Jimandi

Depart Time: 7:50 Temp: 53F RH:60%

Walked today: 7.9 mi. Camino 2024: 7.9 mi.

The two-day R&R at Roncesvalles allowed our travel-worn bodies to fully recover, as hoped. The comfortable rooms, good service and excellent food offerings are a gem in this unique location. We have stayed here in 2012,13,17,19,22,23 and now 2024… for a total of 12 nights.

Our internal clocks are still adapting to the time zone difference, but we’re sleeping well enough, already, so that our ability to cover today’s distance was not adversely affected. Also, this morning’s cool, dry air was a welcomed change from the hot, very humid weather we’ve endured in South Carolina throughout our “training” during June and July.

After walking an easy 1.5 miles, we stopped for breakfast in Burguete,

a picturesque Basque village, reminiscent of those typical of the alpine communities we’ve visited in Germany, France and Switzerland.

Leaving Burguete, we walked through paved and gravel roads through pastures, then forests then back onto a secondary paved road leading into Espinal, another alpine’ish village.

We stopped for a break and fresh squeezed orange juice at an albergue, newly opened since our last camino in July/August 2023.

The second half of today’s walk was somewhat more difficult due to relatively long climbs and descents and challenging walking surfaces.

We arrived at our destination, Bizkaretta, shortly after noon. Our room is a dated, but clean, casa rural (visited in 2022) but was not available until 2:00, so we reversed course a few hundred yards, to a newly opened bar and had pizza. The hours of operation of the limited number of eating facilities in the village made this our lunch/dinner for the day. Along with our pizza we enjoyed chatting and sharing information with a young lady from Houston, Texas, walking her first camino.

We checked in at 2:30, did our routine chores and blogged, rested and read until bedtime… a nice beginning for Camino 2024.

At 7:30 Sunday morning our friend Caren gave us a lift to a virtually empty Greenville/Spartanburg Airport (GSP). We checked our backpacks and cleared TSA in 2 minutes… (no one else in line!). We waited 90 minutes to board our flight to Charlotte (CLT), then savored our upgraded first class seating for the full 23 minute ride… it was free!

Today was the first time in many trips that we didn’t have to run to catch our connecting flight, so we happily passed the 5 hour plus layover looking for comfortable seating, people watching and searching for lunch snacks.

The flight from CLT to Madrid (MAD) passed unusually fast. It was not crowded, the weather was uneventful and we arrived nearly 40 minutes early, at 5:20 a.m., due to a 75 mph tailwind most of the way. We were served a nice, complimentary dinner and breakfast.

We cleared customs in about 15 minutes and our checked backpacks were waiting for us when we got to the baggage claim turnstile. We boarded the local train (Cercanías) in the airport T4 terminal, which took us to the Atocha terminal in central Madrid, via the Chamartin terminal, some 35 minutes later.

We had a second breakfast in the Atocha train station (cafe con leche, zumo de naranja, tostatos) while waiting for our train to Pamplona.

The 3 hour train ride to Pamplona was tiring from the rocking motion which seemed more severe than usual. This was added to the lack of sleep, crossing 6 time zones and virtually being in motion for the past 36 hour time frame.

As soon as we arrived at the Pamplona train station, Jim headed out to the taxi stand and recruited a taxi driver to take us the final 30 miles to Roncesvalles.

The 40 minute ride up into the Pyrenees Mts. over narrow roads, consisting of mostly steep curves and switchbacks finally did us in. We checked-in to the Casa des los Beneficiados Hotel, our most frequented lodging on the Camino Frances, then dragged ourselves to our apartment/room… our home for the next two days where we hope to recuperate before embarking on Camino 2024.

Once we decided to walk the Camino Frances again, we began our preparation process for the 9th time.

We started by building on our Camino 2023 experience, which was an abbreviated version of the 500 mile trek across Northern Spain. That result was a mere 316 miles, as we skipped various sections between SJPdP and Santiago for various reasons. We used taxis and buses to cover the skipped sections.

We had walked each of the skipped sections at least 3 times in our previous Camino’s. They were sections ranging from 6-15 miles in length and were selected to avoid industrial areas, low or no services (lodging, food, restroom) or extremely difficult walking paths. We also attempted to keep our daily walks to less than 10 miles.

So, for Camino 2024, Linda and I did a verbal walk of the full Camino based on memory (we know the Camino Frances, like the back of our hands, by now) and roughed out a plan. The result for 2024 is a Camino that begins in Roncesvalles and ends in Santiago 46 days later, walking a total of 300 miles.

We then decided to fly directly to Madrid, take the train to Pamplona and a taxi to Roncesvalles in one long day.

Next, in addition to walking the Camino, we decided to spend three nights in Roncesvalles to recover from jetlag and a missed night’s sleep on the flight to Madrid. Along the way we’ll spend two nights in Pamplona, two nights in Leon. After finishing our Camino we’ll stay two nights in Santiago before taking the train back to Madrid where we will spend four nights before flying back home.

We established when we’d like to be back home, plugged in the time to achieve the plan, and arrived at the departure date. This allowed us to begin making reservations for flights, trains and places to stay. This process which started in late January was finished in early June.

Because August and September are the busiest months for walking the Camino Frances and the accommodations are still recovering from the pandemic, we decided it would be prudent to make reservations for the entire 60 days to avoid unnecessary stress along the way.

In the meantime, based on our previous Caminos, we determined what to take and then what to buy or upgrade (footware, packs, poles, socks, etc).

For simplicity, we will limit our checked luggage for the two month adventure to our backpacks. We also have selected and tested flight carry-ons that will also work as a day pack for walking. Loaded backpacks are 14 lbs. for Linda and 18 lbs. for Jim.

Finally, during the past several months, we have reviewed the items we will take, making sure everything is needed and that it works/fits. And we have packed and re-packed, verifying that everything will fit comfortably into our packs (backpacks and daypacks).

So, we’re feeling ready for and excited about Camino 2024. We will leave for Spain in only 15 days.

So, we finished it for the 5th time. What now? That’s where we find ourselves…

With our France trip beginning early tomorrow morning, it’s too difficult for us to stop and process our feelings or to make any meaningful assessments or reflections in so short a time.

Camino2023 was in some ways very similar to previous ones but also different. The pace of our upcoming “visit to the vineyards” will allow time to process Camino2023 and to think about what’s next for us and how to gleen the most from this most recent experience along the Camino Frances.

…. So, we savored the wines, French cuisine and relaxing environment of Provence for 30 days. On our trip back to Paris we stopped for a night in Chamonix, France and took in the awesomeness of the French Alps. The next night/day we stayed on a farm east of Leon, France with the Saône river in our backyard. Our drive into Paris the next day was uneventful and after spending a restful night in a modern hotel near Charles DeGaulle airport, we returned home after 91 days.

Our reflections on Camino 2023 continued even after returning to a more normal routine at home in the U.S.

Conclusion and what next?

In 2002, we discovered the Camino Frances via a book-on-tape, The Camino- A Journey of the Spirit, written and narrated by Shirley MacLaine.

We have walked on the Camino Frances 8 times since 2012. We have walked from St Jean Pied de Port, France to Santiago, Spain, earning 5 Compostela’s. One would think that it might be time to move on.

For sure, the newness of the Camino experience has diminished. The preparation and planning are more routine. Some of the original mystery, enchantment and excitement is no longer there…. but, the Camino Frances keeps calling us back…. incentivizing us to maintain our health and physical conditioning in anticipation of “another Camino”…. and rewarding us with revitalized physical, mental and spiritual health, each time we complete it.

So, in spite of , or perhaps because of our advanced ages (78 & 79), we’re excited about embarking on Camino 2024 in August.

Walked today: 7.8 mi. Camino2023: 316 mi

As expected with the small number of pilgrims seen on our walk this morning, we we received a number for our position in line, entered the office area and within 4 minutes were presenting our credentials and after a quick review by an official representing the Bishop of Santiago, we were issued our Compostela for completing the Camino de Santiago – Camino Frances.

For friends and family who have followed us on this latest adventure, we want to thank you for your support and comments and also want to assure you that we are safe and quite well and once again we did not fall off the edge of the earth! More to follow tomorrow.

Walked today: 4.3 mi. Camino2023: 308 mi.

Last night we reviewed five different weather apps, including Accuweather, WeatherBug, WeatherRadar and WeatherChannel and all confirmed there would be 10% or less chance of rain this morning. (7:00-11:00).

This morning when we got ready to leave CHE, we again reviewed all 4 apps, including their respective radar and again confirmed no chance of rain this morning. So, we included rain gear in our day packs (wise pilgrims that we are) and began our walk.

Within 10 minutes, a very fine rain began, causing us to put on our rain gear immediately to keep from getting soaked and that condition prevailed until we finished walking at 10:30.

Completely baffled by the totally un-forecasted precipitation of the morning, we concluded that what we experienced was not normal rain droplets from the sky from a cloud, that is picked up by radar. We were actually walking in a cloud virtually resting on or just above the ground consisting of a fine mist, not raindrops, all around us … for the duration of most of the walk.

We walked into the hamlet of San Payo (pop.25) where we stopped for breakfast. There were a hundred or so pilgrims in line to order, get their credential stamped, use the toilet. The rest filled the inside tables, except for the one Linda grabbed for us. The outside tables were unused because of the continuing non-rain.

Being the patient pilgrims we are, we waited for the lines to dissipate, then ordered, got our credentials stamped, inspected the restrooms and actually ate our breakfast before the next surge arrived.

We stopped and chatted briefly with the owner. She welcomed us and said we could check in and leave our poles/ backpacks, etc. but our room was still being cleaned and would not be ready until 1:00.

We left our poles (our transported packs had already arrived) and walked another few hundred yards to the village square and hung out at Bar/Cafe A Concha.

Lavacolla ( Latin: “Lavamentula”) literally means “wash private parts.” Medieval pilgrims seldom if ever bathed along the journey and ridiculed Muslim and Jewish enthusiasms for personal hygiene, so apparently took advantage of the small stream that runs through the village to cleanse themselves for arrival in Santiago.

We complimented today’s short walk with an equally easy afternoon in Lavacolla and had our host order a pizza for us, delivered to the pensión’s self-catering dining area.

We’re looking forward to our walk into Santiago tomorrow morning and the conclusion of our 5th Camino, Camino2023.