated at our table and eating a ham & cheese baguette we brought with us from SJPDP.

Hot showers followed by a short nap and some blog writing got us to 6:00 p.m. when we sat down for a delicious dinner. Soon after, we retired for the day… still alive… a bit sore… and hopefully getting stronger.

Walked: Today: 7.6 mi/Camino 2022: 14.6 mi

Yesterday, we walked to the Pamplona bus station with our packs and boarded the noon bus to SJPDP. The 90 minute, 40 mile ride on multiple switchbacks up over the Pyrenees Mts then back down into SJPDP left us resolved to never come this way again even if it requires a circuitous detour in order to reach SJPDP by train instead.

Upon arriving at our hotel for the next two nights, we found a note on the locked door informing us that the owner would not return until 3p.m.!!! An annual fete was underway in SJPDP with hoards of celebrants filling restaurant seats everywhere we entered and to make matters worse, no food could be had until 7:00 p.m. … refreshing our memories of this frustrating European tradition.

We finally found a small “dive” nearby and ordered drinks and some frites (french fries) and to use as a base while waiting for our room to become available. We passed the time searching for a restroom and passing by the pilgrim office to get our Camino credentials stamped.

Our room was basic but adequate and overpriced at 76€ per night. We crashed in the room, then ventured out at 6 pm and found a creperie and had galettes for dinner… the only food offering in town. Back in our room, we organized our stuff for our walk this morning.

We began our trek at 6:30 a.m. to take on the most difficult section of terrain on the Camino Frances.

For the next 4 hours, at our “paced” rate of 35-40 minutes per mile, we covered 5.0 miles on foot while gaining over 2000 feet in elevation. We arrived at the Orrison Refuge at 10:30 and collapsed into chairs on an outdoor deck, overlooking the Pyrenees Mts.

At noon after a light lunch and time to recoup a bit, we set out again for another 2.6 miles at an additional gain in elevation of 700 ft. We arrived at the Virgin of Baikorri, 45 minutes earlier than expected and dodged occasional raindrops, enjoyed the cool breeze and the rest, until our punctual taxi driver arrived for our pre-arranged ride back to SJPDP.

Shortly after we photographed the Virgin up close, two frenchmen arrived in a van and went to work on removing the paraphernalia left behind by pilgrims. As they were leaving, I suggested she looked much better. One of the men smiled and said she had been desecrated and showed me a bag of the trinkets and other items they had removed. I asked him where he was taking it. His response was “ poubelle”, which is french for “trash can”.

The most accurate medical description of our condition after our walk was “ pooped”. But since it didn’t kill us, we believe it must have made us stronger. We are also feeling very good about what we accomplished today, having wondered if we would be able to do it.

Walked Today: 7.04 mi Cummulative: 7.04 mi

This morning we unofficially began Camino 2022, walking from our Hotel in Pamplona to Zariquiegui. Though still in transition mode, today we logged some miles over a variety of terrain, at near our targeted 7.5 miles/day pace with less than full backpacks.

We’ll be heading to SJPDP, France tomorrow, via bus to begin the actual first stage of the Camino Frances the following day. When we pass thru Pamplona, several days later, we’ll get a taxi from Pamplona to Zariquiegui, and begin walking where we finished today.

Today’s 7.0+ mile walk was nearly twice the longest distance we’ve walked during our training, which began in early July. The elevation gain over the 7 miles was over 800 feet… over 8 times the typical elevation gain during our training. Our pace was about 6 minutes/ mile slower than our average training pace.

Since we were not overly tired when we finished the walk today, we are feeling pretty good about our strength and stamina at this point. And our fitness level should improve, gradually, as we continue our paced approach over the difficult terrain we’ll face in the next 4-5 days, crossing the Pyranees Mts from France into Spain.

We rewarded ourselves with a delicious lunch at Cafe Iruna, located on the Plaza del Castillo, just a few blocks from our Hotel and located in the center of the medieval fortress of Pamplona and along the Camino de Santiago.

After a 30 minute weather delay, our flight left CLT on August 11 for an incredibly smooth and eventless journey across the Atlantic.

We landed in Madrid on August 12 at 7:03 a.m., essentially on time. In spite of the smooth flight, nice inflight dinner and breakfast, we slept lightly and fretfully(typically), for at best, a total of 2 hrs during the 7 1/2 hour flight.

Clearing customs and retrieving our backpacks took an unusually fast 30 minutes. A free 20 minute train ride from Madrid (MAD) T4 terminal to Atocha train station in central Madrid went smoothly, allowing us a couple of hours to get a second breakfast of cafe con leche and tostadas. Our train departed at 11:35 and delivered us to Pamplona on time at 2:55 p.m. A short 15 minute wait in the shade for a taxi, seemed longer in the 99F heat. Five minutes later, we were delivered to Hotel Maisonnave, our base for the next three days.

The three days in Pamplona are to give us some transition time to recover a bit from losing a night’s sleep, to adjust to crossing 6 time zones and to make a few final preparations on our way to St Jean Pied de Port, France.

Blogger’s note: As we walked out of the Pamplona terminal wearing our backpacks, a gentleman greeted us with “are you the people who are walking the Camino for 68 days”. He (Paul? from Miami) had discovered our blog and was beginning his first Camino. Ironically, his wife has speculated that maybe he’d see us. Perhaps we’ll see him again. A nice way to begin our Camino.

For first time followers and anyone who has not explored our blog site, here is a brief tour:

As a follower, you are currently reading an e-mail containing our most recent post.

To see previous posts, find the Jimandi link, in blue, at the top of each post. Clicking on this link will take you to the Home Page of our blog, where you will find our latest post.

Previous entries can be found as you scroll down the Home Page.

At the top left corner of our Home Page, are 3 small horizontal lines. This is the link to our blog Menu. It contains additional information about us, our previous Caminos and the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in general.

The Menu items are links to various other Pages on the blog site that you may find interesting.

• Clicking on “Home”, returns you to the Main page with most recent posts.
• Clicking on “Camino 2022 … here we come“ gives a list of links to each of our Camino 2022 posts in chronological order.
• Clicking on “Trip Journals” is a chronological list of posts for each of our Caminos.

Please keep in mind, that every page on the site has the Menu link in the upper left corner, allowing easy navigation within the blog site… especially if you get lost!

Since mid-July, we’ve been preparing for the Camino.

We’ve been establishing a routine of going to bed at 9:00 p.m. every night to assure a good night’s sleep before getting up at 6:00 a.m. By 6:30 a.m. dressed and wearing our walking shoes/boots/sandals, we begin walking outside, in and around our neighborhood. We typically have walked 2-3 miles before returning home for breakfast. After breakfast, because of the extreme heat and humidity, we’ve driven to our local YMCA and walked another 2-2.5 miles around an indoor track. This has been to establish a routine, similar to what we will use daily for our walk across Spain.

In parallel, to our physical preparation, we have been identifying and gathering those items we will need to carry in our backpacks to support our 2-month, 500 mile walk. During the past week, we have been paring down to only essential items to minimize the weight we have to carry on our backs.

Preparations for Camino 2022 are essentially complete. The final tests have occurred in recent days as we loaded and weighed our backpacks (Linda’s at 21lbs and Jim’s at 23lbs) and walked with them to re-acquaint ourselves with the optimum settings and adjustments (after 3 years of non-use) to assure maximum comfort during our walks.

Yesterday, we received, via email, our approved Spain Health Control document. This, along with our passport and Covid Vaccination/Booster ID card will enable us to clear customs at the Madrid airport.

Tomorrow morning, we”ll drive to Charlotte where we will leave our car with our daughter, Amy, and then check-in at CLT for our flight to Madrid.