Jeremy & Lesley's Camino 2009 & 2011

2011 - Day 17 - Sea and smoke - Part 2 Smoke

2011-10-17T23:19:00.009+01:00

After a little bit of re-packing we headed off into town, our first stop the Cathedral to see if the botafumeiro was in place or not, it was! And there was a Mass about to start. We decided to stay even though the Mass was going to be in Galician rather that Castilian Spanish, and we had no hope of understanding any of it, but the draw of the Botafumeiro is so strong. Having been to and even taken a number of high Masses myself in the past, I began to doubt. At a high mass you would cense the Altar, People and Gospel quite early in the service and none of this happened. The Botafumeiro just hung there looking large and silver, without a single wisp of smoke coming from it. After the preacher had been going on for about 10 or 12 minutes, I said to Lesley “its not going to happen, lets go and get something to eat” as we couldn’t really engage with the service, and so we left the Cathedral.

As we were walking along one of the little back streets, we bumped into the Austrian man from Norway and got talking about our trip to A Corunna, and the Botafumeiro, and how we had left as I got bored with the sermon going on to long, he joked that it was a lesson for me with my sermons and then told us that he thought it was swung at the end of the service and not in the way a usual thurible is used, he added if you go back now you might just see it. (Lesley is convinced he was sent to us and I must admit I think she is right).

We headed back to the Cathedral as the Mass was beginning to draw to an end. I spied a group of men dressed in dark crimson robes, I pointed them out to Lesley and said “let’s follow them” so we did, but they did not seem in any particular hurry so a big part of us still didn’t believe that it would be swung.

The end of the service came and just before the blessing, the priest announced the Botafumeiro, I think he also said that a large group of American Pilgrims from California had paid for it to be swung, certainly it was their priest who added the incense.

The men suddenly swung into action, untying the retaining ropes from the wall, and lowering the Botafumeiro to the ground, a man took of the top and another put in a plate of burning coals, the incense was added and it was hauled up into place. Then the man gave it the smallest of swings, and through the action of the men on the main rope (about eight in total) it arc got bigger and bigger across the Cathedral from North to South, nearly hitting the transept roofs.

Inside with all the fresh air the coals burst into flames and through the slits in it as well as smoke coming out we could see flames, it was quite breathtaking to watch and I was pleased I wasn’t under it. The health and safety brigade in this country would have a fit, and it certainly wouldn’t ever be allowed in the UK. Eventually the men let it slow down, and with a little spin on the spot the man who started it going made it stop. It was followed by a round of applause, the priest thanked everyone for their applause for St James and gave the blessing.

After the priests had left, the top came off the coals were removed and it was hoisted back into position about 10 – 15 foot above the floor.
The spectacle over (And that is all you can really describe it as is a spectacle, in truth it was probably good that the Botafumeiro wasn’t there when we had our pilgrims Mass and we would have been concentrating on it rather than the Mass itself); we went off in search of food. We decided to go to a restaurant recommended by our Pension, and it proved to be a good choice, after our starters; salad for Lesley and grilled peppers for me, we both had kebabs, followed by Santiago tart, a lovely rich almond tart. This was washed down with a nice bottle of house wine. Technically I was eating off the menu rather than the meal of the day which Lesley had, and we wondered if we would be charged a lot more for my meal. We had told the restaurant owner how our hotel had recommended his restaurant and I don’t know if it was this or just that he was a nice man, but when the bill came he only charged us for two meals of the day!

Full up, we then headed off to listen to the Tuna group again, who we had seen two nights before,

Yet again they were very entertaining and among their songs they sung a song "Cielito Lindo" with the chorus
Ay, ay, ay, ay,
canta y no Hores...
which I remember singing in Spanish classes at Jack Hunt School in Peterborough, when I was 11 or 12 back in the 1970's. I was so taken with nostalgia that I brought a copy of their CD. As we sat and listened we spied Christina from America and her husband. Christina had been on the Camino for three weeks while her husband joined her for the last week. We had last seen Christina in Sarria as she waited for her husband and had a rest day so it was good to see that she had got to Santiago.

We then headed off to a bar we had visited before for a glass of wine before heading back to the pension and bed.

2011 - Day 17 - Sea and smoke - Part 1 Sea

2011-10-10T22:59:00.012+01:00

After a broken nights sleep (on Thursday I started to go down with another cold and cough). We had a leisurely start going down for breakfast of coffee and toast before packing and heading off. The bar owner offered to look after our rucksack but we were happy after 15 days of carrying it to continue. He was most amused that Lesley had the rucksack and I only had a small string bag.

We went to the main square and into the tourist information (which was now open) and got a map of the town (and congratulated on our Spanish) and discovered that both of us had been wrong yesterday about the angle we should have taken to get to the beach area. We also discovered that Cafe Meio was the only available accommodation in that part of town, so had struck it lucky. We head for the coast and followed the sea front around past sailing schools, the harbour masters control tower, a big sports and water sports centre, and a couple of small sandy beaches. We then came to a headland adorned with giant sculptures, a stone henge, a menhir park, and a whole variety of other things, before coming to the big A Corunna lighthouse.

As we walked we saw many people out for a walk, run or even a bike ride, eventually we came to a beautiful sandy beach, and as the sun was out we decided to stop for a while and have a paddle. Boots off, I unzipped the bottom of my walking trousers and waded in, the water was only up to my ankles so I decided to go in just a little bit further.

Suddenly a big wave came in and my shorts and bum bag were soaked. Fortunately being a hot sunny day I dried out quite quickly while I sat down and brought my blog up to date.

After a nice relax by the sea we headed off along the sea front, passing a sculpture of a couple of surfers, (I often wonder why, in Europe they have such interesting public art and sculptures,

even in the smallest villages whilst in Britain except for in our largest cities, we have very little public art.) and looked out for somewhere to eat.

After a pleasant lunch we consulted our map and found the quickest way to get to the station for the 3:45 train. The route was far more direct than the one we took yesterday, and as a result we even had time to pop into a supermarket to buy some Pimenton (much loved by Rick Stein) and some other supplies to take home. Soon we were back on the station and settled into our seats on the train, for our return to Santiago.

A Corunna used to be the starting point for many English pilgrims to Santiago in the Medieval period, unlike in Santander two years ago A Corunna no longer has any markings for the route to Santiago, as we travelled back we thought how a track parallel to the railway line would make an ideal pilgrim route from A Corunna to Santiago.

We eventually got back to Santiago and headed back to our pension, when we arrived were greeted by the owner’s wife like long lost friends. After checking here diary a couple of times, she selected a bunch of keys and took us up to our room, it was one floor higher than our previous room and had an even better view of the Cathedral,

she joked with us that the next time we stayed we would be on the third floor which had the best view of them all.

2011 - Day 16 part 2 - A Coruna

2011-10-10T01:34:00.001+01:00

After the Mass we went off and got a coffee and sandwich before heading to the railway station to catch the train to A Corunna, our return tickets costing about 16€. Eventualy a state of the art high speed train came into the station, it was packed but everyone found a seat. The seats were like high class airline seats with tray tables, foot rests, and they reclined, also between each pair of seats were plug sockets to charge your mobile or laptop. Above on a screen were details of the stations and a readout of the trains speed (max 160kph, or 100 mph). As we approached each station, an anouncement was made in Spanish and English with the details.

Eventually we arived at A Corunna, we left the station and looked for some signs for the town centre, there weren't any, we went back into the station and asked at an information desk, the woman behind looked a bit puzzled but pointed in a vague direction. We decided to give it a go and reasoned that as A Corunna was a port, the town would be near the port as it was in Santader two years ago. I stopped a passing man and asked directions and we continued on our way, eventually hitting the port but no town, as we could see a luxuary cruise liner and a mariner over to our left we headed for them. Eventualy we found a street map that indicated there was a tourist information, we carried on but there wasn't, but we then saw signs for the historic town centre. At last we spotted a tourist office, run by the regional government, it was shut despite it's advertised opening hours. It also showed on a map another tourist office in the main square near the town hall. We plodded on got to the town square and that tourist office was also shut. In fact most of the shops we passed were shut. I began to get a bit suspicious, could it be a public holiday? But then again no, because it certainly wasn't a feast at Santiago or we would have had the Botofumori, although the Gospel was about the announciation.

In front of the townhall was a large floral display obviously very new. The town square looked like a good place to eat later. On the map we had seen it looked like there was a beach the other side of the town hall, and so we headed of in what we thought was the right direction, although we differed to what it was.

I was getting grumpy and following my sense of direction, brought us back to the town hall, in all this time we hadn't seen a single, hotel, pension or Hostal, we then followed Lesley's lead we headed off at a diffrent angle a few streets later at the end of the road I spotted the blue H sign that indicated a Hostal,

the only one we had seen, we went in and got a room for 40€ with breakfast and Wi-fi.

We checked in were given a bottle of water each and went up to our room. After some laundry we headed out, and found a beach of rocky sea defences, we needed a beer, so headed back past the town hall to in front of the marina where there were a number of cafes. We selected one ordered a beer each and discused our options, we would try tourist information in the morning, this evening we would walk around the marina and see the world go by, as we sat we saw s number of people in identical evening dress go by, clutching folders, obviously members of a choral society, we speculated as to what piece they would be playing.

As we stood up to leave, a police car appeared and shut off the road. O dear I thought what's going down? Next we heard trumpets and drums comming from the side road near the police car. We went to investigate, some sort of religious festival was takeing place, behind the band were Bout fifty women with their hair covered with black mantillas held over their heads by tortoise shell combs. Behind them were a number of people in White carying staffs with silver meddalions on the end of them. They were followed by Mary on a big platform on wheels, bedecked with flowers and illuminated with eletric lights. Behind Mary were about six priests, twenty odd policemen and women, and then a full brass band.

As we approached the procession stopped while the members of the choral society we had seen earlier sang a hymn in praise of Mary. Soon they were off again and Mary came abrest of us,

we speculated what it was all about and a lady told us that Mary of Fatima - Our Lady of the Rosery was the towns patron saint. We followed the procession for about half an hour as part of a crowd of hundreds. We speculated that in England the only place you might see such an event would be Walsingham.

The next excitement was the departure of the Cruise liner, Inderpendance of the Sea, with much hooting of it horn and waving from the decks, it left in reverse at quite a lick, it then backed down an inlet, streightened up and sailed off, later I looked up the port records, which showed she had docked that morning.

We strolled down the harbour front and looked at the boats before going of to the main square to look for some food. The majority were selling seafood from mixed platters, to lobster and octopus. Not rearly our cup of tea or price bracket, so we plumped for an Italian restaurant and had. Pizza and pasta.

We then returned to our accomodation for coffees and a night cap for me.

2011 - Day 16 - part 1- Santiago - The pilgrims Mass

2011-10-08T22:54:00.001+01:00

Again we have had an extreamly busy day and I will be splitting the day into two posts.

After an extreamly good nights sleep we woke up at about 8. Just after nine we went down to brekfast, and what a brekfast! Bread with a selection of meats, jams, fresh honey, orange juice, tea or coffee, toast and a fried egg.

Fortified we were ready for the pilgrims mass. We had aranged with Pension Alfonso to leave one rucksack with them as we were planning to go off to A Coruna for the night after the Mass. In the rucksack we had stuffed all the things we no longer required, such as sleeping bags and towels. Before we left
I offered to pay for the night we had just had, in fact my intension was to pay for both. But they would have none of it, you can pay when you come back. Spanish trust is amazing, like the bars where you sit outside drink multiple beers and could leg it, but they trust you won't. Wouldn't it be great to have such trust in the UK!

Fortified both in body and soul, we headed off to the Mass, as we had been told to get there early we arrived just before 11, as a result we got seats nearly at the front. The first thing I saw was that the Botafumeiro was missing. Was it because it was a Friday? or was it because no one had paid for it!

As we waited we began to see other pilgrims we knew, the tall Norwegians arrived and sat behind us, our Austrian friend sat next to me, across the isle were the couple from the Nethelands with Artis de partis the creature from Amsterdam zoo. We then saw one of the Finnish doctors and a tall Dutch girl. Suddenly the lights were switched on and we saw St James over the high altar in all his glory

A nun with a serene face and a beautiful singing voice talked us through the various responses, the organ struck up and five priests processed in, including the priest from Rabanal who had given the pilgrims blessing there.

The mass had begun, the lead Priest welcomed us in a number of languages and the read out by starting point where people had come from. Somewhere in the mids was Le Puy and also Reino Unido which threw us somwhat as we were expecting England or Gt Britain rather than the United Kingdom.

The priest then started the service with the words "The lord be with you" in a number of languages including English. He then continued in Spanish and Latin for the various responses, which were sung and lead by the nun. At the distribution nothing was said about who was in and who was out, and so I went and recieved, the bread was given by the priest with the words in Latin Corpus Christi. And during communion the nun led the congregation in the Taize chant Ubi Caritas. At the end the priest dismissed us in a variety of tongues. All in all it was very moving and the most spiritual service I had attended on the whole camino. The only off putting thing being the constant stream of St James huggers, hugging St James statue while the mass took place.

After the service we headed out and again bumped into a variety of people we had seen on the trip, recieving huggs and kisses from people we had only said "Buen Camino" to as we passed and repassed them, including a trio of Spaniards, two lads and a girl we had been seeing since staying at Jesus Albergue on our third day.

All in all it was a very special series of moments.

2011 - Day 15 - Santiago de Compostella - part 2

2011-10-08T16:39:00.001+01:00

Compostelas duly recieved we went off to find our accomodation, we had booked the previous evening at an office of the Santiago Hoteliers Association, that they had set up in the village of Arca, one day's walk away. We had booked a room at the Pension Alfonso which turned out to be like the best of English B & B's. The owner is very friendly, like me with Spanish, he has been learning English for a few years but finds it quite hard. He showed us our room which has a wonderful view of the cathedtral as seen in the stop press. He then gave us a map of the City and marked on it restaurent in a variety of price bracket away from the tourist areas, and various other places of note.

After showers and laundry, we set off to get a bite to eat as it was coming up to 3 pm. Taking our hosts advice we ended up in an area of Tapas bars and had a hamburger and beer each.

Fortified, we went back to the Cathedral to pay our respects to Saint James. To the right of the high altar is a passageway that was a bit like being in a cage, this lead to a staircase of very worn stone stairs to the back of St James statue, which is probably slightly larger than life size and made of some sort of metal, when it's your turn you wrap your arms around his neck and give him a hug or if you want a kiss. You then decended another set of warn stone stairs to the left. Unfortunatly photo's are banned, I will have to see what I can find on the net.

Our route then took us down another set of stairs into the crypt benieth the high altar, where behind bars is a silver reliquary, which is believed to contain the bones of St James and two of his followers. The reason why after Jerusalem and Rome, Santiago was the most important place of pilgrimage for Christians in the medieval world.

It struck me quite powerfully that if the Reliquary does indeed contain James' bones, then I was standing at the grave of someone who had walked with, eaten with, talked to, listened to, and spent time with Jesus himself, not counting witnessing Jesus perform miracles and of course witnessing the ressurection and spending time with Jesus after his ressurection! Wow.

We than came back into the main Cathedral and saw the famous Botafumerio the vast incence censer used in the past to cover up the smell of unwashed pilgrims, now it is more of a spectacal, used on high days and holidays, or more sadly if groups with enough money pay for it to be used. (I have seen on details of organised pilgrim tours the words "Botafumerio booked" and it saddens me that it's use has been commercialised, I personally think it should be used at all the pilgrims Masses.

Our fellow pilgrims who arrived yesterday or in time for the Mass today had witnessed it in action, we will have to wait for our pilgrims Mass tommorow to see if we will have it as well.

Our second visit to the cathedral over we then took a look around the shops, bought and wrote some postcards pver s beer and then back to our pension for a rest and change of clothes before out again for food.

Like other towns on the way, although Santiago was built on the back of pilgrims it is now not so pilgrim friendly, especially when it comes to food. For the last two weeks all but two nights (when we were away from regular pilgrim stopping points) we had been able to get a very filling pilgrims meal for between 8€ & 10€ including a bottles (once a litre) of wine. Not so in Santiago, very few restaurants offered a pilgrims menu and when they did the choice was very limited. We settled on one where we were given 1 small glass of wine, and our food came out at breakneck speed. (not rearly necessary with us being the only customers in at the time, the Spanish tend to eat at about 10 pm). I had steamed mussels, (about 10 but with no sauce) and meatballs, while Lesley had mixed salad (letice, tomato & onion), and Salmon. It all tasted very nice but the portions were not exactly big and the service was not relaxed.

After the meal we wandered about to walk off our food as we planned to get to the main square for about 10, at about 9:30 the heavens opened with a sudden cloud burst, our first rain in two weeks.

Our meanderings then got us to the main square because our landlord had told us that a group from the University called Tuna were giving a performance, Tuna is a particular style of traditional singing dating from the 14th centuary, the men who sing it are all dressed in achademic dress from that time. We sat listening for about half an hour or so and then went in search of a night cap, outside the bar we had chosen a very different type of music was being played, earthy Gallacian music played on drums and bagpipes. Nightcaps consumed we headed to our hotel for bed after an eventful day.

2011 - Day 15 - Santiago de Compostella Part 1

2011-10-08T08:19:00.001+01:00

So after 1500 km about 62 days walking we had arrived at the door of the Cathedtral of Santiago de Compostella. To comlete our pilgrimage we needed to give the statue of St James above the altar a hug and get our Compostellas from the Pilgrims Office.

In the square we bumped into the young Frenchman we hat met at Rabanal who was playing the recorder in the church there so exquisitly, after congratulating us on our arrival, he gave us the full low down of what to do and where to go.

[What has been so very special, since our arrival in Santiago is the way fellow, long term pilgrims, (those who have been walking for at least 10 days, often longer), are so pleased for us that we have safely arrived, as we are for them, there is a special bond we all now have, that only people who have walked the way can have.]

It was now time for us to enter the Cathedral,

The main door was barred as 2011 is not a holy year (years when the feast of St James falls on a Sunday) it won't be opened again untill 2020! So we had make do with the side door

My first impression was that the Cathedral was not as big as I expected, the nave is not particularly long or wide, certainly not as big as Norwich Cathedral or many other British Cathedrals I know. But it is special, for someone from Britain the Gilt and statuary takes a bit of getting use to but there is somthing about the place, probably the fact that thousands upon thousands of peole have journeyed there from the four corners of the world and have offered their prayers of thanks and intercession to God.

as an American we met said, "you can't walk the way without it becoming a spiritual experience," if you walk for long enough it will change from being a cultural experience to a spiritual one, which while true is very diffrent from the medieval pilgrim saying, "begin a pilgrim ..." (if you want the rest look it up or ask me, but be prepared for the explanation in full detail, as well as the answer).

The queue to hug St James was a little long, so we decided to get our Compestellas and find our accomodation for the night first.

So after saying midday prayer we headed for the pilgrims office, and joined a queue of pilgrims waiting to be interview for their compostellas,

eventually we were at the front of the line, a buzzer sounded and No 9 came up on a box telling us which counter to go to. A young lady took our credentials, examined them, page by page, she then confirmed where we started and why we had walked the camino. She typed furiously on her computer, stamped our credentials with the official Cathedral stamp and handed us our Compostellas

with our names Latinized. (to be added at a later date!)

2011 Day 15 - Amenal to Santiago de Compostella - The journey

2011-10-07T21:09:00.001+01:00

Scores on the doors 20.4 km, up 180m down 244m

Last night we did not get to bed untill 11:45 (a very un-pilgrim like hour) so as a result had a very leisurely start, the latest yet at 8:45.

We set out to a misty day with a light drizzle walking through woods of eucalyptus trees

an Australian who I had met yesterday had said that except for the lack of Koalas & Kangaroos, he could have been walking in the hills outside Melborne.

After an hour and a bit we passed by the airport, and then stopped in the village of Lavacola for breakfast of toast and coffee. Lavacola was the place where pilgrims traditionally washed before the final approach to Santiago.

We carried on and after another hour got to another landmark on the pilgrim trail, Monte del Gozo (Monxoi), which was the hill where pilgrims would get their first sight of the Cathedral at Santiago. Unfortunatly the hill was levelled and a large monument errected

to comemorate Pope John Paul II visit to Santiago in 1989, now all you can see is trees and the suburbs of Santiago, we stopped by the little church and said morning prayer, before continuing our journey.

We decended towards the town crossed a motorway and eventually reached the outskirts of Santiago and the city sign.

It was another 3/4 hour before we got our first view of the Cathedral, but before we had to pass through busy suburbs and modern housing estates. During this time the familiar yellow arrows deserted us and we had to rely on civic signage. At last when we had nearly given up hope of ever seeing the Cathederal we got our first glympse of it's spires sticking up above the city

With a renewed bounce in our step we carried on and at a crossing over a main road, we saw on the other side of the road Roshine from Ireland and Andraias from Holand, they had just come from the pilgrims Mass having got into Santiago at about 10. A few minutes later we passed the South door of the Cathedral and saw the two Finnish doctors, who had walked 40km the day before. After greetings and huggs we carried on through an arch and into Praza Do Obradoiro, the Cathedral Square and we had arrived at last after walking for over 1500 km.

2011 -Day 15 - Stop press

2011-10-06T18:47:00.001+01:00

We have safley arrived in Santiago and recieved our Compostellas, however we have been to busy enjoying the experience to write a blog

Here the view from our hotel room, a full report will follow in the next few days.

2011 - Day 14 - Arzua to Amenal

2011-10-06T07:25:00.001+01:00

Scores on the doors 27.7 km 204m and 774m down

We only have approximatly 10 miles to go! (so have to average 2.5 miles a day to get to Santiago). So God willing we will arrive tomorrow.

We had a reasonable nights sleep, however, over the last few days I have been bitten all over by mosquitos my left arm must have 20 bites, as well as bites on my back, bottom stomach and feet. They itch like mad and so at 3am I was taking anti-histemine to try and get some relief.

We had a leisurely start, setting off at 8:15. We walked for about 7km before finding anywhere to stop for breakfast, we had been joined by an American living in South Africa who regailed us with tales of trips on a number of different camio routes. The km's passed quickly but we were begining to think we would not be getting any breakfast, when a bar came into sight. The seats outside awash with pilgrims.

Breakfast over we carried on traveling on woodland tracks never very far from the Santiago to Lugo road, which we occationaly walked alongside, the KM posts slowly being counted off.

After a couple more hours we stopped for cokes and to rest our feet, where we were joined by the tall "German" and his wife, who turned out to be Norwegian! (well how were we to know, they spoke German and their guide book was in German). It turned out that over three years they had walked from the otherside of Switzerland.

Suitably impressed we carried on
and stopped about 1/2 later to eat our lunch, a massive ham and cheese pie Lesley had seen in the supermarket for 3€.

As we entered the village of Arca (Pedrouzo) there was an information booth set up by the Santiago Hoteliers Association where in English we were able to book a hotel in Santiago for a couple of nights and also one in the village of Amenal for today.

We arrived at a very nice hotel, to get in we had to use an intercom as the door was locked. When we eventually got in to the locked reception we were met by this sign

And it's fellow about checking out

We checked in and were given a pleasant room, but when after showers and laundry we went to the bar, we were told it was closing, but we could have takeaways. I protested that we were guests and were grudgingly given glasses, we then ordered all we thought we might want to drink. Lesley wanted an ice cream to be told the cook had the key to the freezer! I then asked what time food to be told 8 pm, all this from a hotel which is supposed to be 2 star. Our fellow pilgrims staying hear, the Norwegians and a very nice Austrian are not impressed. Hopefully the food will be worth waiting for.

At eight we went down to eat, as well as the Norwegians and Austrian there was another couple as well all talking together, it transpired that they were also Norwegian and our Austrian friend actualy lived in Norway and was a fluent Norwegian speaker. I wonder what the odds were on us spending an evening with five Norwegians? As I would guess that as a percentage of pilgrims their numbers are as small as the English.

The menu was al a carte, and the food good and plentiful, we expected to pay more than our usual 10€ each but a bill of over 80€ was a bit of a shock, They had charged us for 7 bottles of wine, I like my wine but even I couldn't drink 7 bottles in one sitting! On comparing bills all the others had also been given incorect bills. As we seven were the only customers at that time it did seem a tad suspicious!

But all in all we had a very nice enening with good food and excelent company.

2012 - Day 13 - Palas de Rei - Arzua

2011-10-05T16:06:00.001+01:00

Scores on the doors (approx GPS out of batteries) 30.5 km up 290m down 464m

Two days ago in my rucksack I had two sets of batteries for the GPS, one new and one old. As I was sorting my stuff I threw out the old set, five minutes later I decided that I had thrown out the good ones, retrieved them from the bin and threw out the other pair. Today when I came to replace the battries I discovered that I should have gone with my original decision, as with my change of heart I threw out a pair of brand new batteries. The first shop for new batteries was Melide (15km from our start) so hence the guestimate about today's distance.

Last night we had found a bar with Wi-Fi and so had checked our e-mail and posted our blogs. We were then joined by a pair of very nice women Dr's from Finland, and had a good chat, as we sat outside we watched a string of pilgrims visit the Pharmacist oppersite obviously looking for treaments for sore feet.

After our beers we went for a pilgrims meal at the place that most of the pilgrims we know semed to be eating at. As we ate a larger than life Irishman, (a real James Joyce like figure,) came into eat, he had just walked over 40km to meet up with camino friends in Santiago for his birthday, an amazing feat. (his start point, our breakfast stop the day before).

And so to today! As usual we set off just before 8, for the first 10
minutes it was dark, but the sun was begining to rise, the cafes were full of pilgrims getting their breakfast, but as is our custom we decided to get a few miles under our belts before we had ours.

After about 4/5 minutes we came into a small village with an Cafe/alberge we went in and ordered breakfast, the tables had tableclothes and opera was playing in the background. Out came some very nice soft brown bread with jam and butter, a glass of orange juice and a large cup of coffee.

As we ate a pack of pilgrims arrived, not to eat but to stamp their pilgrim's pasport with the albergue stamp, (a pointless exercise as they hadn't even set foot in the establishment!). One even had the cheek to ask the owner if they could borrow a pen to add the date to their passport.

Fortified with food we set off again, the road was mainly woodland track and country road, but we had got behind the pack, that was untill a sign appeared Sellos (stamp), and by it on a table was a rubber stamp and ink pad, like sharkes in a feeding frenzy, the pack pounced, suddenly the way was clear and we motored on.

We then hit another significant point, the place where we crossed from the Galacian region of Lupo to the Galacian region of La Coruna the last local authority boundary to pass before Santiago

At about 11 we arrived at the town of Melide where I got the batteries and we stopped for a drink and rest, (if it had been at lunchtime I would have tried the Pulpo, as Melide has the best in Galacia) shortly afterwards we crossed another line (all be it, one that is actually wrong, the 50km marker stone.

Then it was a slog up hill and down dale, crossing six rivers until

our destination at Arzua where we found a room and after showers, laundry etc. Went into town. First picking up supplies and information about tommorow and then to the church for our pilgrims stamp.

We the headed for a bar for a beer and bumped into the Finnish Dr's so talked to them for a while.
And then to eat, we selected a restaurant with the logo of a grinning buddha, because it's menu looked different from the standard pilgrims menus. Inside were many people we recognized including Roshine from Ireland who when we last saw her and her friends in Triacadtella were planning to go for the four day push to Santiago.

For our meal we both went for scrambled eggs with asparagus and prawns, followed by pork fillet with a White sauce with hot peppercorns, followed by pudding and coffee, I asked for a brandy and for just over a 1€ and must have been a quadruple!

2011 - Day 12 - Portmarin to Palas de Rai

2011-10-03T17:54:00.001+01:00

Scores on the doors 26.5 km Up 584m down 342m

The road has started to get busy again as it was at Le Puy and at St Jean Pied de Port/Roncesvalles. There are a number of distinct types of pilgrim, firstly those who like us have been on the road for a while and carry our own gear, we tend to recognize each other and will wave, smile and pass the time of day as we pass and repass each other. The next group are also the semi-long distance walkers, but these are the ones who use bag carrying services, not quite as authentic.

Then come the bicigrims again two types, the proper pilgrim on good old fashioned road bikes laden down with panniers following the road at a steady pace and the others in Lycra, on high tec mountain bikes with disc brakes, carrying only water and going hell for leather down the pedestrian paths, and appear to be on the way purely for a great bike ride.

All these types of pilgrim have been with us all the way, but now we are on the home straight we have new types of pilgrim as well, these are the minimum distance brigade. Cyclists who have to go 200km and walkers who have to go 100km. Many of them only carry day pacs and seem to travel arround in packs. They are now at the blister stage and are begining to suffer a bit. There are also a number of the long distance brigade who have injuries mainly to knees who are gamely going on with grim determination. I myself have been getting a few twinges in the Left knee but nothing which will stop me at this stage.

Last of all are the sudo-pilgrims, who arrive at a section of the path in a bright yellow luxury airconditioned mini-bus. They walk for pehaps 1/2 an hour, take lots of photos, and then remount their bus to a cafe for a snack or lunch before another walk on a different part of the way. Sadly I am convinced they think they are getting an authentic experience of the Camino, but it can only be truly expierenced over at least a couple of weeks.

Having got this off my chest, I will get on with today's walk. We stayed last night in the Albergue Manuel, where for 5€ extra we had our own room with sheets and towels. After another good night's sleep only disturbed by howling dogs at 4am, we set out at about 7:35, it was still dark, but the sun was begining to rise, as we walked past the bus station we saw two women who had been in our accommodation getting onto a bus with their rucksacks (not that we are suspicious). On leaving town we climbed up into woodland and gently rose for the next couple of hours, playing tag with main road.
After two hours we stopped at the village of Gonzar for breakfast , so many pilgrims had gone before us that all the toast was gone, so we had to make do with pan-O-chocolate with our coffee. As we ate we spoke with couple from Holand who we had seen on and off since Villafranca, they are carrying a knitted toy who apparently comes from Amsterdam Zoo and goes on holiday with people and has his picture posted to a social network site. We were also joined by the tallest German man we have ever seen (must be at least 6ft 6 & as thin as a rake), who with his wife started at Roncesvalles and like his technology, high tec pedometers and GPS's.

Refreshed we plodded on passing a special store for sweetcorn or potatoes that feature in this area

this particular one we have carried a picture of (on the front cover of one of our guides) since we first came into Spain).

A couple of hours on we stopped for Cokes and coffee, (a cold can of coke is great for cooling overheated feet!). Shortly after we passed another significant marker post - km 71 (takeing into account the Galician optimism about distance) why? you might ask, well 80 km is of course 50 miles.

With a short stop for lunch we arrived in Palas de Rei (palace of the King) although no palace exists now. Only another 73.1km or 45.68 miles to go!!!!!!!

2011 - Day 11 - Sarria to Portomarin

2011-10-02T19:47:00.001+01:00

Scores on the doors 22.9 km up 350m and 379 down.

We both got a good nights sleep and so were good to resume the trail. We have already passed the 100 mile mark at O Cebreiro, today we will be passing the 100 km mark as well. Before the sun rose fully it was quite cool but with the occasional blasts of hot air a fortaste of the day to come.

Again like yesterday we were blessed with small tracks and paths and very little tamac,

as I think I said yesterday now we are nearing Santiago we are expected to get two stamps in our pilgrims pasport each day, preferably from Churches, so after an hours walking we stopped in the church at Barbadelo to get our first. We then continued on for a while longer when a bar came into sight, where we stopped for Cafe con leche and toast for breakfast.

We continued on and the day got hotter and hotter. In Galicia the Km's to Santiago are marked down 1/2 km at a time, one guide book says about the first one on the border with Castilla y Leon "the distance given is somewhat optimistic". However, I was still looking forward to seeing the 100km post, at 101.5 we were suddenly diverted off the route, as they were repairing the track, we walked and walked and I was convinced that the diversion would cause us to miss this memorable point, fortunately just in the nick of time our path was back on course.

Sadly it had been covered in Graffitti, but then it was only symbolic as the real 100km point was 9km later at the 91km marker post,

which I thought we would miss as the camino menders had taken us on another diversion.

Eventually our destination for the day the new town Portomarin, the original town being drowned by the Embalse de Belesar, a vast reservoir, a project built in the 1960's during the Franco era, all that was preserved were the Churches and other historic buildings, which were moved stone by stone to their new destination. As 1960's new towns go the Spanish have got it right in a way that we failed miserably in Britain.

With the present heat wave the reservoir is very low and the foundations of the old buildings can be seen.

We entered town up some steps and through a portico that had also been preserved

And found our Albergue where being very brave we had booked a room on the telephone yesterday.

After showers, laundary and a nap (Jeremy only) we headed into town got our third stamp of the day, had a beer and then some food, me squid stew and steak!

2011 - Day 10 - Triacastela - Sarria via Samos

2011-10-01T20:27:00.001+01:00

Scores on the doors 27.4km up 224m down 395m

Today was to be a short day! 25km to Sarria with a stop at the monastery at Samos, a piece of cake.

We started fairly early at 7:35, Lesley had not had aa good night on account of my snoring, a result of this cough and cold I started a couple of weeks before we came here, which I just can't throw, it's ok during the day but comes back at night and first thing in the morning.

Our first stop was a busy cafe for breakfast, of coffee and toast (the biggest so far). We also availed ourselves of their Internet, receiving messages from pilgrim friends in Belgium and France.

Then it was off on the road with less than 100 miles to travel. After an initial start on a path alongside the main road, we then turned right into a hamlet and then followed an undulating path along side a river, through woods full of sweet chestnuts

passing through hamlets and farms that reminded me of walking through Hoathwaite farm in the English Lake District.

The road took us along a path over looking the monastery at Samos, a Benedictine Monastery,

That had links to the great monastery at Cluny now ruined but so close to Taize which has made a diffrence in so many young peoples life including my own.

We decided to go on the tour of the monastery as it only cost 3€ each and was worth every penny, the English guide sheet was great the translation literal but inaccurate and even beat the "Jam and eggs" we had seen in a number of places, our favorite being the church being divided into three ships rather than three naves.

Tour over it was back on the road, I had glanced at one of the guide books who had suggested that we followed the river all the way into Sarria, we began to follow a river, then after a couple of Km's we went up hill and off into the country, like dutifully pilgrims we followed the yellow arrows which became sparcer and sparcer, we began to doubt and considered going back, but in the end kept the faith and hit the other trail from Triacadtela via San Xai. After another hour we ended up in Sarria and eventually. Found a room in a Hotel, with wi-fi in all the rooms.

Sarria is about 120 km from Santiago and 100k is the minimum for getting a compostella, from this point on idealy we need two stamps in our pilgrims pasports each day,

to get our Compestella, but if we forget, the fact we started in Le Puy should count in our favour.

After getting a stamp from the church we went and got food and had a long conversation with Christina from America, who I've promised to send my Paella recipe to her, then back to the hotel to publish bloggs and go to sleep.

2011 - Day 9 - O Cebreiro to Triacastela

2011-10-01T06:50:00.001+01:00

Scores on the doors 26.8 km, up 305m down 824m

Today was just a lovely day's walk. Just as I had imagined the camio to be, before we set out from England. The vast majority was on tracks and paths, traveling through rolling countryside, passing through little hamlets with fields of grazing cows.

As the day according to the books was comparativly short, we decided to start late (8:25), the route the yellow arrows took us was not that of the books and after ten minutes we began to panic as there was no one about and there were no yellow arrows. Just as we were about to turn back we say an arrow, turned a corner and spotted a herd of pilgrims.

After walking for an hour we stopped for brekfast, and whilst eating, chaos broke out outside, an errant herd of cows had decided they wanted brekfast, until with much shouting and waving of sticks the farmers wife got them back on the correct course. We set off again and popped into the village church and got a stamp in our credential. We then walked from hamlet to hamlet, enjoying the beautiful countyrside.

Eventualy our days destination of Tricastelar came into view, however, the only three castles we have seen are carved into the church tower! We found a room, showered, and laundered, and headed into town to visit the church, another peaceful place (could it be because the priest is pilgrim friendly and holds prayers and daily communion services for the pilgrims). These Galician churches are wonderful, open and not full of the usual over the top bling.

We then a went off to a bar with wi-fi for a beer and to post our blogs, the wi-fi was a bit flakey, but spent time with Roisin from Ireland & Andraeas from Holand, (hope I've spelt your names OK), who we have bumped into a few times since Astorga. Tommorow they are planing to go for 5 day Orion to Santiago whilst we are going for the Six day option.

2011 - Day 8 - Villafranca del Bierzo to O Cebreiro

2011-10-01T06:49:00.001+01:00

Scores on the doors 28.1 km up 500m down 236m altitude 1300m

Again it was an 8am start, the description of this part of the walk from "Travels with my Donkey" "I'm off now" and various of the guide books was going to be hairy to say the least. There were three options, the longest 40k was totaly out of the question, the second involved a climb and then a rapid down, not much fun with blistered feet, so we went for no 3 the road route.

Three roads occupied the valley floor, the old road, the new road and the shinny new moterway towering above us on stilts. The camino follows bits of the old and
New roads, and all the books had said that you would be walking along side the carriageway being narrowly missed by cars, that might have been then but now most tragic is on the moterway and secondly the authorities have put a wall between pilgrims and cars on the worst bits.

But most of the time we walked through lovely villages on very quiet roads

After about an hour we stopped for breakfast and met a pilgrim dog, who like us carried his own kit

The road carried on in this manner and miricle of miricles most of the churches were open and offering a stamp for peoples credentials. At about 1 the road began to rise and rise with a vengance! Leading to the mountains that seperate Galicia from Castilla Y Leon. When we stopped for lunch my feet needed cooling down so I plunged them into one of the roadside fondas

Which was certainly bracing, after lunch it was back to the climb, fortunately all on soft tracks, we then passed the border between the two regions

And were then we were in Galacia and on the home stretch, just around the corner was our destination of O Cebreiro a village who's only real purpose is the camino.

It has a wonderfully simple and peaceful church, maintained by the Spanish Franciscians. Which you could sit in for hours. We popped into a gift shop to buy cards and bumped into the English quarted we met last night, who had walked up the last couple of miles and got a feel of what the pilgramage is like.

At 7 we went to the church for the Mass for St Michael and all the Angels, where they made an effort by having the responses in four languages on a large tv screen so we could al join in in our own languages. And they didn't say anything about who was in who was put at the distribution.

In a side chapel there was a wonderful pilgrims prayer, the prayer of La Faba

A lovely prayer not just for pilgrims but for anyone who aspires to the Christian life.

2011-day 7 - Molinaseca to Villafranca del Bierzoll

2011-09-30T15:43:00.001+01:00

Scores on the doors 35.6 km up 326m down 545m

After a comfortable and quiet nights sleep, we set off at 8 am, even then it was still dark, but the sun was begining to rise, as we planned to walk a long way today we decided to take all the direct routes rather than some of the variations, which might have been a tad more scenic, but were a lot longer!

We arrived in Ponferrada, just before 9 and stopped at a cafe for breakfast, of coffee and croissant, before going on to it's famous castillo de los Templarios, one of the main bases for the knights templar before their destruction.

The castle looked just like you would imagine a castle should, lots of turrets etc. And it struck us that the 6am brigade would have missed it's glories as they passed it in the dark, head torches scanning for yellow arrows. (but then again, each to his own).

Leaving Ponferrada we had the usual slog through the outskirts, and then through a sucession of villages between which the villages had plots of land where they grew all sorts of intresting vegatables and some times a couple of animals as well, often these plots were behind ornate Walls with fortress like gates.

In one village we stopped at a bar for a coke and rest and as it had free Wi-fi I decided to download a couple of episodes of the Archers, they downloaded sucessfully, but my iPhone managed to then delete all my music and podcasts. What is it with us and technology, two years ago both our iPod's totaly crashed whilst we were on pilgrimage. I am now paranoid lest I loose all the photos I have taken with my iPhone, that would be a tragedy of Grecian proportions!

As we walked deeper into the countryside the grape harvest was in full swing, none of the French or even Northern Spanish hi tech grape picking with grape picking machines, this was family groups picking by hand.

In Ponferrada we had visited a baker and bought some slices of pizza, which we ate sitting beside the river in Cacabelos

With our feet in the water to cool them down, before the last 8km push. As you can see we were beside a big green diving board
In this part of Spain the dam their rivers in towns to create swiming areas, mind you the water is freezing as it comes straight from the mountains.

As you approach each town or village you are met by notice boards advertising all the different types of accomodation, on approaching Villafranca del Bierzo we notice one for a refugio that also had seperate rooms. We decided to try it, and so walked up and down the town trying to find it. Eventually I asked someone who gave us instructions we didn't rearly understand, but tried to follow, but still did not find it, I asked a waitress at a street restaurant but she told me that she didn't come from the town, but got the owner who in English gave me directions, we found the albergue but the only space was in a small dorm where people were already in bed at 4pm. We decided not to stay, and eventually found a room with ensuite on a casa rural. The whole process taking about an hour and an extra couple of km's.

An Australian we had met had told us that we could find Internet with a printer in the town, so after showers and clothes washing, we visited tourist information, the lady gave us the details of a bar with the necessary equipment, so we now have our boarding cards for returning home. Because O Cebreiro, where we plan to go tommorow, is a tourist destination as well as being an important stop on the camino, we were worried about finding any accomodation, so also asked the girl to book us rooms.

Jobs done we retired to the bar where we had been given directions for a beer, as in the better Spanish bars they brought with the beer a small snack for us as well. In this case it was a large mussel each doused in a fantastic spicy salsa.

We were so impressed we decided to eat there off their 12€ menu rather than find the usual pilgrim fare 10€ menu. For my starter I went for a plate of the mussels,

followed by a plate of Botillo a local dish of pork three ways, a sausage and then a kind of haggis of pork ribs and heart, flavored with pimenton, and probably cooked by boiling. This came with potatoe and cabbage, all washed down with local red wine.

As we drank our beers we spoke to a chap called Jeremy from buckingshire, who was on a driving tour with his wife, and then afte our meal with two other couples from Britain and to my amazement I was able to do a little translation for them.

When we went into the bar to pay the owner insisted that we both had a shot of the local fire water, the same as I had in Astorga. Lesley declined and insted got a shot of a fruit drink.

2011 - Day 6 - Rabanal del Camino to Molinaseca

2011-09-28T06:32:00.002+01:00

Scores on the doors - 27.8 km, up 393m down 845m

Sleeping in a dormatory is always a challange, at 8.30 pm when we got a few bits before the pilgrims blessing in the parish church, people were already in bed and the lights were turned off. We came back from the church and went to bed. Because of my cough I am snoring, I went to sleep and at 11:30 Lesley had to wake me as people were tutting. So then it was the case of trying to sleep on my front and not snore. I did not get a great night's sleep and heard the church clock chime 12, 1, 3, & 5, at 5:30 the first alarm went off. There are a sizable band of pilgrims who set off at 6 am every morning (with the Americans in the vangard) but at Rabanal they were starting even earlier to get to the Cruz de Ferro for sunrise.

We got up at about 6:15 (we had to be out by 8 anyway), joined the hospitalaros for brekfast and were on the road by 7:30.

As we walked the sun slowly rose behind us, it was a red sky but wasn't the forbodeing of dire weather as at home, perhaps the rules are different in Spain.

The path itself was great, whilst rising gently uphill it was good under foot, firm compacted earth, but with a bit of give to it.

The path slowly wound it's way up to the village of Foncebadon and on to the Cruz de Ferro.

Those with good memories will recal how just before we came to Spain we visited Weybourn beach and picked up stones from the beach to bring with us.

The reason to leave at the Cruz de Ferro, why you might ask? Traditionally pilgrims have brought a stone from home as a symbolic laying down of their burdens.

As the stone is left a special prayer can be said "Lord, may this stone, a symbol of my efforts on the pilgrimage that I lay at the foot of the cross of the saviour, weigh the ballance in favour of my good deeds some day when the deeds of my life are judged. Let it be so."

I very soon had need of that ballance as I thought evil thoughts the herds of bicycle pilgrims, who in a bid to be macho had to ride down the narrow pedistrian tracks, rather than the road, scattering us walkers in their wake. The worst being a group of about 20 German cyclists who created so much dust that everything in their wake was covered.

It was then a long hard decent to the village of El Acebo wher we stopped for a coke and to rest our feet.

Before continuing the downward slog. At Molinaseca we had a choice, stop for lunch (it was about 2) and carry on or just stop and get a room. We decided on the latter, and after last night went for a hotel, which overlooked this fantastic bridge and river

2011 Day 5 - Astorga to Rabanal del Camino

2011-09-27T14:11:00.001+01:00

Scores on the doors 21.5 km up 154m down 44m

We let ourselves out of our pension at just after 8 the sun was just rising but despite the early hour it was quite warm, which boded ill, as it meant we were in for another scorcher of a day, which it proved to be probably I would guess in the high 20's or low 30's.

Just before leaving the city limits we came to a small chapel which was open, run by the Franciscan brothers, very simple and peaceful. We were then met by lots of runners out for an early run. We crossed the moterway and were out into the country, walking on a track parrellel to the road. We were passed by hoards of bicycle pilgrims, or "bicigrims" as they are known. This time around some days we see far more bicigrims than traditional pilgrims.

After an hour we stopped for brekfast and then onwards always west and slowly up hill.

The sun behind us creating interesting shadowed,

At just after 1 we arrived at Rabinal, we had decided on a shorter day as Lesley is suffering from blisters and both our feet ache. On passing the shop we noticed that it was shut, so decided to book in to our albergue and then get lunch in a local cafe.

We had planned to stay at albergue Gaucelmo because it is run by the Cofraternity of St James the British pilgrim organisation which we are members of. British pilgrims are a rarity, and so we were welcomed with open arms. (But then so were all the pilgrims).

Betty & Dugald the hospitaleros (assisted for a couple of days by Anne and Adrian) are most excelent hosts, showing us where everything was and then invited us to tea at 4:30, after lunch showers and washing settled down in the alberge garden

to read about the next few days and catch up on blogs and diarys. At 4:30 we joined them for tea a tradition of albergue Gaucelmo, our first Tea since leaving England. Doughal is a Permanant Deacon in the Roman Catholic church and regularly leads groups on the Easter pilgrimage to Walsingham, it's certainly a small world!

The albergue is just by the parish church and next to a Benedictine monestry, who lead vespers at 7 and a pilgrims blessing at 9 and I was asked to read at vespers as part of having the lesson in four languages. At 6:55 we were told vespers was canceled, as the monk who lead it had to go to hospital. So we went and ate and just went to the blessing.

During our meal I checked e-mails and we recieved one from Tanya our Spanish tutor, it's great to hear from the folks at home and to know people are Reading our blog.

As my cough is still bad at night we got some pastles from the chemist, to take just before sleep. The chemist said chew two before sleep (or that's what I thought) as Lesley has now told me the Spanish word chupar which sounds a bit like chew is actualy suck, I have chewed and have just broken a piece of a tooth! We will have to see how it is in the morning!

2011 - Day 4 - Villar de Mazarife to Astorga

2011-09-26T18:34:00.001+01:00

Scores on the doors 35 km, up 278m down 233m

The guide book had said about the Hostal Jesus, what it lacked in facilities it made up in character and it certainly did, the Walls had been graffitied by countless pilgrims, our room was basicaly a lean to shed with a 4ft double bed. But it also had a fully equiped pilgrims kitchen with an induction hob, free Internet and Wi-fi, a bar, dining room, garden and swiming pool.

However, because of the preperations for the party we decided to go to Tio Peppe's for our meal, we sat with a retired midwife from Mane in the USA and a German civil engineering student, and spent a pleasent evening. We returned to Alburgue Jesus at 10 and the party was in full swing. So we got out our ear plugs and went to bed. At 5:30 when we got up to use the bathroom it was still in full swing!!

When at 7:45 we enquired about brekfast, we were met by very bleary eyed staff, who told us they had to clean the alberge before they could get to bed.

We set off and were met with a 6 km of arrow streight Tarmac (not good for tired feet), before another 4km of streight dirt track.

Eventualy we reached the town of Hospital de Orbigo, it's claim to fame being a a 204m 20 arch bridge.

History tells of a famous jousting competition, which lasted a month, with hundreds of lances broken, and one left dead on the jousting field. Some 600 years later the lists still stand and the competition is re-enacted.

Our next stretch was cross country on rough tracks, seamingly in the middle of nowhere, far softer on the feet than Tarmac. Ahead of us we could spy the Montes de Leon, which we will cross in the next few days. Comming over a rise we then saw Astorga, and about 3/4 hour later were in the City.

It's claim to fame it's twin towered Cathedral and Gaudi bisop's palace. (both shut). We found a room in a pension near the town centre and after showering (where I discovered that the back of my legs were sunburnt) and laundry went to explore.

We looked at the Cathedral and Bishops palace from the outside! And the stunning mayor's office, and then sat in the town square and had a couple of beer's.

We then went for food and I decided to try the local speciality Cocido maragato, the first course was a heaving plate of meat served with chick peas, potatoes and cabbage, the meat including; chicken, spicy sausage, belly pork, pigs trotter, ear, and relleno (stuffing) - this was followed by soup which was a bit like chicken gravy with vermicelli in it. Finally I had ice cream and a coffee, with a glass of the local licquer, which came out of the freezer, was bright yellow, and flavour I can't quite describe.

We then returned to our room to sleep, before starting to head for the hills tommorow.

2011- day 3 - Puente de Villarente to Villar de Mazarife

2011-09-24T22:00:00.003+01:00

Scores on the doors 34.3 km up 315m down 269m

At 9pm we went for our meal, only to discover the meal for the day was lunch time only, so we had to go a la carte, so I went for Calamari and Chicken and chips, washed down with a very nice Rose. And then to bed.

After a better night's sleep (woke up at 3 coughing, then snoozed) we were on the road by 8 am.

It was over dinner last night that we concluded that for the Camino walking boots are the wrong footwear, because so much is on Tarmac and hard compacted surfaces running shoes would be better as they have built in shock absorption, probably something like the shoes used by fell runners. However, as we only have boots we will have to suffer with what we have.

For those who might be wondering, if I do my stretches my feet only hurt from the pounding, while Lesley's feet have blisters. (so please pray to St Bol - that they might be healed).

Any way back to the story. After Reading some of the accounts of the way into Leon we were not looking forward to it, as it sounded horrendous dodging vehicles and taking your life in your hands,instead we were greeted with wide tracks away from the roads

All be it full of pilgrims, and purpose built bridges over the busy roads.

At last we hit Leon and had a pleasant walk into the town passing a very posh bank

(so that's where all our money went!) Before getting to the cathedral

Which like all Spanish churches was full of ornate bling

After this we had had enough of the bright lights and after a coffee (where we saw France being hammered by New Zealand - there goes Lesley's bet on France!) we headed off to Virgin de Camino, passing the Leon parrador featured in the film "The Way" a mere snip at £400 per night! At Virgin we decided to go for it and head for Villar de Mazarife.

This would mean a day of about 22 miles. We headed out over a wonderful rough track, soft underfoot and we literally ate up the Km's and passed through a couple of peaceful villages

Eventually getting to our destination at 4:30, we had planned to stay at the Albergue Tio Peppe, but when we got there it was full up, so we headed for albergue Jesus, they explained that they were holding a party but if we didn't mind noise we could stay, and have a room to ourselves for 10 euro, we stayed, and will report on our night, tomorrow.

2011 - day 2 - Calzadilla de los Hermanillos to Puente de Villarente

2011-09-23T19:43:00.001+01:00

Scores on the doors - 32 km (20 miles) up 126 m down 286m

The alarm went at 6:30, we had not had a good night as my cough which I have had for the last 10 days, returned with a vengeance, probably because of the dry air, and it kept me awake with coughing and Lesley with the noise.

We went to breakfast and asked about the local shop, only to be told it had shut. Lesley spying a basket of cakes in the restaurant asked if we could buy some as we knew the next town was over 12 miles away. Fortunately the lady in the hotel was happy to sell them. So armed with our cakes we set off.

The day was cool and sun just rising, we started on Tarmac and before after about 3km hitting a rough track which we followed for the next 22km.

The sun got hotter, but it was behind us and there was a gentle breeze to keep us cool. After a couple of hours we came along side the Railway line we had used to get to Leon in 2009, a couple of hours after that we entered the town of Mansilla de las Mulas, where we stopped for coffee and to post our blogs from yesterday.

To guide us through the town on the road were brass scallop shells which were a useful guide to help us on our way.

As it was only just after two, we decided that we should get a few more Km's under our belts and so continued alongside the main Leon to Valladolid road (not the most serene place to walk) to Puenta de Villarente.

We are staying in a local hotel in a pleasant room, the only down side is that they don't serve food till 9pm, so after a beer we have come back to our room to write our posts before food and bed.

2nd attempt - 2011- day 1 Sahagun to Calzadilla de los Hermanillos

2011-09-23T13:14:00.004+01:00

Scores on the doors 15.5 km up

92m down 142m

We arrived in Sahagun where since our last visit the railway station has been refurbished (I like to think in our honour).

On the train we had got our gear basically sorted out so were ready to go once we got some water and the GPS finally decided it was in Spain. As we walked through the town we saw a few pilgrims who as they did not follow us, had finished for the day.

The route took us over an old stone bridge, and then on a track parallel to the main road shaded from the sun by trees. And the shade was needed as it was very hot, now at 11pm is still 24•c

A few miles later we came to a dividing of the ways and decided to go the more authentic route following an old roman road, and arrived at our destination at about 6 pm in good spirits.

We have a nice twin room and have had an excellent three course pilgrims meal, for me of Lentils, meatballs and Spanish flan washed down with a very mellow red wine. And as Samuel Peeps was fond of saying "and so to bed"

We have arrived in Spain

2011-09-23T13:14:00.001+01:00

After an good night's sleep, at the Stansted Holiday Inn express, and with the help of a bottle of Australian red. (courtesy of our good friends Yvonne and Paul - thanks guys it was much appreciated).

We woke at 5 am had a leisurely breakfast and caught the 6:30 bus to the airport. After a short wait to check in my rucsack and the titanium plate in my foot setting off the security gate we were in departures.

It was there I discovered a minor disaster as my sunglasses had broken an arm off. So off to the shops, I declined the alure of designer labels at The Sunglass Hut and picked up a £15 pair in JB Sport (a far cry from my usual £3.99 Liddl specials.

Shortly after that our flight was called and we were off to the gate, we took off about on time and arrived in Valladolid.

After reclaiming my rucksack, we decided to try for the 12:30 Sahagun, which meant going for a taxi. Lesley exlained to him we were in a hurry to the train and he put the peddle to the metal and got us there with time to spare.

We are now on the train and should get to Sahagun by about 2 and should be back in the trail shortly after.

T minus 59 Hours

2011-09-19T22:02:00.002+01:00

The countdown is now on, in less than sixty hours we will be starting our second attempt to get to Santiago. Our rucksacks are packed, we just need to put the final things in our bum bags and string bags for the flight out and we will be ready.

Yesterday we visited our local beach at Webourne to find a special stone each to take with us

You might ask why, when we have been so careful with weight we want to take a stone?

Well all will be revealed when we get to the Cruz de ferro. But before that I have an ever increasing list of things to do before we go!

Jeremy

The Foot

2011-09-05T09:34:00.008+01:00

Most people will be aware of my preoccupation and worry about my foot, and if it will hold up on the next stage of our pilgrimage to Santiago.

Last week we spent a week in the Yorkshire Dales, having a spot of R & R, and doing a bit of hill walking. In five days we walked up the famous Yorkshire three peaks and also a couple of local walks as well. Overall the foot behaved itself but by the end of the week I was feeling a little bit of discomfort.

As soon as we got home, while I still could identify where the discomfort lay, I raced down to my podiatrist and was able to get an immediate appointment. After much prodding and poking, he was able to identify the problem which is caused by overwork to one of the tendons in the foot. He has given me some stretching exercised to do and hopefully with those I should be able to do the walk, but must just listen to the foot and take it easy, and not try to be a terminator, walking far to fast and hard.

Take two - The Planning Begins Again!!!!!

2011-08-15T14:01:00.004+01:00

As it says at the top of our blog "Hopefully 2011" and that is certainly our intention. We have booked tickets to fly out to Valladolid at the end of September and back from Santiago just over a couple of weeks later. Why Valladolid?

Well from Valladolid we can get a train or coach to Sahagún, the town where our Camino ended in 2009 we could then pick it up again at the exact spot we stopped and carry on hopefully arriving in Santiago about 14 days later. The 60,000 dollar question is whether my foot will last the course? We just have to work on the baises that it will all work out.

My next step is to get back into training following the regime I used last time. I have an old rucksack which I fill with water bottles to make its weight up to 10KG which I then wear when I go Nordic Walking on a Friday morning. This is not without problems as last time to increase the weight I put some brick in the rucksack which made a hole in one of the larger water bottles soaking the rucksack and my shorts and making it look as though I had had an accident. The instruction from our Nordic Walking instructor to the other students was "Don't Laugh", an instruction they all ignored!!

I am also starting to read all different guides we have to the Camino for this part of the route. Somehow we have managed to accumulate about five different guides, each which has its advantages and disadvantages, the problem being that when weight is at a premium which do you take?

Jeremy

Photo's have been added to all our posts now!

2010-06-14T13:10:00.004+01:00

Its taken nearly eight months but I have now added photographs to all our posts where I have a photo. The reason for this sudden burst of energy. On Thursday I am giving a talk about our Camino and in preparation have been re-reading the blog and decided to finish off my photo work.

If you are wondering about my foot. It is still painfull although better than it was eight months ago when we stopped walking. A month ago I had an x-ray which didn't show any broken bones. So it looks like its ligament and tendon damage, I hope it will be better for the spring next year when we plan to continue the walk.

Photos added to all our French Posts

2010-03-12T14:01:00.004Z

I have now added photographs to all our posts written while we were in France.

Hopefully before Easter I will have added photos to all the posts in Spain as well. Its also my intention to re-create my post for the day we left Conques and walked to Livinhac-le-Haut as well.

Jeremy

More Pictures Added

2009-11-11T23:48:00.001Z

Just to let you know I have added pictures to the majority of the posts up to our stay in Condom, will add others when time permits.

Jeremy

Camino Reflections Part 1

2009-11-11T15:44:00.007Z

When we left Spain I promised a few reflections on our experiences so far. I have not forgotten, but needed a couple of weeks to get my thoughts together. The 6th of November was the date we were supposed to be in Santiago, and we heard from our friend Luc, that he had arrived safely and that it was raining!

LUC

There is so much to reflect on, but to first thoughts. I guess my most special memories about our Camino so far are going to be about the many wonderful people we met, some only once or twice others many more times.

At the beginning of the trip, the three Australians, the French couple who sat with us and sorted out a non-fish meal for me. The number of generous French people who would invite us to join them for our picnics at lunch time. The French people who invited us to the street party.

The German family with the problem with “Bladders”. All the people we met in France who like us were intending to go all the way to Santiago, including Philip (the only British person we met on the whole trip!). Then there were the Canadian girls and their amazing message that sat there for four days before we walked past and found it.

Our good friends Anne and Seb (of the Hi-Vis hat).

Fr Roger who gave us coffee and Armagnac. Terries and her self giving hospitality, Mme. Sykes and Anthony her partner and that's only a few of the many people we met in France.

Then when we got to Spain there was Johnas and Luc particularly,

but also the wonderful Dutch Hospitalaros at both Roncevalles and Villamayor de Monjardin. Also the two couples we met who were walking the Camino for their honeymoons. And then there were the various Australians and American we met. Not to mention all the every helpful Spaniards who would tell us where the path was, or direct us to the albergues, or just wish us a good Camino as we walked passed them, or would toot their horns and wave as they passed in their cars or lorries.

I think it was principally above all, all these people and many others to numerous to mention which made the Camino for us. To often through the news and media we only hear of the bad side of human nature, with wars, violence and crime. But apart from one notable exception, for fifty days we met the other side of human nature, the great generosity of the human spirit, embodied in people like Therese,

but in many, many others as well, who were prepared to share their lives with us for a short time and to offer hospitality and friendship to a couple of pilgrims who were lucky enough the chance to encounter them upon their journey. When all else has faded about the Camino and we are back into the routine of everyday life, the pictures and memories of all the people we met will keep me going and will be a constant reminder that there is always another side to people and not just the side we see all to often on the news.

First pictures added

2009-11-03T20:06:00.001Z

I have now added some pictures to the posts I wrote at the beginning of September.

More will follow when I have time.

Jeremy.

Back in the UK

2009-10-28T12:21:00.002Z

As you can see by the title of this post, we are now back in the UK. We arrived late on Sunday evening and were picked up by my parents.

Monday saw us visiting the local minor injuries clinic in St Albans to get my foot checked out. They confirmed that our decision to suspend our Camino to Santiago for this year, was the correct course of action as my foot would only get worse (with continued walking) and it could result in lasting damage. I now have to rest it for the next six to eight weeks.

So what next? We still have just over a month of the sabbatical to run. If we had been able to continue, we would have arrived in Santiago on about the 8th November and would have gone on to Finisterre. We then planned to take some time to reflect on our experience and catch up with family and friends. It is still our intention to do just this and to make good use of our remaining time.

As promised there will be more posts, and I plan to add pictures to many of the previous posts, so please keep reading.

Love Jeremy and Lesley

Terradillos de los Templarios to Santander

2009-10-23T20:41:00.001+01:00

Sometimes (to mix metaphors), everything goes like clockwork, everything slots into place, and everything seems to be meant. Today was just like that for us!

We had a leisurely breakfast, said our fond goodbyes to Lucas and once we had packed we set off.

The walk to Sahagun was across more fenland-like terrain, the highpoint being when we saw a very wild looking pilgrim with a donkey camped by a small chapel.

At about 11:30 we got to Sahagun. We decided to seek out tourist information for options for onward travel. However, despite following the signs we just couldn't find it. Eventually, with the help of some friendly locals, we discovered it was in the Albergue. We got there just as it was opening and were shown a train timetable and given a map to the station. We also got our final pilgrims stamps for this trip. We will no doubt get a second stamp from Sahagun when we come back to complete the Camino.

When we got to the station, we were told that if we took the 2.05 rather than the 1.35 it would cost us €4 each, rather than €11 each. We chose to take the 2.05 and as we waited, across the platform, we saw the Austrian couple who we had shared a room with at the Dutch place. They were also on their way home via Pamplona. We wished them God's speed and a Buen Camino when they resumed.

At 14:05 our train came in. We climbed aboard and set off for Leon. The train took us through small towns and villages which we will visit when our camino is resumed.

Our thoughts had been to stay the night in Leon and travel to Santander tomorrow. However, we decided to look for the bus station and book our tickets for tomorrow. I asked a member of staff at the railway station in my best Spanglish where the bus station was. She replied it was just down the road, and pointed us in the right direction.

When we got to the bus station, we went to the information desk and asked about buses. The lady gave us a piece of paper like a till roll, that made no sense whatsoever. It did however, say it came from ALSA bus (the Spanish National Express), so we went to their desk and asked about buses to Santender. We got given the same piece of till roll. After studying the till roll intently we worked out that there appeared to be a bus to Santander at 3:30 (thirty minutes time), and it was faster and cheaper than the rest of the buses listed. We thought we might as well take it rather than worry about a bus tomorrow. We went back to the desk and sure enough there was a bus at 3:30 that would arrive at 7 pm, for the sum on just over €25 for the two us. The lady told us to go to platform 1 and the bus would appear.

By 3:40 no bus had materialised, but as we were not the only ones standing about, and I had been assured that this was the right stand for the Santander bus, we were not too worried. Eventually a bus appeared, saying Santander, but from a different bus company. I confirmed with the driver it was our bus. We climbed on board, found our pre-booked seats, and were away.

Initially, our journey took us alongside parts of the camino we had walked, and it was a bit strange seeing pilgrims walking along and wondering where they would be spending the night. Eventually we turned away from the Camino and towards the Atlantic coast. The scenery got bigger as we crossed the Picos. With a couple of diversions into small towns to pick up other passengers and a 10 minute comfort break in a town whose main industry seemed to be making biscuits, we arrived in Santander.

We got off the bus and went in search of a bed. The bus station is near the harbour and all the hotels were 3 or 4 star. We headed off and as we debated where to go, an English man out walking his dog, asked if he could help? We explained our search for a hotel and he told us that he didn't know of anywhere cheaper nearby. We therefore decided to go to the Abba Santander (the nearest three star hotel) and enquire about their room rate. If it was too expensive, we planned to ask the receptionist where he recommended. We were offered a room for just over €65, which very pleasantly surprised us, so we decided to go for it.

We are now in a fantastic room with all the mod cons. It is convenient for the town, the harbour and the bus to the airport. After showers we headed into town for food.

As we looked for food we kept on seeing places advertising accommodation, but we are pleased with where we are and will stay here until our flight home.

We also then kept on seeing on the pavement the way marking for the Camino North, a different route to Santiago. One we might take on another sabbatical!

Now off the Camino in Spain

Carrion de Los Condes to Terradillos de Los Templarios

2009-10-22T21:30:00.002+01:00

At 5 in the morning I woke up to hear torrential rain outside, the weather forcast on the Internet had said 38 mm and it was probably right! Fortunately by the time we got up at 7:30 the rain had stopped and it remained dry for the rest of the day.

Lesley popped out to a bakery, and we breakfasted in style on choco pan, orange juice and yoghurt before setting out.

Just before 9 we were on our way again, leaving our lovely room in the hostal Albi.

After leaving town we walked for 5 km along a Tarmac road, before walking on a rough track following the route of the old Roman road the "Via Aquitana".

However, Tarmac was the last thing my foot needed, and as we walked we came to the decision that however much we might want to get to Santiago and then on to Finisterre on this trip, we were not going to be able to do it.

As we walked we discussed our options. Some more silly than others. Could we find the local branch of "Rent a Donk" and hire a Donkey to carry me the rest of the way. But there were two or three problems with this plan. Firstly, was there a branch of "Rent a Donk?"; secondly neither of us know much about about donkey driving or looking after donkeys -and you shouldn't have animals you don't know how to look after properly; finally it wouldn't be fair to expect a donkey to carry such a heavy weight as myself. So that plan was high and dry in the water.

Our second plan was to wonder if we could hire a bike, but discounted that idea, as I wouldn't have the correct gear and anyway in about one weeks time there is a very big hill that I wouldn't be able to ride a bike up so would have push it instead, which wouldn't help my foot one little bit.

After more discussion, we came to our final plan. We would walk in easy stages, for the next three days to Leon, and then, if the foot was still bad, stop. Leon would be convenient in terms of location (accessibility) and remaining distance (2 weeks walking) for returning either next year or in 2011.

I found this a hard decision to make: after all walking to Santiago in one go has been my goal, since I first had the dream of making this pilgrimage 20+ years ago. I have to admit, as we walked, battling against a strong head wind, I shed some tears.

At Calzadilla de la Cueza we went into the only bar for a coffee. Lucas was there, and we told him our decision. He clasped me on the back and told me it was a wise decision because we can continue another year, and we don't want to do lasting dammage. He then bought us our coffee.

After coffee we set out on our way again with Lucas. The head wind we had been battling seemed to be getting stronger.

The terrain we were crossing reminded us very much of the Fens in Britain. Endless miles of total flatness. In the far, far distance off to out right we could see the Picos mountains, which are already covered in snow.

By 1:30 we were begining to flag, and spotting a picnic area, decided to stop. We said our temporary goodbyes to Lucas, as he had had his lunch, and stopped for ours.

After a 3/4 hour stop we began again, and every step was very painful. The situation can not continue and so this afternoon we have made the decision that we are going to have to pause our Camino for this year.

At 3:30 we arrived in Terradillos de los Templarios, a village that used to be run by the Knights Templars, where we booked into the Albergue.

Being an emotional sort of person, it was tough for me to say to fellow pilgrims that this was probably our last day on the road. After the usual showers and washing, we spent an hour surfing the Internet to find the best way home.

Tommorow we walk about 12 km to Sahagun where our camino will be temporaly suspended, to be taken up again at another date.

We will then get a train to Leon as the first leg of our journey home.

We have now booked our flights, before having our last pilgrims meal for this trip. We ate in the company of our good friend Lucas and it was a very healing evening.

Our Camino will continue and one day soon we will get to Santiago and receive our compostella, before going on to Finisterre. We have achieved an amazing amount: we have walked over 1200 km in 50 days and it has been a fantastic experience. The distance is 12 times the minimum distance for a compostella but not in the right place!

Just because the physical trip is over, please do keep reading as I plan to post my thoughts and reflections on our journey so far.

If you are following this blog from afar and want to know how the story continues, let me have your E-Mail address and I will E-Mail you when our trip continues.

On the Camino in Spain

Stop Press

2009-10-22T17:31:00.002+01:00

Four posts waiting on the Ipod will post them when we find some Wi-Fi

Love Jeremy and Lesley

Rest Day in Carrion de Los Condes

2009-10-21T21:55:00.000+01:00

Because of the problems with my foot we decided to have a rest day here in Carrion de Los Condes.

I have spent most of the day in our room doing somthing that most people who know me would find very surprising, and that is watching sport on the TV.

I have had a couple of short outings for Coffee and to an Internet cafe to check mail. Unfortunately we were unable to find any cafes with Wi-Fi or any open Wi-Fi connections so have been unable to post the blogs for the last couple of days. However, we were able to read all the comments posted to the blog and publish them, during our visit to the Internet cafe.

We also tried to research the problem with my foot, one possibility is a stress fracture, but we just don't know. We will try to get to Leon and if it is any worse will go and see a Dr.

This evening we went back to the bar where we ate last night. Just as we finished eating in walked Lucas our Belgium pilgrim friend. We had last seen him in Estelle with Jonahs, when we had carried on to the Dutch Albergue, expecting them to be following close on our heals.

Every day since we have wondered where they have both got to, and hoped that we would see them again.

Apparently Jonahs finished his Camino in Lograno, we had thought that he was going all the way to Santiago, so we didn't get a chance to say goodbye. However, Lucas has given us his E-Mail address so we will be able to send him a message.

It was good to see Lucas again and to catch up with each other. As they say every cloud has a silver lineing, our enforced rest day meant that we saw Lucas again.

Hopefully we will be able to walk tommorow, but we take it easy and I will endevour not to walk to fast as is my want!

Perhaps the prayers to St Bol should have been in Spanish!

On the Camino in Spain

Boadilla del Camino to Carrion de Los Condes

2009-10-20T20:43:00.001+01:00

27.9 km

For the first time in 50 days, since flying to Le Puy on the 1st September, we woke up to rain. When we went down to breakfast, Edward, the son of the albergue owners, told us that it would rain all day. Forewarned is forearmed, and so we ensured that all of our stuff was in dry bags, and we donned our waterproofs.

Equipped as well as we could be, we set out. Over the last five weeks, because of the strength of the sun, the stitching on parts of my boots has come away, and I have been wondering if I would stay dry in the wet.

Soon after leaving Boadilla, we came to the Canal de Castilla, (a great photo opportunity if it hadn't been so wet), which lead to the town of Fromista, where we stopped for coffee.

From Fromista, the Camino follows the main road to Carrion for 18 km using a track called the "Senda" which the guide book writers hate. On a wet and windy day, a hard gravel track on which you can notch up the km's, is perfect.

About an hour out from Fromista Lesley discovered she had a slightly dodgy tummy, shortly afterwards I discovered that I did as well! Fortunately there were a number of villages along the way with open bars!

Over the last week or two, basically since leaving Pamplona, I have been having problems with my left foot. Yesterday at lunch, we had been talking about the fact that we would soon be on the final leg of the Camino. I said "providing our feet behave themselves". This was obviously tempting fate, and later in the afternoon my foot problem flared up big time. It has still been with me today, and we are now wondering if we will actually make it to Santiago or not. We will just have to see if it improves or gets worse over the next few days!

Please don't think that it is beause we haven't had a rest day since Condom, as in effect we have had rest days, with our two very short days crossing the Pyrenees and our long afternoons in Pamplona and Burgos. Also, when we get to Leon we will be taking a full day again.

The reality is that I seem to have a weakness in my left side, evidenced by the broken ankle 4 years ago and the injury four days before we were due to fly out. This present problem is possibly related.

At about 3:30 we arived here in Carrion, and decided, because of our wet gear, which we needed to spread out to dry, and our dodgy tummies, to get our own room with a bathroom.

The truth is because the Spanish have an extra class of accommodation, called hostals, you can get a very high quality room for less than the 2 of us would pay at home to stay in a Youth Hostel! Note that the albergues (pilgrim accommodation) that I have been referring to as 'hostals' are not infact Spanish hostals - I have been using the term in the English sense.

After drying off and with our tummies feeling a lot better, we were able to go out for a pleasant pilgrims meal before coming back to our room to write up our blog and diary before we go to sleep.

In our room we have a TV, and it's obvious from the news that this rain is an unusual event and has affected most of Spain. Hopefully it will blow over and we will have better weather in the morning.

On the Camino in Spain.

Hontanas to Boadilla del Camino

2009-10-19T20:06:00.002+01:00

30.5 km
Up 264 m and Down 272 m

After a better nights sleep, we were awakened at 6:30 by the "get in at 3 p.m. have a 2 hour siesta and go to bed at 8:30 p.m. brigade". We got up and went down to the bar for breakfast. By 8:15 we were on our way, the dawn was breaking and it was cold, but not as cold as yesterday.

Our route took us along the bottom of a valley and straight through a magnificent gateway in the ruins of the monastery of San Anton. I tried to take a picture but it was so cold the batteries in the camera had gone on strike, (likewise the batteries in my GPS which kept on turning itself off).

We eventually came to the town of Castrojeriz

where we found all the churches locked. We faithfully followed the yellow arrow waymarkings through the town, looking in vain for an open cafe for coffee and a shop for bread.

After getting to the edge of town we back tracked into the town centre and, away from the camino, found a chemist, a supermarket selling fresh bread and a cafe. We visited all three, before ascending to Alto de Monstelares,

a local high point with fine views.

Our route then took us down steeply onto the Meseta again. We debated with ourselves if the steep hill we came down was 'Donkey killer hill' mentioned in "travels with my Donkey" or not? We will have to re-read it again for the third time, when we get home.

After an hour or so we crossed the Rio Pisuerga on a beautiful medieval bridge, crossing into the province of Palencia. Just past the bridge was a picnic area where we stopped for lunch.

We then continued on for another couple of hours to our final destination of Boadilla del Camino to the delightful Albergue & Casa Rural.

We looked at the Albergue (hostal) which was very cramped with few bunks left. For another €16, in the Casa Rural, we could have our own room with sheets and towels, so decided to go for that instead. The room is lovely and simple as is the rest of the Casa. The whole Albergue & Casa Rural appears to have been made out of an old farm. There are many old farming bits about including a couple of threshing sledges. There is a small swimming pool with icy water in it and also various sculptures and other bits of Art work dotted about.

In the casa itself, the walls are adorned with paintings by the owner, who is a very accomplished artist called Begona. I like their work, especially their pictures of the local canal and landscapes.

We had a fine Castillian meal with a great lamb and vegetable soup, followed by a beef stew and flan (creme caramel - which appears to be the Spanish national pudding).

On the Camino in Spain

Burgos to Hontanas

2009-10-18T21:03:00.002+01:00

33.6 km
Up 301 m Down 289 m

We did not have a good night's sleep. As I reported yesterday our beds were two bunks in a corridor of two sets of bunks. The other set of bunks were occupied solely by a German speaking woman.

When we arrived she had told us all about the hostal as she had stayed here last week! Our suspicions should have been raised, a proper pilgrim never revisits a hostal, unless he is returning from Santiago and that's three or four weeks away!

I had also noticed that our neighbour had put some belongings on the bunk above hers, so people would think it was taken. Again behaviour that a true pilgrim would not countenance

At about 4:30 she returned from town and went to bed, every time we went to our bunks or got anything from our lockers we would hear her muttering at us.
(How can anyone go to bed at 4:30 p.m. and expect to sleep for 15 hours is beyond me).

By 10:00 we were in bed and the hostal staff had turned of the lights and we both went to sleep. Burgos is a lively city on a Saturday night so we both put in earplugs. At about midnight we were both awakened by our neighbour standing by our beds shouting at us, apparently we were keeping her awake and should leave the hostal. We don't think either of us was snoring particularly loudly, (Lesley would have told me if I was, & anyway snoring is part of hostal life)! The 'lady' got short shift from us and was told to use earplugs like the rest of us or stay in a hotel! After such an unexpected outburst in the middle of the night neither of us slept particularly well.

I can report that the Burgos night life continued past 4 am. However, unlike in a comparable British town, I didn't hear a single police or ambulance siren.

This morning our neighbour had the cheek to wish us a good morning, in English so clearly for our benefit. We both ignored her.

Thinking about everything, it's obvious that the woman is not a real pilgrim, but the worst sort of leach on the Camino system. Cashing in on the fact that the city of Burgos offers pilgrims a bed for the night in very pleasant surroundings, for only €3, when she would have to pay €50 or so to stay anywhere else. What was even more galling, was that she was sporting a scallop shell on her rucksack, which is the pilgrim identifier.

Despite our night, the Camino goes on, and by just after 8 we were on the road and heading out of town. It was the first time we could talk together about what had happened, and as a result we did not follow the way markings, but some other pilgrims, and got lost. At that point our faith in humanity was restored when a passerby, seeing us looking at our guide books, told us where we should be and how to get there.

After we left Burgos we came to the fabled Meseta, something that writers about the camino either love or dread/hate.

One of our guidebooks describes it as a relative wilderness. What the Meseta is, is the bread basket of Spain, long rolling hills, covered in wheat fields for as far as the eye can see. Any villages are tucked into valleys or folds in the land. Overhead, you see the occasional circling bird of prey, and ahead, the only thing to break up the sea of corn, is an occasional wind farm. We love it, there are no cars, no Tarmac, good tracks and open countryside.

Tucked into one of the folds in the countryside is the hostal of San Bol, a quirky place we had read about in "Travels with my Donkey".

The hostal itself appeared to be shut, but we had read in our guide book that the spring beside it has healing properties for bad feet. As Lesley is on her third round of blisters and I am on my first alongside other foot problems, we decided to give it a go!

We took off our boots and socks and plunged our feet into the stream coming out of the spring pool. The water was freezing and within a short time unbearable, so with a short invocation to St Bol we took our feet out of the water, and once re-booted set out again. It's to early to tell if the cure worked, but I will let you know in the next few days!

On the Camino in Spain

Atapuerca to Burgos - A New Saint is Celebrated (Or at least we think so).

2009-10-17T21:45:00.001+01:00

23.5 km

Today started out even colder than yesterday. So we set out wrapped up in multiple layers to try and keep warm.

We stopped for breakfast in a restaurant near to our starting point only to be served 1 small cup of coffee and 2 very small slices of burnt toast. Which they charged us €3 each for!

To get us warm the path took us up a steep hill to a small plateau which was very reminiscent to us of parts of the Corfu trail, scrub with lumps of limestone sticking out. Before us down below we could see Burgos our destination for the day. It only looked a few kms away but it would be 4.5 hours before we reached its centre.

Our path took us down through more corn growing country, before reaching the outskirts of the City. We then had to go around two sides of the airport, cross a busy road and walk in a park alongside Rio Arlanzon for 8 km before we reached the town centre.

After we grabbed some lunch in a cafe we checked into a very nice new hostal very near the Cathedral. The hostal was arranged in corridors of two sets of bunks separated by a stack of lockers. There is a shower and basin for each corridor, laundry facilities, and vending machines.

We got our domestic chores done and headed into town, to have a look round and do some shopping.

We had seen a pilgrims mass advertised for 7:30 at the Cathedral. At 7 the bells began to ring out and we went off to the Cathedral. What we came across was a bit more than your average mass. For a start the service was being filmed and shown on TV screens all around the building. Secondly, when we arrived there must have been about 300 people there, including many nuns and priests in their dog collars, in fact none of the congregation looked at all like pilgrims.

The service started with the entry of the clergy, about 40 or 50 in robes, followed by no less than six Bishops (three with purple skull caps under the mitres). Obviously it was not just because Lesley and myself were on pilgrimage that such a noble company had gathered!

After the Bishop had censed the altar, a lady read a long statement with lots of references to the Pope, St Raphael something and Burgos. This was followed by the head Bishop censing with incense and sprinkling holy water on a statue, standing to one side of the altar. A priest then tied something around it's neck.

The service continued. When it came to the sermon, the Head Bishop read out a long statement with references to Pope Benedict, the local Cardinal and lots about St
Raphael something and also about Burgos. My guess is that the Pope has made this Raphael of Burgos into a Saint and what we were witnessing was the official unveiling of his statue and the official proclamation of why he is now a saint.

Unfortunately for us it was all in very fast Spanish, so I am only guessing. Also it all took a long time and we were on a deadline if we wanted to get a discount pilgrims meal and get back to the hostal before lock in. As a result we had to leave before the end of the service, so I can't report what happened next.

On the Camino in Spain

Belorado to Atapuerca

2009-10-16T22:05:00.001+01:00

31.7 km or 19.8 miles
Up 498 m Down 330 m

Having decided to stay in a hotel room last night, it meant that we didn't have to race to get up and out this morning. However, saying this, we were still on the road by 8:45.

Last night we had looked at the books and decided that we would not stay at the next place suggested, San Juan de Ortega, this was because the hostal lacked both central heating and more importantly, hot showers. We therefore planned to stop either at Ages or Atapuerca.

It was bitterly cold when we set out and we noticed a frost on the ground. For the first time in over six weeks on the Camino I had to zip the legs on my trousers and walk in more than just a t-shirt.

We stopped at a Spar shop to get a few bits. After making our selection we went to the till and waited and waited and waited. In the end Lesley had to go and find a member of staff to tell them we wanted to pay for our stuff.

We eventually paid and set out once again. For the first 8 km we continued through undulating countryside until the village of Villafranca Montes de Oca. As we left the village we were faced with a sharp ascent up into the Forrest of Montes de Oca. This was certainly a welcome change from the monotony of the previous three days.

As we walked through the woods we came to a monument to republicans shot during the civil war in 1938. It is an ugly concrete pillar but the inscription is very moving:- "It was not their death that was unnecessary, it was their shooting. May they rest in peace".

Eventually we came to San Juan de Ortega, which is basically a magnificent Church, a hostal and a bar. We popped in to look at the Church (our second open church of the day!), before carrying on our way.

As it was still early we decided to go onto Atapuerca. Atapuerca became famous as the village, near which, the oldest human remains in Europe have been found. It's humbling to think that we may be walking on paths that man has walked on since the dawn of time.

Our hostal is warm and comfortable and we share a room with two others. One chap is from the Czech Republic and the other from Mexico.

For our meal we went to a nearby restaurant where we had the best pilgrims meal we have had in Spain so far. A three course meal, with wine for €11 each.

People have commented on the lateness of my blog postings. I usually write them in bed just before I sleep, hence the times.
So at 11:05 it's goodnight from me.

On the Camino in Spain

We walk a Marathon - Azofra to Belorado

2009-10-15T21:38:00.001+01:00

43 km or 26.875 miles
Up 463 m and down 473 m

This morning we were up bright and early. Just after 8 we were having breakfast in a nearby cafe. The breakfast was a bit basic, and so by 8:15 we were on the road planning our second breakfast in Santo Domingo de la Calzada, 15 km (just over 3 hours) away.

Our track took us through undulating countryside, with fields as far as the eye could see. None of the fields have fences, the only dividing lines being changes in ploughing or crop.

Half way to Santo Domingo we came to the township of Ciruena. It was a modern development based around a large golf course. The houses/apartments were all fairly uniform in their look, all had their shutters down, many also had for sale signs up. The surreal thing was that there were absolutely no people (or even cats or dogs) about. Walking through it felt like being in one of those 60's and 70's b-movies where the hero is the last person alive after an outbreak of a plague or chemical war.

I guess the truth is that the houses were built to feed off the golf club, but with the credit crunch etc. people can no longer afford to buy such places.

An hour and a half later we arrived in Santo Domingo de la Calzada, a town steeped in the history and legend of the Camino. Its founder Santo Domingo was someone who dedicated his life to helping pilgrims, after being rejected by the local monastery because of his lack of education.

The town's other claim to fame is that it keeps white chickens in it's Cathedral. Why white chickens you may ask.

The story goes that a young man on pilgrimage with his parents, stopped at Santo Domingo de la Calzada. The daughter of an inn keeper took a fancy to him, but he turned her down on account of his pilgrimage. The scorned girl planned her revenge and planted some valuables in the boy's bag. She then denounced him, he was caught, tried and sentenced to death.

He told his parents that he was innocent and that they must complete their pilgrimage. They did and weeks later on the way back, they stopped off to visit the place where the boy had been hung. There he was on the gallows and he called out to them to say that because he was innocent, St James himself had been holding him up above the noose for all this time.

The joyful parents ran off to the mayor's house to tell him the good news and get the boy cut down. The mayor was about to have his dinner of a couple of roast chickens and did not want to know, and wouldn't believe them. He said to the parents "your son is as alive as these two chickens" At which point St James steps in again and the two roast chickens jumped off the salver and flew around the room.

The boy was cut down and the chickens and their descendants were moved to live in the Cathedral. No one says what happened to the inn keepers daughter.

After visiting the Cathedral and seeing the chickens, we set off again. We continued through more rolling countryside on a track running parallel with the main Logrono to Burgos road. Road works along the way have affected the Camino, so the road gangs have made a special pilgrims' path right through the middle of their constructions.

Before we set out we had planned a longish day of about 34 km (which in reality would be about 36 with detours etc.) to the village of Villamayor del Rio, where there was a very nice sounding hostal. However, when we got there, there was a sign up saying "cerrado" (closed). We had to continue on to the town of Belorado at least another 6 km away. The path continued parallel with the main road and just as our spirits were sinking to a bit of a low, a couple of lorry drivers passing the other way gave us long blasts on their air horns and big friendly waves. It was their way of saying Buen Camino (good camino -a general greeting for pilgrims), and was just what we needed to raise our spirits. Indeed it made me feel quite emotional.

Eventually we arrived in Belorado at the Hotel A-Santiago, which also had a hostal. However, after walking just over a Marathon distance we decided to treat ourselves and have a hotel room instead.

In our room was a complimentary flask of wine. In the bathroom a shower that was supposed to give you a massage, but succeeded in flooding the floor instead!

We went for our meal and the owner put on a DVD about the Camino. It was great to revisit where we have walked already and to see some of the sights we will see in the next few weeks.

After a good meal, coffees and a long day's walking, hopefully we will sleep well!

On the Camino in Spain

Navarre to Azofra

2009-10-14T21:48:00.004+01:00

24.4 km or 15.25 miles
Up 258 m & Down 256 m

Today our walk took us through acres and acres of vines. We are now in the heart of the Rioja region, Rioja being one of Spain's finest wines. All the vines are weighed down with grapes. As we walked we saw pickers in the fields, and under the vines were cut grapes, waiting we think, to be picked up. In the late afternoon I spotted another crop, which seemed a bit out of place in Spain, it was a small field of sugar beet.

We passed through the town of Najera, stopping for a coke, before going down to the river to eat our lunch. We then continued onto to our final destination of Azofra where we booked into the municipal hostal which had rooms for two people, rather than the usual multi-bed dorms.

Today was a shorter day for us. This gave us the opportunity to wash clothes in a machine. We were also able to catch up on the blog.

We also caught up with various people we have met on the trail who we had not seen for a few days. Including Mike and Joan the Australian who we met at Orisson in France, who had detoured to Bilbao to visit the Guggenheim. We also met up again with Sky and Charlie, an American couple who started in Toulouse on the Arles route. Whilst they walk Sky and Charlie are also doing a photo-scavenger hunt to raise money for "Esperanca" a global medical charity. To have a look at what they are up to go to www.caminodeskyeandcharlie.com. We also met up again with two American ladies from Manchester, Vermont who we had met at the Dutch hostal s few days ago.

As we wandered through the village of Azofra in the early evening we saw a garage with a farm trailer with it's wheels chocked up on one side. At the back corner a man and women were collecting grape juice as it ran out of the trailer. A little while later we passed again and two men were in the trailer treading down the grapes to get more juice our. The last time we passed we got lightly sprayed with the pressure washer they were using to clean down the trailer.

All in all, it was a nice day's walk and a good evening.

On the Camino in Spain

Viana to Navarrete

2009-10-14T15:41:00.001+01:00

13th October 2009

21.6 km or 13.5 miles
244 m Down 265 m

Lesley did not have a good nights sleep! Apparently my dad is now ranked very low in the olympic points table for snoring, while I am in the top ten. Mind you I can't comment as I had a very good nights sleep and didn't get disturbed by anyone's snores!

We set off leaving Viana by following various back lanes. They were to us reminiscent of streets we had walked in the third world, with rough tracks and rubbish pilled up all over the place.

Just before we left the outskirts of Viana, we passed a Church and a picnic ground. In the picnic ground were camped a couple of "New age traveller's" with three small children; two goats; and three donkeys and the tiniest tent in the world.

After a couple of hours our route took us to the city of Logrono.

As we came to it's outskirts, we crossed the border between Navarra and Rioja where we had our pilgrims passports stamped at Felisa's house, a pilgrims tradition for a number of years.

There is something surreal about pilgrims walking through a city with backpacks and trekking poles, while all about us, the city folk are working and shopping.

We stopped to visit the church of St Bartholmew, and the Cathedral and to do a bit of shopping. On our way out we lost our way and a friendly native showed us the correct way to go. This is a feature of the Spanish Camino, that if you go wrong, a friendly native will put you right.

After shopping and coffee, we set off again. The local authority have made a long linear park out to the lake at La Grajera, a peaceful oasis for the townsfolk of Logrono and passing pilgrims.

We continued on our way to Navarrete where we were going to spend the night. On the approach to Navarrete we saw an advert for half board accomodation, it was only a few Euros more than staying in a hostal and decided to go for it.

After the usual round of showers and laundry we set off to explore the town. We found an Internet cafe and downloaded our photos. We then went into the church which has a magnificent baroque altar piece, not exactly Lesley's or my cup of tea, but magnificent never the less. All gold leaf and statues and quite stunning.
Saint Roche the Patron Saint of pilgrims

After a nice evening meal we headed for bed.

On the Camino in Spain

Villamayor de Monjardin to Viana

2009-10-12T22:47:00.007+01:00

34 km or 21.25 miles
Up 501 m Down 642 m

The news tonight commented on how Spain is facing a heat wave. As a result Mosquitoes are a real problem with a lot of people being bitten. We are included in that number.

Our room had a fly screen over the window, and because of the heat, the window had been left open. However, the fly screen had holes in it, and we woke up covered in bites.

Continuing their excellent hospitality, the good people from Oasis Trails gave us a proper continental breakfast (with meat and cheese).

We set off down through grape vines. As the path levelled out, we found ourselves in a wide valley. As far as the eye could see were fields, most freshly ploughed, following the corn harvest.

A strong breeze was blowing into our faces. I can understand now why the region of Navarra is at the forefront of the use of wind energy.

After about 2 1/2 hours we came to Los Arcos the destination for many of our hostal mates of last night. We decided to carry on. Our path gently rose to the villages of Sansol and Torres del Rio. Looking to the left and right made us realise just how large Spain is and how vast the vistas are compared with the UK. The views over to our right were particularly barren and desert like, and you could see why Clint Eastwood and others have made so many spaghetti westerns in Spain.

After Torres del Rio, our path took us steeply down to cross the Barranco de Cornava our first real Spanish Barranco, (a steep arid valley).

we then climbed out the other side to arrive at our destination for the night, the town of Viana.

Viana´s claim to fame is that it is the final resting place of Cesare Borgia,and we were able to visit his grave outside the Cathedral door,

where his friends and enemies alike could walk over him.

We decided that we wanted to go up market, so hired a room for the night instead of staying in the local hostal. So after a pilgrims meal at a local bar who also provided Wi-Fi we went to bed.

As we entered Viana we crossed a particular milestone as our GPS recorded that we had now walked 1000 km.

Puente la Reina to Villamayor de Monjardin

2009-10-11T21:22:00.002+01:00

32.2 km - 20.12 miles
Up 742 m and down 541 m

Various people have commented about all the food and drink we have been consuming. Well that was in France, but now we are in Spain and the pilgrims meals are smaller. However, this morning we had a first for Spain, as the hostal, for a fee, provided us with breakfast.

As we get deeper into Spain the agriculture is changing and today we have walked past fields of peppers, asparagus artichokes and olives.

The route today has been on tracks parrallel with a new motorway. Some of them only recently built. However, for a few miles we also walked on an old Roman road and crossed over streams and rivers on old Roman bridges.

As we walked into our first village we bumped into Lucas from Belgium and Jonas from Sweden. We then walked with them to Estella where we carried on.

LUC
Jonas

Just before lunch we came to the "Ermita de San Miguel". Outside was a picnic area, so we decided to see if the chapel was open before we picnicked. For once the chapel was open. It was obvious that it is no longer used for services or looked after by anyone. On the altar many people had left written prayers. However, they had also left, what I can only call, offerings, as well. [On the Camino on wayside crosses and marker posts people place stones, a bit like walkers adding stones to cairns]. Many, many stones had been placed on this altar along with olive branches, cans of coke, packets of cigarettes, sweets and many other strange things. There was somthing animistic about it.

I must admit I found it all a bit disturbing. Not because I am narrow minded, we have travelled to the East and visited temples where offerings are left for the gods. But this wasn't in the East, this was in Spain in a Christian church.

As well as being disturbed I have also been reflecting that somewhere, along the way, we in the Church have let a lot of people down. The evidence of their offerings and the fact they are walking the camino, suggests that they are searching for somthing, trying to fill a spiritual void in their lives, a void that the Churches have not been able to fill. We can't smuggly point the finger at other denominations and say we have it right, as the pilgrims that have left these offerings are from all over the world, including Britain, and probably were exposed to many denominations including our own. The question for us all to think about, is how can we now help them.

After we left Lucas and Jonas in Estella, we passed through the village of Irache whose claim to fame is the "Fuente del Vino", a wine fountain, providing free wine to thirsty pilgrims. Of course we had to stop, but before I could try the vintage, I had to fish for one of Lesley's trekking poles she lost through the bars of the Bodega into a locked yard.

I can report that the wine is very smooth and would highly recommend Vino del Irache!

We then continued on our way, rising gently through woodland and grapevines up to the village of Villamayor de Monjardin.

We had read earlier in the day about the hostal at Villamayor de Monjardin run by a Dutch Christian group, Oasis Trails, and decided we wanted to stay at their hostal. As we arrived, we bumped into Johannes a Swiss German we had last seen at La Fontaille in France five weeks ago, when we shared a mobile home with him. The world of the camino can indeed be very small.

We checked into the hostal and were charged the sum of €35 for a bed each, our evening meal and breakfast, (it should have been €40 but they only charged me €5 for my evening meal, because I had last nights vegetarian meal, as the meal they were cooking contained fish).

We booked in and went in search of beds. Unfortunately all the bottom bunks had been taken and Lesley was not a happy bunny. I demonstrated the technique for climbing in and out and she put on a brave face! Whilst she was in the shower another room was opened for an Austrian couple and I asked if we could move our stuff into the other two beds in that room. On emerging from her shower Lesley found that she would be sleeping in a bottom bunk after all, (the bonus for me is I got a ladder up to my top bunk!)

The four Dutch & one Canadian (of Dutch extraction) staff who ran the hostal all spoke excellent English and made us all feel very much at home. Other guests included four Americans and a Australian, Chris, who was celebrating her birthday, so English was very much the language of choice.

After the meal we were offered copies of John's Gospel, (we explained that we had already recieved one in Conques). They also invited us to join them for evening prayer, which was very moving and was a good antidote to our visit to "The Ermita de San Miguel".

After the prayers, we sat around an open fire talking to the other pilgrims before going to bed.

On the Camino in Spain

Pamplona to Puente la Reina

2009-10-10T21:04:00.001+01:00

32.2 km - 20.12 miles
Up 472 m down 521 m - high point 757 m

At 8 am we were kicked out of the hostal. Outside it was only just dawn. We stopped in a nearby park for our breakfast, which we picked up yesterday.

Being a Saturday morning the parks and streets were full of Spaniards getting fit; runners in the parks and cyclists in packs on the roads. Every street corner seemed to have a cafe, with quite a few customers even though it was quite early. We stopped at a Panederia for bread and part 2 of our breakfast.

Eventually we left Pamplona behind us. It is a lovely city and one I would like to visit again (one day I will do a post about the things I loved about Pamplona).

Our path took us slowly upward, past the suburb of Cizur Menor. Ahead of us was a ridge, literally covered in wind turbines, all spinning merrily in the wind. We climbed steadily to cross the ridge over the Perdon Pass.

Half way up, our progress was impeded by a flock of about 300 sheep, filling the lane ahead. The scene was very Biblical as the shepherd was leading his flock with his dog beside him at the front, rather than chasing them from the back.

After about 10 minutes the shepherd and flock took a right turn and we continued upward towards the Perdon Pass.

At the top we saw one of the modern landmarks of the Camino, a sculpture of pilgrims on foot or on mules walking to Santiago, with the stars of the Milky Way over their heads. Like many pilgrims before us, we added ourselves to this cameo for a photo call.

Once over the pass, the path plunged steeply downward, levelling out near the village of Uterga. We stopped for coffee and Lesley discovered that her iPod had died in the same way mine had in Figeac.

Arriving at the village of Muruzabal we decided to take a 2.5 detour to the church of Santa Maria de Eunate, described in our guide book as one of the jewels of the Camino. Sadly, as is the case with the majority of the churches we have encountered in Spain, it was locked.

This is something which is starting to make my blood boil, each and every time we discover a church is locked, and something I feel we need to change in our Churches at home. A locked church (unless it is unsafe) turns itself into a private club or museum, rather than a place for worshipping God (I will finish my rant for today and get back to our trip!)

We eventually got to our destination of Puente la Reina, where we had a choice of three hostals. When we had been planning our trip, we read a book called "Travels with my Donkey" where a man walked the Spanish leg of the Camino with a donkey. Having a jackdaw mind, I remembered that in Puente la Reina the author had stopped at a hostal where his donkey had been bated by the people who ran the hostal (so there was no way I was going there). Instead I suggested we follow the donkey's hoof marks and go to the private hostal out of town.

Lesley was not convinced that Puente la Reina was the town where this incident took place until we sat down to eat. At this point, just as in the book, we were served our wine in pint glasses!

The pints of wine helped to soften the blow of discovering this evening that our detailed blogs about our first day's walking in Spain, got lost somewhere in cyberspace never to be seen again. It has been a good days walking despite the disappointments we had.

On the Camino in Spain

Larrasoana to Pamplona

2009-10-09T22:53:00.004+01:00

A short walk of 18.2 km - 11.3 miles, going up 183 m and down 354 m

I slept better last night: at last my cold seems to be on the wane. However, I am now suffering as a result of inadvertently eating fish. Last night at dinner we think that what I thought was mince on my pasta starter was probably Tuna. So today I have paid the price. Spain is a country that eats a lot of fish so I will have to be more vigilant in the future and ask if things contain fish or not.

At 8 just as we were setting off the lady from the town hall came to kick out any stragglers. We had hoped to get breakfast at the bar where we had dinner, but unfortunately it was closed. It was to be another 10 km at 10:30 before we were able to break our fast.

Our walk started in mist and took us along the banks of the Rio Arga. We then had to walk along a stretch main road and I was grateful for my hi-vis hat. As we walked the mist burned off into brilliant sunlight. We then walked over a hill and down the other side to reach the Rio Arre and the town of Trinidad de Arre, where we were able to get our breakfast of coffee and bacon and red pepper rolls, which may sound strange but are delectable. Our hunger having been sated, we continued on.

The town of Trinidad de Arre is basically a suburb of it's bigger neighbour Pamplona, but obviously has it's own identity and was preparing for some sort of celebration. Fair ground rides and stalls were being set up. Along the road we walked in on, they were beginning to install some heavy duty barriers. The uprights were about 8 ft tall 6" by 6" beams, these were set into the ground in permanent sockets. Fixed to the uprights were 6" x 2" planks all carefully numbered with a 3 or 4 inch gap between each plank. My guess is that they were preparing for their own bull run, similar to that of Pamplona's. I have read that many towns in this part of Spain have bull runs, but that Pamplona's is just the biggest and most famous!

As we walked from Trinidad de Arre to Pamplona, we passed a computer shop. On the off chance that they might have an iPod lead, I popped in, luck was with me and I got the last one in the shop! We were back in business again.

We continued through the streets following yellow arrows painted on lamp posts and blue and yellow scallop shell symbols painted on the ground.

When we got within a couple of miles of the city centre, we were hailed by a local man. I went over to see what he wanted. He told me that we could take an alternative and much nicer route into Pamplona by following the river path, and that it would join up again with the Camino a little later on. We decided to take his advice. The path took us all the way into the city following the Arre on our left, while on our right were a number of Market gardens.

At one point we came across a quirky pedestrian bridge over the river (a photo will eventually be added!).

Just by the bridge in a field were 20 or 30 miniature horses, some with foals.

We then crossed by the Puente de la Magdalene. At the foot of the bridge is a cross with the figure of St James upon it. Sadly though it has been vandalised and St James no longer has a head.

After crossing the river the path climbed into the city through the ramparts and up to the Cathedral.

In this part of Pamplona major works are being carried out to the utility infrastructure, making the whole street a building site. As a result the way is very uneven with raised manholes and all sorts of other trip hazards. Coming the opposite way to us was a burly builder walking very slowly, with a very frail old lady on his arm. He was Carefully helping her through the hazards and bending his head to listen to all she had to tell him, and treating her with the utmost respect.

We eventually arrived at the Cathedral and got our pilgrims stamps. We had decided to try a new hostal that Lucas had told us about, built in an old church, the Jesus & Mary hostal. It has been built into the church without affecting the fabric. It is very clean and has been designed by someone who has thought about the needs of pilgrims. The bunks although in four long corridors, are in bays of four or six. Each bunk has it's own power point for charging equipment. There is a large laundry area with free washing machines, basic Internet access, and a kitchen.

After showers, we filled a machine with washing and headed off for lunch while it went through it's cycle.

In the centre of old Pamplona is a large square, which has cafes on all sides, we picked one and had lunch sitting in the sun.

We had decided that our main task for the afternoon was to get haircuts. We set out to find his and hers hairdressers. However, hard as we looked, for the first hour we just couldn't find any. Eventually we came across a shop but it was closed. By this time it was getting towards 5 pm. We now discovered more and more hairdressers but each shop we went into, told us the same tale, they were about to close.

We then discovered a barbers and so I dived in and got my hair cut. We continued to look for somewhere for Lesley but to no avail, the only open hairdressers were for men. It was now nearly 6 and we decided to give up the search and look instead for an Internet cafe, where I could download pictures from the camera. We bumped into Lucas who told us that there was an Internet cafe in the main square. We went to look and instead found a hairdresser that advertised that it was open to 8 pm. We went in and were told that if Lesley could wait for an hour she could get a cut. I went off to do some chores and then came back to a nearby cafe, where I wrote my blog while I waited. At 7:20 a coiffured Lesley appeared - our mission for the afternoon had been accompanied, and we now both look a lot less shaggy.

It then was food time. We headed across the square to a paella restaurant, we had spotted earlier, and sat down to a tasty chicken paella and a bottle of the local Rose. As the food was being cooked to order, I wandered off to post yesterday's blog. As usual I was immersed in my task and when our food arrived ignored Lesley's waiving and gesturing only being called back to reality by a piercing whistle from our waiter.

After our meal we headed back to the hostal before the 10 pm lock in.

I don't know if we will get much sleep tonight as we are next to an Olympic champion snorer. I can even here him with my ear plugs in! He puts my dad's snores into a very poor 10th or even 20th position and dad is a loud snorer.

On the Camino in Spain

A post Recreated - Roncesvalles to Larrasoaña

2009-10-08T23:00:00.002+01:00

As you can see by the title this is a recreated post. I wrote this post the day before yesterday and thought I had posted it yesterday. However, somewhere between leaving my Ipod and hitting the Internet it has disappeared. So I am trying to recreate the work of genius previously written!

When I last posted we were waiting in Roncesvalles for the pilgrims office to open. At just after four the doors opened and we were let in. we were all handed forms to fill in with our vital statistics and were then given our pilgrims stamps. For the grand sum of six euros we also bought a bed for the night in the pilgrims' hostal. We then crossed the road to the hostal which looked from the outside like a huge barn. Inside were beds for as far as the eye could see, (our book said about 120).

We were greeted by the Hospitalaros who were volunteers from a Dutch society of St James, running the hostel on behalf of the Roncesvalles monks. We were issued with pillows and told to find bunks. After showers and laundry we headed to one of the two hotels in Roncesvalles to book our pilgrims' meal. At seven we sat down for the said meal, which started with pasta, then Lesley had fish, while I had a salad with a slice of Tortilla, this was followed with yogurt and all washed down with lots of red wine, all for the sum of 9 euros!

Following our meal we went to the abbey for the pilgrims mass and benediction, where we saw Donna the birthday girl from last night. After the mass was over I went for a nightcap with her, and she told me that we had faced 100 kph winds as we crossed the mountain.

After saying goodbye, I headed for the hostal which at 10 on the dot, was locked up and the lights were put out. After a reasonable nights sleep, at 6:30 the lights came slowly on and classical music was played to wake us all up. As a precaution, I had donned my eye patch and put in my ear plugs and at 6:45 Lesley had to gently prod me awake as I was the last person sleeping.

Before we left I had a long chat with one of the Dutch hospitalaros, who told me that they only did a two week stint at the hostal as early morning and late nights took their toll, especially if they had guests (as they had last night) who tried to get up at 4:30 to pack their bags and prepare to leave, and had to be told to go back to bed. She also told me about a book they kept with weird or unusual things that happened in the hostal. We are now in it as last night I had asked for a stamp for our Bear Gio´s pilgrims passport. Gio was their first pilgrim bear!

By 8 am we were on our way, walking through woods and meadows.

However, within a very short space of time we got lost, this happened again later in the day as well. In five weeks in France we got lost once, in 1 day in Spain we lost our way twice. After a couple of hours walk we stopped in a small village for coffee and a snack.

At about 1 we had our lunch of Chorizo and bread.

As we left the village of Zubiri the sky darkened and I said "it looks like rain" very soon after the heavens opened. We just had enough time to get waterproofs on before in came down in torrents, with great peals of thunder. Half an hour later, the sky cleared again and we began to roast in our waterproofs.

At about 4 we arrived at the town of Larrasoaña and went to the town hall to book in to the hostal. We had read that the mayor of Larrasoaña had made his own pilgrimage and knowing what pilgrims needed had set up the hostal. We had also heard good reports from our friends Sam and Martin, who had completed their own Camino a few years ago. Sadly things are now different, perhaps because of a change of mayor, the hostal has moved from the town hall to a converted garage across the road, where there must be about 30 or 40 beds all crammed in close together. The trouble is that there is only one toilet for men and one for women, which causes some log jams. However, every cloud has a silver lining and we discovered ours over beers and our meal later in the evening. It came in the form of three really nice people; Lucas from the Flemish part of Belgium who had begun his trip from his house, and had many tales to tell; then there was Gabriel a German Psychologist, and finally Jonas from Sweden, who is between jobs and fulfilling a dream of many years to walk the Camino. We had a great evening talking to the three of them, but there was also a bonus as well. Jonas had an Iphone, and when he heard our tale of woe about our charging cable, he brought his charger down to the restaurant where we ate, so Lesley and myself could recharge our Ipods. I was able to reciprocate the favour by showing him BlogPress the software we use for blogging. He was so impressed he immediately bought and downloaded it from Itunes as he had been having major problems with his blog that BlogPress should sort. this was the true spirit of the camino at its best, pilgrims helping each other with problems they face.

After a fantastic evening we headed back to the hostal contented with the world.

On the Camino in Spain

We Have Arived in Spain

2009-10-07T13:40:00.006+01:00

We started out this morning at about 8:30 to climb the rest of the way over the Pyrenees to Ronsvalles. At breakfast we said goodbye to Seb and Anne for the last time, it seems funny that we will not see them again on the trip, as we have kep´t bumping into them for the last two weeks at the most unexpected times.

We set off with overcast sky and the wind blowing quite hard straight into our faces, the path took us uphill all the way following a tarmac road. After about 8 km the then took a track which wound up towards the boarder between France and Spain.

The wind was blowing a steady force 5 but gusting sometimes 6 to 7. We arrived at what we thought was the border, at about 11 am.

However, it was unclear to us where the border lay exactly, was it by the concrete posts with numbers on or was it at the cattle grid we walked over. We rather think the latter and so took photos.

We planned to then send a text message to the blog with a picture of the actual moment, we did this but something went wrong in translation and the picture will not appear on the post as it should, I will try and post it via the phone later as we have already paid Vodaphone their exorbitant data charges for the day.

we are now at Ronsvalles but the pilgrims office and accommodation are shut until 4 pm reports of the accommodation are not favorable to say the least, but we will be able to report properly about all this tomorrow.

Look out for the photo´s if I am successful.

From the Camino in Spain.

St Jean Pied de Port to Auberge Orisson

2009-10-06T21:40:00.003+01:00

6th October 2009 - 9.89 km - 5.15 miles - Up 977 m Down 88 m

Our Hotel Saint Jead Pied de Port

We had a relaxed start this morning, getting up at a leisurely 8 am! After a visit to the post office to send French guide books etc. now surplus to requirements, we visited the supermarket to get in supplies.

The start of the Route de Napoleon, used to cross the Pyrenees by us and Napoleon and his army when he invaded Spain.

At 11:30 after coffee we set off and it was up hill all the way! Despite the forecast of rain we only had a few spots and soon the sun was out again as hot as ever. At 12:30 we stopped for lunch arriving at Orisson at 2 pm. The views back over where we have been have been magnificent.

As we sat reading, Seb and Anne appeared walking down from the Spanish border, where they finished their trip, we had hoped to see them again to say good bye, so our wish has been fulfilled.

Also at the Auberge was Donna an American from New Mexico who was celebrating her 62nd Birthday, and had carried up a large bottle of Champagne to celebrate. So after our final French meal of our Camino we toasted Donna with Champagne.

Tonight was an evening of beginnings, Middles and endings.

For Donna, Seb and Anne it's the end of their camino for this year. For us it marks the mid point of ours. While for an Australian couple Mike and Joan and for a young Italian couple who only got married on Saturday it marks the first day of their Camino.

As we came to bed we saw a fantastic red moon, and a sky covered in stars. A fantastic sight as we prepare to cross the border into Spain tomorrow.

On the Camino in France

Ostabat to St Jean

2009-10-05T18:15:00.005+01:00

This is only going to be a short post as I am using a French keyboard in an Internet cafe as our charging cable for our ipods fell apart this afternoon, just before I tried to charge my ipod.

We have tried in vain to get a cable but will have to wait till we get to Pamplona so if you don't hear from us for a few days this is the reason why!

The day started with a very red sunrise, and I immediately thought of the nursery rhyme Red sky at night shepherds delight, red sky in the morning shepherds warning. The day proved to be hot and sultry. Even though we had a very short distance to travel and the terrain was good it just seemed to take a lot of effort. We arrived at St Jean the official end of the French leg and beginning of the Spanish (even though we have another day's walking in France).

Porte Saint-Jacques, Saint-Jean_Pied-de-Port

Our first task was to check out the weather to decide on the optimum crossing time. Unfortunately after over a month of hot and dry weather it looks like it is going to turn tomorrow and Wednesday. As a result we are going to do our crossing of the Pyrenees over two days rather than one, and will set out tomorrow morning after we have done a few jobs. If between now and Pamplona I can get access to the net I will do a more detailed post on our time in St Jean and what ever else we have got up to.

On the Camino in France.

Friends Reunited And We Follow a Snail! Lichos to Gaineko Extea

2009-10-04T22:08:00.003+01:00

19.1 miles or 30.8 km Up 609 km down 615 km Last night at supper there had been a vote over what time to have breakfast. We had been outvoted so like good pilgrims we arived down at 7 am. None of the other guests were there! For breakfast there was homemade yoghurt, homemade breadmaker bread and homemade jam. So after a full repast we set off. Today was a day of options about the route we should take. The first choice was to follow the road (1.8 km shorter) or take a high level route on tracks with fantastic views. We decided to take the latter and were indeed rewarded by stunning views of the Pyrenees.

Some time later we came to our second choice of which route. Continue on the GR 65 or take the Escargot route: with a name like that we just had to. The route has been created by the owner of the Gite l'Escargot in the village of Uhart-Mixe which is bypassed by the GR 65, and took the traveller to Uhart-Mixe before rejoining the GR 65 a few km on. The route is waymarked by plaques with hand painted snails on them, rather than the usual red/white balises.

We had not passed any shops and had resigned ourselves to a lunch of peanuts, chocolate and cereal bars, as we thought we would not pass anything before 2 pm, but at 1 pm we heard a church tolling out the hour and realised that Uhart-Mixe was only a few minutes away.

We arived at the Gite l'Escargot to find that it was open and that it had a bar that served food. We also found Seb & Anne who were eating their lunch. They wanted to know if we had run to catch up as when we last saw them we were stopping at Pimbo while they had another 10 km to walk.

The bar served us an excelent vegetable soup, followed by a ham sandwich. After we had eaten and caught up on each others news we set off once more with the owner of the gite/bar taking us to the begining of the onward route. We made our way up and down hill to the village of Ostabat, where in medieval times they could accomodate 5000 pilgrims. Now they only have space for 10! But outside Ostabat at the farm of Gaineko Extea they have a lovely Gite for 30 where we stayed. Our room was of hotel quality, and had it's own area for sitting out.

Over supper we were entertained by our larger than life host, called Benat, who got us all singing Basque and French songs.

We were also fed grandly on food either produced on the farm or from the valley we were in. After another great evening it was time for bed before our last day on the Le Puy route.

On the Camino in France

La Sauvelade to Lichos - I plunge straight in!

2009-10-03T20:09:00.001+01:00

Today we walked 31.4 km or 19.6 miles we went up 279 m and down 290 m

Our fellow guests decided to get up at 6:30 and as they were quite noisy with door banging etc. we woke up as well. After a DIY breakfast (everything was provided but we had to fix it ourselves), we set off.

We are getting a reputation for fast walking as the Swiss lady in the gite, when she said goodbye said "you will probably pass me later as I have heard you are fast walkers" we said "possibly" but that we were like the hare in Aesop's fable of the tortoise and the hare as we also have lots of stops!

Our route took us through more rolling countryside with long smooth hills and then long descents to the valley bottom before rising up again to another hill crest. On the hill crests we had our first glimpses of the Pyrenees (they certainly look big, but I guess if Napoleon could invade Spain with a whole army, following our route over the Pyrenees, we should manage it as well)!

Large parts of the route were also through forest and we would occasionally glimpse men with long sticks, hunting for ceps, looking extremely furtive.

At midday we had reached the town of Navarrenx where we bought lunch, had an Orangina and unsuccessfully tried to post yesterday's blog. We also stopped by a gun shop. As I think we mentioned before, our friend Seb has a hi vis hat to stop him being confused with a rabbit by drunken hunters. I thought a hi vis hat might be good for misty mornings when walking beside roads. I am now the proud owner of a hi viz (orange) beany hat from the gun shop.

On the way out of town we got a bit confused about where we should go, and as we debated a plummy voice echoed across the street "can I help you?" it was a British ex-pat from London now living in Navarrenx, kindly offering assistance to his fellow countrymen. He told us the way to get out of town, but being a driver rather than a pilgrim he showed us the direct route rather the route up to and through the ramparts.

After lunch we stopped for a rest at a pate factory which has a rest area for pilgrims, we looked at the visitors book and the last entry was from Seb & Anne, who we last saw four days ago. As we rested I idly played with my iPod and discovered they had an open Wi-fi connection so was able to send my post.

After our rest we headed for our accommodation which for the first time was a Chambre de hote, a superior sort of B&B. After being shown our room, we were invited to shower and use the pool which I did, (I have the photo to prove it for those doubters). It was a bit bracing but once committed I had to upkeep British honour.

At 6:45 our hosts invited us into their living room for aperitifs. We then moved to the dining room for a bit of a feast. We started with charcuterie, this was followed by roast pork in a gravy, accompanied by a mix of vegetables. The cheese course followed with a selection of four very flavoursome cheeses, and to round off the meal was a very nice apple tart.

At table were ourselves, two Norwegians, the Swiss French lady (Carol) and our hosts (the only French people). Conversation was in a mixture of French and English and our hostess regailed us with hilarious tales of some of their guests. This included a tale of how at 6:15 that evening they had been phoned by a couple still in Navarrenx (about 2 to 3 hours walk away) wanting a room and meal that evening. Our hosts had told them that at that time of night they should stay in Navarrenx instead! It also transpired that the Norwegian couple were a retired Lutheran pastor and his wife. The difference between us was that Lutheran pastors have to be t-total: thank God for the good old C of E. Our hosts then told us that in their area one priest was covering 46 churches, even in North Norfolk we are not that desperate yet!

After a great evening we retired to our beds, ours being a double on a mezanine floor above a living space.

On the Camino in France

Pomps to La Sauvelade - Of Things That Go Bump in the Night

2009-10-03T14:04:00.002+01:00

Today we walked 33.8 km or 21 miles.
We went up 283 m and down 461 m

Dear reader, today I start my blog by saying we are puzzled. Everyday we read up the distances we are due to travel, I reset my GPS to zero and we walk, but when we get to our destination, according to the GPS we have invariably walked far more kms than we should. Take today for example the book said 26 km, yet the GPS said 33.8 km. Do any of our readers know why? Can GPS's be that far out, or can they suggest another reason for the discrepancies?

Anyway, back to the Blog. After the repast I reported on last night, we sat down and finished a nice bottle of rose we had picked up at the local shop. We then adjourned to the portacabin to sleep: the Norwegians had gone to bed at 8:30. We settled down but there was a lot of voices of people talking outside. The village is due to be "en fête" over the weekend and so the locals were getting ready as the sports hall we were attached to was the centre of operations. Apparently at gone 1:30 am there were voices and bangings in the kitchen, and when I got up at 5:30 and went out, there were cars outside and lights on in the main hall. When we went to breakfast at just after 7, we discovered what some of the banging in the kitchen was all about, as the fridge freezer had gone walkabout, along with it's contents of various pilgrims lunches, in it's place was a very dirty hole. One of the Frenchman went off and managed to recover the lunches, and the milk for our breakfast.

Our hope is that the good people of Pomps are not too tired after all their early morning fridge moving to enjoy their festivities!

We set off on our way again towards the Pyrenees, realising that we have less than 100 km to do to get to the boarder with Spain! The walking has changed again with rolling hills and ridge walking, including a ridge walk through the town of Arthrez-de-Bearn which is a very thin town and stretches for 2 km along a ridge. While we walked through, Paul the Swiss man we met last night, called us from a window to say he was staying for a couple of days to rest, which is probably what he needs with the schedule he has been following, which has been far tougher than ours.

A French Nuclear Power Station

We arrived at La Sauvelade our Eventual destination for the night, at 4:40. We have our own room in a very modern and clean Gite. At supper we sat down with 1 Swiss lady and four French people from Bordeaux. It turned out that one of the French women, had a pen friend in Wells next the Sea and last year visited Wells! It certainly is a small world.

Who knows how much smaller it will get before our trip ends.

On the Camino in France

Thursday October 1st - Pimbo to Pomps

2009-10-01T20:30:00.001+01:00

Daily totals:- 21.5 miles, 35.6 km
Up 450m Down 511m

After a good evening and a reasonable night's sleep, we took our leave of Pimbo.

As we walked we saw hundreds of swallows sitting on the power lines, obviously on their migration back to Africa.

Our first stop was the town of Arzacq-Arrazigust, a town with two town squares and of course we first picked the one whose boulangerie was shut, requiring a detour to the other square and the second boulangerie!

At the next village of Louvigny we stopped for morning prayer. As we set off again, we looked on our iPods to see if there were any open Wi-fi connections. We were so intent on our hunt that we missed a waymark and carried straight on and only confirmed our mistake after 1 km.

When we got back on the right track, at the next hamlet we discovered Wi-fi at the first house.

We passed from arable sweetcorn monoculture back into cattle country before ending back in sweetcorn country, but a much greener country with green grass, rather than brown dried grass.

For the last km of our walk we walked with a very lonely Swiss man, who is loosing his eyesight due to glaucoma and in a short time told us his life story and family history. He was obviously in need of company, but our ways had to part as he was walking a further 10 km than us, but we listened while we could.

Our journey ended in the village of Pomps. We are staying in the village Gite that our guide book describes in this way:- "Spartan gite accommodation available in sports hall". We were shown by the man who runs the gite into a portakabin, stuffed full of beds, they also have beds in the men's and women's changing rooms. We selected two and paid the man.

We then decided to avail ourselves of the washing machine which took about 1 & 3/4 hours for the cycle!

At 7 all the guests assembled for our meal, two English, two Norwegians and seven French. The French people were not happy bunnies to say the least with the food.

The food came altogether on a trolley, including everything for breakfast. Our starter was a thin watery soup, with a little bit of onion floating in it. The main was pork and veg cooked in red wine with rice. The cheese course was a square of processed cheese similar to Laughing Cow cheese, this was followed by an apple tart.

I don't know if it was the food (It wasn't the best, but I have eaten much much worse) or a perceived blow to national pride, because as we all know, the French do (quite rightly) take a great deal of pride in their cuisine.

But at the end of the day for 10€ it was value for money.

Over the last month we have received loads of comments from friends and family, we really enjoyed receiving them, and they make all the typing worth while. I'm sorry that I can't respond to everyone. But please do keep them coming.

It is also my intention to add photos to the blog but to do this we need Internet cafes, which are few and far between, here in rural France.

Love Jeremy and Lesley

On the Camino in France

Aire-sur-l'Adour to Pimbo - A Tale of Armagnac and Priests and An Empty Gite

2009-09-30T22:19:00.001+01:00

Daily data:- 19.8 miles, 31.8 KM
Up 377 m down 309 m

In the common room of our Gite there was a set of scales hanging from the ceiling, so before we all set off, we decided to weigh our rucksacks. The lightest two were Lesley's an Anne's weighing in at just over 9 kg, these were followed by Seb's and mine at 10 kg, but the prize for the heavy weight champion of the Gite went to the older Frenchman whose sack weighed a staggering 13.5 kg (that was before he added two aluminium bottles of water)!

Our way this morning was a bit baffling. We left town in the usual way (up hill), the way marks as well as being the usual Red/white balises, were also blue and yellow scallop symbols on a yellow arrow pointing the correct way. In places the red/whites had become faded, but the new signs were always there. We passed by a big man made lake. Soon the red/white balises disappeared altogether, but there was always the new style signs in sight.

After a while we got a bit twitchy as we had expected some off road walking and it had not materialised. We decided to check or British guide book and our French accommodation guide (it has a simple map of the camino in it) to work out where we were: neither bore any resemblance to the route we had been walking! What should we do, go back or trust these new signs? We decided to have faith and in the spirit of pilgrimage and the pilgrim chant of 'Ultreia' (ever onwards) we continued.

At a corner where the signage was a bit indistinct, we stopped and consulted the books again. We had just worked out where we thought we were, when two German men came up and said "you must follow the yellow", so we were now more convinced this was the way to go. Shortly after we were rewarded with a familiar red/white balise.

Our path took us along the right route for about 2km before our guide books and the reality on the ground differed again. The reason we concluded was that they were building a new major trunk road and the Camino had been redirected to avoid it. It also meant that we missed our first village and water point, and in fact we did not visit a village for 20km, when we came to the village of Miramont-Sensacq.

It was after 1pm so we decided to go into the church and say mid-day prayer and then have our lunch. As we sat in the shade with our boots off, beginning to prepare our picnic, a man came over dressed in jeans and an open shirt, "were we pilgrims?" he asked, "yes" we said, and in conversation we told him of our trip. He then told us he was the parish Priest Fr. Roger. Lesley explained that I was also a Priest in the C of E. When he heard this he asked if we would like the parish stamp in our Pilgrim's passport and also a cup of coffee once we had finished our lunch. So following our lunch, we went to Fr. Roger's house, where he stamped our passports and then settled us into his living room whilst he made us coffee.

We then had a chat about our churches etc. He wanted to know how the Anglican Church fared in numbers on a Sunday and in numbers of Priests. In terms of attendance, we both had similar stories to tell each other. He then told us that he and one other priest were responsible for between 16 and 20 parishes, spread over quite a large area (sounds like rural Norfolk!).

Fr. Roger then told us that he had been able to walk the last 100km of the Camino to Santiago himself, but gave the impression that he would like to do the whole walk, if he had the time.

He asked if we liked French cuisine to which we replied 'yes'. As a conversation piece, I also said I liked Armagnac. Fr. Roger asked if I would like one, I said yes, and so he opened a cupboard with about 10 or 15 bottles of different Armagnacs, pulled out a bottle and poured me an Armagnac into my coffee cup.

After I had consumed the drink, we took our leave and after much handshaking resumed our journey, buoyed up by the friendly welcome of this hard working Priest.

We were grateful that we had decided to stop in the village of Pimbo tonight rather than go on to the next town another 7km away, as it meant that we could spend time with Fr. Roger, because after all this is what pilgrimage is all about, encounters with many different and varied people.

We were also grateful when we got to Pimbo and were shown into the Gite by the lady from the tourist office. There was a five bed bedroom, a kitchen / common room with a terrace, bathroom etc. And by six when the tourist office closed, we realised that we had this all to ourselves.

We did our laundry and hung it outside to dry, we then went to explore and discovered a little winery in the village near the church. Unfortunately it was closed, so we went to the Church for evening prayer and then back to the Gite to make our meal. As it was cooking I popped back to the winery, found the owner and tasted and bought a very nice bottle of his wine which we had with our meal. As the evening was warm we ate out on the terrace looking fantastic views of some of the countryside we had travelled across.

Tonight was the second time I regretted not having a car, so I could take a couple of cases of Pimbo wine home with me!

On the Camino in France

Arblade-le-Haut to Aire sur-l'Adour - A Day of the True Pilgrim Spirit

2009-09-29T21:20:00.007+01:00

Daily totals:- 28.6 km (17.8 miles) up 216m down 192m

As with previous days this week, the day started with a thick mist which did not burn off until about mid-day. After breakfast, we set out walking. Our first task was to rejoin the camino as we were off piste, this we did after a couple of KMs. Again the way took us through fields of grape vines, either freshly harvested or heavy with grapes awaiting the harvest. After about 6km, we came across a small church where we stopped to say morning prayer. As we prayed a French couple came in for their own prayers. We left them to their contemplation and carried on our way.

We soon encountered one of the groups of what we call "plastic pilgrims" (a large group, who book up all the accommodation, have a car to take their baggage from A to B, so they walk with tiny daysacks, and at lunch time bring them a sumptuous picnic with coffee, wine and all the trimmings). This particular group were also taking bunches of grapes off the vines, eating a few and then discarding the rest.

We lost this group at lunchtime as they stopped to await their caterers.

Our host at Arblade-le-Haut had been keen to suggest another shorter route to Aire-sur-l'Adour, which he thought was prettier, but we had decided to follow the official GR65 route instead. At about 1pm our route turned a sharp right to walk beside a railway line. At the turn was a notice board empty except a notice in a sandwich bag that read in large letters "Jeremy + Leslie Norfolk England".

It was a note from the three original Canadian women, Maureen, Melanie and Nadine, saying "hope this finds you + your feet + pilgrim bear are well. This is our last day". It was dated the 24th and had been waiting for us for 5 days. We had last seen the girls in Cahors where they were leap frogging to Condom as they had done that leg already. Also left with the note was a fruit bar from someone from Quebec - if you ever read this blog girls, it was great to find your note and it really boosted our spirits. We hope the rest of your Camino goes well over the next few years.

Buoyed up, we went on our way. A little while later we came across a bench with signs and notices inviting pilgrims to take a rest. We were also invited to help ourselves to drinks and fruit, but, alas there was none. The bench had been put there by a lady called Elizabeth to aid pilgrims on their way.

A little later on we stopped for lunch, and as we sat the French couple who had come into the church during our morning prayer passed, stopping to have a chat with us about our journey.

We continued towards Aire-sur-l'Adour passing by a couple of large supermarkets and walking along a busy main road before crossing the river Adour on a bridge festooned with flags of all the European nations reaching the town of Aire-sur-l'Adour itself.

We stopped at the Office de Tourisme, to get directions to our gite, the totally aptly named "La Maison des Pelerins" owned and run by a former pilgrim. Before we got there we liked the fact that Jean-Michel the owner would not let large groups block book the accommodation. In some ways the house reminded us of the Tea Houses we stayed in Nepal, even down to the Buddhist pray flags and picture of the Dali Lama! As accommodation went it was what Pilgrims accommodation should be about. It wasn't glitzy like some of the places we have stayed, it was simple and down to earth, with a large kitchen for us to cook in, laundry facilities, simple but clean bedrooms, bathrooms an loos and a comfortable common room to relax in.

We arrived and after booking in, were greeted by Seb and Ann our French friends, who offered to cook for us all. After the usual washing and showering we headed into town and found an open Wi-Fi spot, posted our blogs and picked up emails from friends and family. Over a glass of beer I also started to catch up on the latest goings on from Ambridge which I haven't heard for a month.

We headed back to the Gite and offered to help with the cooking, but were turned down as Seb wanted to cook for us! We relaxed in the common room and I phoned Dad to wish him a happy birthday. We then sat down to eat, Seb had cooked a wonderful tagliatelle dish, with turkey and goats cheese. Accompanied with a lovely green salad. We were joined for the meal by Gwen a Breton who was on his own, and had been invited by Seb to join us, at the table were an older French couple eating their meal, with us all joining in the conversation and sharing our wine. Once we had cleared away Ann sat down and played the piano, while Gwen played a guitar and sung old British and American pop songs. All in all it was a fantastic day.

When we had set out this was what I had imagined the camino spirit to be about, but had not fully experienced, today we had had it in spades!

On the Camino in France

Lost and stung - Eauze to Arblade le Haut

2009-09-28T21:41:00.002+01:00

I woke up with a stinking headache, (and no before you say it, it was not because of too much red wine! - we had Rose). Outside there was a heavy mist. After breakfast we made visits to the patisserie, the chemist and the church, and then we were off.

For a second day we were walking through fields full of grapevines, and the harvest is beginning to be in full swing.

Like me you probably have a picture of bronzed men and women with wicker baskets on their backs, carefully cutting each bunch of the vine and placing them in the basket.

The reality is very different! One man drives a large machine over the tops of the grapevines and this machine harvests the grapes, which are then put into large skips (like the ones at council tips in the UK) and the grapes are then taken to a factory for processing.

All morning we had been following at a distance the young French couple (Seb & Anne) we had met last night. Seb was wearing a very bright hi viz orange hat. A little while later we passed them and said to Seb how much his hat showed up. He told us that he was wearing it as a precaution against hunters because he said "I am not a rabbit" and a drunken hunter could well confuse a six foot Frenchman with a 9 inch rabbit! I don't have a hi vis hat, but I do have a bright orange "Mr Easyjet" rucksack so hopefully hunters should not confuse Lesley and myself for rabbits either.

When we reached the town of Manciet we had to cross a major trunk road using a road bridge. As we crossed we could smell the grape lorries as they passed underneath. We stopped at the church to say midday prayer, only to find it shut. There was however, an oratory of St James, (a small room with a window looking into the church, and just behind the window was a picture of St James). So we stopped and said the office, before continuing on our way.

We left the town passing a scrapyard before continuing in open countryside, as we went up a small hill I heard a shout from Lesley, looked around to see her all contorted, I asked what was wrong, "I'm being stung by a bee" I leaped into action removing the offending insect, which then turned around and stung me on the arm. "it's gone I said", "no it's not, it's just stung me on the ear" said Lesley. It turned out two bees had attacked Lesley, I had got no 2, who had got me, but no 1 had already stung Lesley. I removed the stings from both of us and as a precaution we both took an anti-histamine.

It was about half an hour later that we realised that we had not seen a balise marking the route for a while, also where there was a possible left or right there were no balises indicating a turn. I was then worried we might have taken the wrong route. We read our guide book and concluded that we had missed a right turn 2.5 km back. We turned around and retraced our steps. As our last map for the route ran out just before Condom, (and we have been unable to buy the next one), we couldn't look for an alternative route.

We also realised that the route back would probably take us past the irate Bees again. However, luck was on our side, after retracing our steps for about 1km we came to a side road with signs to a gite and church we knew were on our route, so we took the turn and after another km regained the correct route.

As we retraced our steps we reflected that in nearly three weeks and over 500 km of walking this was the first time we had gone wrong, which is not a bad achievement. We also mused that perhaps the bees had been trying to tell Lesley that we had gone the wrong way, as they were buzzing in her ear, and perhaps they had stung her in frustration when she hadn't listened!

Eventually we got back on the route and came to the church of Sainte Christie where we stopped for lunch, but unfortunately the church was locked, as ever a disappointment. After lunch we continued to the town of Nogaro where we bumped into Seb and Ann again who had wondered what had happened to us as they had not seen us, so we explained that we went wrong.

After getting something for tomorrow's lunch, and a glass of Orangina we set out to walk the last 2.5 km to our nights halt at Arblade de Haut, (all up hill of course!) we arrived at our gite and were welcomed with a cold glass of mint squash, before our host showed us to our room. After the usual round of showers and washing, we sat on the terrace with our hosts and our fellow guests (including Seb & Anne) for a beer.

There were 11 of us who sat down for supper, we 2 Brits, 3 Germans and 6 French people. With great ceremony our host brought out two bottles of Floc de Gascogne, the drink we had first tasted at Therese's in Miradoux, he explained that it was grape juice fortified with Armagnac. The Floc was followed by a courgette soup, a lightly spiced tagine type dish from Reunion, served with rice, and a desert similar to Breton fa with Apple.

Over dinner we talked with Seb and Anne, and in conversation the speed of my walking came up. Lesley had been commenting on how after 28km I was still walking at the same (fast) pace. Seb said he had noticed that I seemed to keep on going and that they had nicknamed me the Terminator, as like Arni in the film I was relentless. I found this quite funny. Seb and Anne are also doing a blog and so we swapped blog addresses.

Finally a happy birthday to my dad for tomorrow 29th September.

On the Camino in France

Condom to Eauze

2009-09-27T22:55:00.003+01:00

Distance 20.8 miles or 33.5 km
Up 289m down 296m

The accommodation determines the distance!

We set off bright and early, with just a brief stop at a patisserie, (we had spied out yesterday), to get our breakfast. We started our day's walk by walking alongside the river, before heading inland. At first we walked through the usual freshly ploughed fields, occasionally spying out hunters touting shotguns, or hearing their guns go off. Very soon the terrain began to change and we were surrounded by grape vines, growing grapes of at least three different varieties that I could spot (so in truth there were probably about 10 or 20).

The grape vines spread in neat rows for acre upon acre. As our path took us through the vines it was tempting to go and help myself to a grape or two, however, after our discussion about scrumping with Georgina Sykes and our feelings when we had seen others helping themselves to other farmers crops, it wasn't hard to resist the urge.

At about 12 we came to the town of Montreal-du-Gers, which was just starting to gear itself up for a fête, with a silver band, pony rides, a bouncy castle, a bar and much, much more. We slipped into the church for morning prayer and continued on our way.

For the last half of our walk we walked on the bed of an old railway line, passing an old station for the village of Bretagne d'Armagnac, aptly named as the station yard was full of vans and cars with British registrations.

Despite the distance the first 29 km were quite easy, it was the last 4.5 km which was the killer and seemed to last for 30 or 40 km!

We eventually arrived at Eauze to find that to get in the gite you booked in at the tourist office, which was closed. The office had a list of room allocations already made, which included a group of 15. The chances were that there wouldn't be a place for us, so we checked into a budget hotel instead.

It seems however, that we are suffering at the moment from the curse of the toilets. Last night the loo in our room kept on filling and filling unless we took the lid off and fiddled with the innards. Tonight it's a dodgy seat only attached on one side. The trouble with limited French is it's not easy to explain these problems!

We had gone demi-pension to save us setting out again to find food. So after a beer we went to the restaurant. The thing about demi-pension is you don't know what you are getting until it arrives. The starters came: a green salad with Anchovies. Not good for me, with my fish allergy. I gave Lesley the anchovies and hoped for the best. When the main course came, I was on cloud nine but Lesley was not so happy, as we were presented with steak and chips, the steaks being cooked Bleu. After a short discussion I called the waitress over, pointed to Lesley's steak and before I could say anything else she said bien cuit, (would you like it cooked a bit more - she obviously knew the British palate). Lesley accepted her offer whilst I declined, and shortly afterward the steak arrived back rare, the nearest a French chef can bring himself to cook a steak to well done!

Whilst having our beer before our meal we bumped into a young French couple we had seen walking the camino on a number of occasions over the last week or so, but had never spoken to before, the man spoke excellent English having learnt it so he could understand the jokes in Monty Pythons flying circus properly. They were enjoying the camino but felt that sometimes with the number of large groups of walkers it was a bit like a production line rather than a pilgrimage. Like us they are keeping a blog, but unlike us prior to this trip they had never walked, but were very much enjoying the experience. They are walking as far as St Jean Pied-de-Port so hopefully we will see more of them.

On the Camino in France

A rest day in Condom

2009-09-26T22:01:00.000+01:00

When we left Figeac we had planned to have a rest day in Condom. The original plan was to arrive here today (Saturday) just before lunch and leave either tommorow afternoon or Monday morning. However, because of the night halts, the ease of the terrain and our improved fitness after twenty days of walking, we brought forward our plans and arrived yesterday afternoon.

Before we went to bed, we had been told by the hotel owner that we could have breakfast at any time we wanted as it was entirely self service. In a corridor on the ground floor, they had set out our breakfast, and in a fridge nearby they had left orange juice, butter, jam and milk. A gas ring and saucepan had been provided for us to heat our water and milk, and the timing was up to us!

After breakfast we set out to explore. From our room we had a fine view of the Cathedral tower and the river.

We decided to go first to the cathedral and say morning prayer, before we did anything else.

From the outside it's a magnificant building, and the inside it's equally impressive. The fabric is well cared for and it is obviously a place that has been prayed in for centuries, and gives you a sense of peace and the presence of God as soon as you go in and sit down.

This sense of the other, is aided by organ and choral music being gently played through the church's sound system (something I have noticed in many French churches).

Condom cathedral is somewhere that both of us felt we could spend hours in, and is, we felt, one of the most "spiritual" churches we have been in on the pilgrimage so far.

It was now 11am and we decided to visit La Poste again to see if the iPod had arived. (In truth both of us expected it not to have, due to the industrial action in England, and we had been looking at how to get back to Condom from places further along on the trip). I presented my passport, the lady went to the cupboard for Post Restante letters and came back with not just one but two jiffy bags for us. One was my iPod fixed and firing on all four cylinders thanks to the ministrations of Nick. The other a food parcel from Meryl. We immediately headed for a cafe with wi-fi to send them an e-mail to say the parcels had safely arived.

As it was a nice day, we decided to have a walk along the river and also check out where the Camino left town, ready for tomorrow. On the river were a group of youngsters messing about in canoes and obviously having a whale of a time.

On the way back we had to weave our way around men playing petanque on a gravel square opposite our hotel.

By this time it was lunch time so we bought a few bits from a pattiserie and ate them sitting in the sun.

In the afternoon we went to a cyber cafe to upload our pictures and then did some shopping, before a meal and bed.

On the Camino in France

Marsolan to Condom - A day of plans thwarted.

2009-09-25T21:15:00.001+01:00

The figures for the day 15.6 miles/25.1km - up 427m & down 525 m

We set out bright and early, with all our clothes clean and dried and no sign of a black spaniel! As usual, after 5 minutes we stopped to stretch, as we have been taught by Tonya our Nordic and power walking instructor at Pinewoods Gym.

After 5km we had a choice, either to take a 6km shortcut or follow the correct route around two sides of a triangle to the village of La Romieu. La Romieu's claim to fame is it's very large church, built when thousands of pilgrims were passing through every month in the middle ages. We had decided that we would where possible follow the historic path of the camino, and so we plumped for going to La Romieu and planned to stop in the church to say morning prayer.

The approach to La Romieu was fantastic, after walking through acres of ploughed fields or fields in the process of being ploughed, we were now walking through acres of apple orchards. We turned a corner and there was La Romieu in all it's glory, and at it's centre the fantastic looking church.

As we entered the village we discovered it's other claim to fame, it is the village of Cats (a place my sister in law, Meryl, would love), on walls, peeking out of windows, roofs, and signs are stone cats, lots and lots of them.

We moved into the village and looked into the cloister of the church where we saw a sign "to visit the Church tickets can be bought at the tourist information". We were not happy, the great churches in Le Puy, Conques, Figeac and Moissac hadn't charged for people to enter, so why did La Romieu? We will never know the answer as we decided not to go in! The only door we darkened was that of the pattiserie where I bought gorgeous, if somewhat overpriced, Florentines. We then left La Romieu for good, and travelled on, saying morning prayer and eating our Florentines in the next village.

The sun was getting hotter and hotter as we continued on, passing into grape country with acre upon acre of grape vines, which I had been expecting as Condom is the centre of the Armagnac industry. Walking over the brow of a hill we saw Condom laid out before us, there was a rustle in the undergrowth and Lesley saw a snake (about four foot long) disappearing into the undergrowth, (I had also seen a similar specimen on the canal towpath a few days ago).

As we reached the town centre I spied the La Poste and we popped in to get my iPod, unfortunately due to industrial action in the UK it hadn't arrived, so we agreed that we would return tomorrow morning to retrieve it.

After a quick visit to tourist information to get a map, we headed to our proposed hotel for the next two nights, only to find it closed until 4:30. So still encumbered with our rucksacks we headed back into town for a drink until it opened.

At 4:30 we went back and sorted a room, we asked for demi-pension for tonight and just a bed for tomorrow, to which the owner agreed. He then told us the meal would be at 8pm. So after showers and laundry we headed back to town for a beer. As we had the munch we picked up some peanuts to eat with our beer. At the bar we picked, when 7pm came along, the bar man brought out dishes of chips and more peanuts. Quite full, we headed back to our hotel for our meal. The chips were a mistake! The meal we were presented with started with vegetable soup, this was followed by a massive salad with charcutarie. We were then presented with poulet with spaghetti bolognaise. And if that was not enough, a pudding doused in Armagnac.

Hopefully after that little lot we will be able to sleep!

On the Camino in France

Miradoux to Marsolan

2009-09-25T09:57:00.001+01:00

Today we went up 365m and down 428m. And we walked 27.3 km or 17 miles.

After a restful night's sleep we got up and went to breakfast, which was just as chaotic as supper, with Therese dressed in a large flowing caftan trying to cater to every one's needs including boiling up a litre of milk for my hot chocolate.

Staying in the house with us, was a German lad from Hanover, who whilst camping in the woods had done something to the tendons in his foot. He had tried to limp on but had to give up and had been sent to Therese by someone in the village as she had been a nurse. She had taken him to the doctor, applied ice packs, and given him foot massages.

His foot which had been very swollen looked better but it was still painful so Therese was taking him off to Lectoure (the nearest large town) to see a different doctor for a second opinion.

So with hurried goodbyes we took our leave of this wonderful lady. This was one of those encounters, which is what pilgrimage is all about, and which you would never have if you went on one of the pre-packaged trips on the Camino that many of our fellow walkers were taking.

Thus buoyed up, we went on our way. We stopped at the village of Castet-Arrouy to say morning prayer and were greeted by a pack of dogs, one, a black spaniel, tried to lick my legs and followed us into the church.

When we had finished and came out of the Church, the black spaniel decided to come with us, it obviously knew the route as it would range all over the fields in front of us, and then would be waiting at the turns in the track, almost saying to us "it's this way, come on you slow coaches". We told it to go home, and that it's owners would be worried about it, but it just wouldn't leave us alone.

(At this stage I had visions of our holiday walking the Corfu trail when a couple of stray dogs latched onto our group, and raided a chicken coup, resulting in an irate woman chasing after us and demanding compensation. When the dogs and some friends tried to follow us the next day, we thwarted them by blocking the exit to a pedestrian bridge over a fast flowing waterway with some pallets).

The dog had now been with us for over 5km but if we shouted at her all she did was slink and cower. The town of Lectoure was rapidly approaching and still the dog kept with us, as we got to the town she continued to lead us onwards.

As we approached the Cathedral, she went around a corner at the same time as we spied a nice little garden where we could have our lunch. We darted in, sat down and lunched, we had lost her at last! Perhaps she had now gone home, I didn't think she was a stray as she had a collar and tag, and seemed well fed as she did not try and beg when we had our eleven o'clock snack.

Over lunch we reviewed our options, should we stop here in Lectoure as planned or should we go further tonight and press on to Condom to pick up my iPod on Friday instead of Saturday. The decision hinged on accommodation at Marsolan, Lesley made a phone call, yes they had beds, so we decided to press on once we had explored the town.

Our first stop was the Cathedral: obviously it had a thriving congregation and was a much loved and well used building. Whilst in the Cathedral I discovered why I had been a bit uncomfortable walking this morning. Each night we wash out socks and underwear and then the next day, if it's not completely dry, we attach it to our rucksacks with nappy pins to finish the drying process. I discovered that I still had a nappy pin attached to my underwear, hence the discomfort!

After I had adjusted my hose, we then had a look round the rest of town. We then decided to have an Orangina before continuing on our way, so we popped into an open air bar we had seen. Unfortunately someone else had got there before us, the black spaniel! Should we turn tail and run, or should we sit down and have a drink? We decided to brave it out and ordered our drinks. Was the bar one of her regular stopping points (as she seemed quite at home?) Would she follow us again when we left? All these questions went through our minds, however, just before we planned to leave, the black spaniel trotted off never to be seen again.

Relieved, we continued on our way through vast rolling fields to the village of Marsolan to our Gite. When we arrived, our host explained that had been going to share our room with a French chap who had passed us on the road, but that he had changed his mind and upgraded to Chambre d'hote, (I didn't think we smelt that bad - after all we do take regular showers and wash our clothes). His decision worked to our favour as we had the room to ourselves. It was another hot day and we were able to get a lot of washing dried and settle down to relax in the Gite garden, before another fantastic meal. 15 of us sat down to eat and a very friendly Frenchman kept on plying us with wine so we slept very well.

On the Camino in France

Pommeric to Miradoux - A stay a difference

2009-09-23T16:33:00.002+01:00

23.8 km - 14.8 miles - up 428m down 305 m

After three long days of walking our feet were beginning to pay the price, so we decided to have a shorter day. After a breakfast of Croissant, Pain au chocolat and bread we set out.

The day was warm, despite a thick mist which obscured the view. After an abortive attempt to find some bread, we set off, first crossing the canal and river Garonne. We then started uphill to the lovely town of Auvillar where, because we were in search of bread, we missed seeing the Market Hall which is supposed to be a bit special.

Our route then took us through rolling countryside with massive fields, where corn or sunflowers had been growing.

We passed through a secession of beautiful villages with wonderful old buildings.

By 1 pm the sun had come out and it was getting hotter. As we passed an isolated house, the lady of the house called "hello" rather than the usual "bonjour". After a couple of steps it registered: we stopped and had a chat. They were ex-pats living in France who confessed that they knew very little French. Like the other English couple we met, they asked if we needed anything and if they could help in any way, which was very kind of them.

We travelled on to Saint-Antoine where we stopped for an Orangina and then had a picnic lunch.

From then on we travelled in a virtual straight line to the hill village of Flamarens,

which has a beautiful castle and a church that fell down in a major way about 15 years ago (reminding me of the old church at Hindolveston). From there it was four km to our final destination at Miradoux.

We had read in our guide books about places called "Accueil Pelerin": these are private houses owned by people who either have walked to Santiago or are committed to the Idea of the pilgrimage. They open their houses to fellow pilgrims to stay for the night or just pop in for a coffee on route, all for a donation.

Planning for our day, we had read that there was an Accueil Pelerin in Miradoux and so we decided to try one. The guide book also said that this one reserved a place for those who had not reserved a place.

We approached the house that was adorned with symbols of the camino, like some 1960's commune. As we looked at the house a lady in her 60's came out of the house "can I help you?" she asked, we plunged in, "have you two beds for tonight" asked Lesley, she said yes, and there was no turning back. The lady was Therese Fardo the owner of the house. She took us through a large room with a table, lots of chairs, and adorned with all sorts of pilgrim memorabilia, and a poster about reflexology on feet, to a back room with a double bed, a sink and a bidet, and asked if it was OK, we agreed and were then asked if we wanted a drink. We took off our boots and went back to the room, where Therese produced two beers. (it was only afterwards we realised all the other pilgrims were drinking tea). Perhaps Therese knew instinctively that for Brits there is nothing like a cold continental beer to slake our thirst!)

Therese then enquired if we had any washing, we suggested that we could do it in our room by hand, but Therese insisted that she had a machine and that it would be no bother, furthermore she would be putting a basket for our laundry outside our door. We retreated to our room and asked ourselves, was this Accueil Pelerin thing a mistake, especially for us who only spoke pidgin French. But the dice were cast, so we would have to go through with it.

We showered and gave Therese our dirty clothes, we then went to look at the village and say evening prayer in the church, before returning to Therese's for our evening meal. On our return Lesley was told how our washing had been hung out in the garden.

Eventually 7:30 arrived and all the pilgrims came and sat at the table. The table had been laid with eleven places, (two short of the number who eventually sat at table) with a mountain of fruit in the middle, about four bottles of wine, some nuts and sunflower seeds, which we all tucked into with abandon. Lesley thought that Therese had said that the meal would be salad and charchuterie. The meal proper, started with Therese bringing in some large bowls of salad in a lovely dressing, this was passed around while she opened a variety of cans of different pate. (Lesley was quick to point out that one was "head pate" and perhaps we might want to avoid it!) At that point Therese launched into a chorus of Ultreia, the pilgrims song we had learned at Conques, before toasting our venture.

As Therese has said salad and charcuterie we thought that was it, a reasonable meal for someone trying to feed the five thousand on a limited budget. Once the salad was cleared she disappeared, returning with plates of green beans mixed other veg and baked new potatoes. She disappeared again and brought in a tray of roasted pork, pork ribs and chicken (this was the charcuterie she had promised, not the pate). The trouble was that most people had filled up with salad, beans and potato, so had little appetite for the meat! However, I tried to do my best. This course was followed by cheese, washed down with a glass of Floc de Gasgoigne ( a local drink that tasted like a medium sweet Sherry). As we drunk we sung another round of Ultreia, before being serenaded by a couple of French women with a French pilgrims song they had found on the Internet, (we did briefly contemplate a rendition of "He who would valiant be", but thought better of it.)

The meal finished and between us we set about washing up. After this, Therese sat down to issue us with our pilgrims stamps. As she worked, we all slipped our contribution/donation into a pot in the shape of a mallard sitting on the sideboard.

After our fellow pilgrims had gone to bed we had a chat with Therese. It transpired that due to a disability she had never been able to do the pilgrimage as such, but saw her welcome to pilgrims as her particular pilgrimage! We were both humbled by both her dedication and generosity to pilgrims on their journey.

On the Camino France

St Martin to Pommevic - a towpath walk

2009-09-22T21:47:00.001+01:00

We walked 17.5 miles that's 28.2 km. Today we only went up 158m but went down 254 m

We had a comfortable night only disturbed by a clan of Mosquitoes determined to devour our flesh, a task they proved wonderfully adept at. We got up and went down to breakfast in the baronial dining room. A breakfast which for a change included both Orange juice and yogurt.

After she had got the children to school, Georgina joined us for a chat, telling us about the best and worst of being a Gite owner.

She told us of pilgrims with donkeys who she has seized because they were not properly looked after. This reminded me of a story from my dad, of pilgrims he met elsewhere in France who didn't even have a bucket for their beast. Dad had to lend them one, and show them how to use it!

We then got onto the subject of Pilgrims helping themselves to farmers crops. Apparently it is such a problem in that area, that the farmers resort to spraying the crop with a chalk mixture to make the crop unappetising to passing pilgrim scrumpers.

After putting the world to rights, reluctantly we took our leave of St Martin, and headed down the road towards Moissac where we intended to have lunch and visit the magnificent Cathedral and cloister.

The path was quite good and we made good time. We just stopped for morning prayer, (the Church we stopped at was locked, so we sat on a bench outside). Well before lunch we arrived and looked round the sights. We then found a restaurant where we had lunch before continuing to our night halt at Pommvic.

The afternoon walk was a total change from all we had done before. The book said we had a choice either do the usual up and down, or take a trip down the canal towpath instead.

We chose the towpath. It was long and straight and free from cars the only hazard being cyclists going at full tilt. For a change we decided to walk in our crocs instead of our boots, which made a refreshing change.

As we were changing footwear two boats full of New Zealanders came past shouting that boating was better than walking. On this occasion we had to disagree.

The canal stretched on and we passed three locks which with all French ingenuity are totally automated. Our towpath idyll had to end and at Pommivic where we crossed the canal and went into the village to find our hotel for the night. We availed ourselves of the free Wi-fi to catch up on E-mail, update the iPod, and post our blogs.

On the Camino in France

We stay with Mme. Sykes - Montcuq to St Martin

2009-09-21T16:56:00.001+01:00

When we saw the name in the guide book, how could we not book a night here! We had seen the name a few days ago and as we are pushing to get go Condom to pick up the iPod we thought we would get a few miles under our belts and come and stay - before I tell you about our stay let me talk about the rest of today.

We got up just before 7 and started to get our gear together before breakfast. After breakfast we hit the road, the sun was just peaking out from the clouds and so we set out. First we detoured into Montcuq to get bread and bumped into Terry (a French all the way pilgrim) who we had last seen in Espallion. It was great seeing an old face again after so many days.

Reunions over we set off, the book had suggested to me that we would have a gentle day, as there were no spot heights for any of the towns and villages we passed through. How wrong could I be, our morning was a series of long steep up hill climbs being followed by steep and sharp downhill sections.

The scenery was changing again with orchards of apples and plums (which some of our fellow pilgrims were going into the orchard and helping themselves to - we were not impressed.) Large fields were emerging and sunflowers were being grown in vast numbers. As well as more grapes, this time protected by plastic sheets.

Before lunch after a long climb we arrived in the beautiful hill village of Lauzerte where we stopped for orangina and saw our English and Swiss-German friends again.

Leaving town meant dropping down before rising up again steeply through the woods, arriving at a handily placed bench we stopped for our lunch, were we had fantastic views back over Lauzerete. We set off again passing an unusual and much photographed dovecote,

and then plunged down again to an old church which has recently been restored from virtual ruin.

The constant up up up then down down down continued and the distances seemed longer than stated in the book. We eventually arrived at the village of Dufort-Lacapalette our guide book said it was only 2.5 Km to St Martin, (1 km down the main road and then down a road to the right). But suddenly there were way marks pointing to the left into open country and it looked like it was going to go down steeply. I was not a happy bunny to say the least! We stopped, re-read our guide books and consulted our map. I had also seen a sign for another gite, with the word variant beside it. Terry then came along and in pidgin French/English we consulted together, at that point I decided that we would turn back and go by the road, a wise decision as it turned out. The route had been changed to pass the gite on the variant, it was all about local politics and the fact that the owner had political clout. However, if we had followed the revised route we would have added three km to our journey! Instead we arrived at our gite in St Martin a good 3/4 hours earlier than those who followed the waymarks.

At the entrance was a notice asking us to ring the bell, we did with a great reverberation, and Anthony and Sean came out to welcome us. Anthony was Mme. Sykes' French partner, while Sean was Anthony's very large Alsatian dog. We were greeted by the words "Mr and Mrs Sykes", (the first time in France our name was pronounced correctly) Anthony was absolutely tickled pink that someone with the same name as his partner would choose to stay at their gite. Soon Georgina came to join him with a refreshing glass of iced tea for each of us, and then their two little girls who wanted to see these strange people who had the same name as mummy. (if we had been there a few says before, there would have been another Mr & Mrs Sykes as Georgina's dad had been visiting.

They explained that they had put us in the house as in the Gite itself were a self catering group of six French people, and they thought we would be happier in the house with them.

Our room was full of motoring memorabilia from Anthony's days as a rally car driver in the Monte Carlo and the Paris-Dacca rallies.

For our meal we were at first shown into the salon a room of baronial proportions before moving to the dining room where the two of us sat at a table to seat about 20. We were then fed meal of wild boar pate, chilli, cheese (including one that Lesley said was OK) followed by a pudding, washed down with lots of red wine. Over cheese Anthony joined us to chat and after the girls had gone to bed Georgina joined us for a chat as well. We eventually went to bed at 10 after a great evening.

On the Camino in France

Cahors to Montcuq

2009-09-20T23:15:00.001+01:00

We walked 34 km that's 21.5 miles we also went up 552 m and down 404 m

We left Cahors in damp and overcast conditions. We had hoped to stop for bread at a patisserie we had spotted last night. Unfortunately it was closed. So we plodded on hoping to find another one before we left town. But none were open! We left town by the turreted Pont Valentre, and then we went up steeply to the Croix de Magne, a iron cross over looking the town, where we could see views of where we had come from yesterday and the bridges on which we had entered and left.

Our way took us slowly up hill, passing the gite of St Martin, which had a sign saying that there were no shops in any of the forthcoming villages but said they sold bread, I popped in and was offered a coffee and bread was provided, for a donation in their donation box, an establishment very much in the spirit of the camino.

We left in good spirits on a big dipper of a road through pine forests eventually rising to a ridge which we walked along for the next couple of hours.

We were at last out of the Causse and new vistas were opening up, large rolling down land interspersed with trees and slopes of grapes for the local Cahors wine.

We decided to stop for chocolate and morning prayer and the heavens decided to open, and it chucked it down in bucket loads. We donned cagoules and carried on for the next hour when we spotted a picnic site with a shelter where we stopped for our lunch.

Before leaving we got out over trousers as well and thus suitably equipped set out again. The rain continued and continued, and we carried on, our path took us over chalk uplands, which reminded me a bit of the Somme when we where there last year. As the mud stuck to our boots making them heavier and heavier I thought about those soldiers in the constant mud of the Somme and how awful it must have been. Eventually our path took us to a road, tarmac previously hated was now looked on as a blessing, as it was mud free!!

We eventually made it to our gite in Montcuq which was a welcome sight. It was at the Gite we met our first Englishman, walking the camino. He was from Oxford, and was walking with a Swiss German who is doing the walk prior to National Service. They are walking the route in double quick time having left Le Puy six days after us!

As we were talking to them over a beer, a French lady we had met previously on the trail with her husband and a friend came in and greeted us like long lost friends. The friend had left them in Cahors as he had to go back to work in Paris, an so she and her husband sat down with us and the Englishman and Swiss German man for supper. A great conversation ensued even though two and a half of us could not speak any but our own languages.

On the Camino in France

Poudally to Cahors - Saturday 19th September

2009-09-20T20:38:00.004+01:00

Le marquers sur la portes:- we walked 19.5 km or 12.2 miles. Over the day we went up 277 m and down 315 m.

After a wonderful meal we then spent an hour on the Internet, catching up on our mail etc. We then decided to go to bed, our roommates, a couple in their late seventies who we had seen on previous days on the camino,were up reading. (earlier in the evening when fellow guests had asked if they were touring the area they received a most short and offended answer of no we are on the Compostella!). After good nights we turned the lights of and as all was silence and dark I felt there was no need for precautions and so went to bed. at about 2:30 I was awakened by an erupting volcano, it was missure, producing the a series of crescendo snores. The ear plugs went in and I slept like a log until gone 7 am.

After breakfast we bade Poudally a fond farewell and started on our way. The weather wa a bit overcast but soon warmed up, the terrain was still the Causse and after nearly three days we were a bit fed up with and longed for a change of scenery.
About an our into the walk we came across a group of Austrians; with vehicle support whom we had met before, they had just been dropped off and were walking on the wrong side of the road to rest of us, this caused major problems with cars as they swerved to avoid the Austrians and headed straight for us, the problem was more exacerbated when we caught up with five of the six Canadian women (the sixth one having decided to travel with the baggage car on account of her bad feet).

At eleven we stopped for Chocolate and morning prayer and shortly after the heavens opened and we cowered under a tree until the worst was over, we then started walking again gradually going upward all the time and at last leaving the Causse as we emerged onto a ridge, by then the sun had come out and so we were able to shed our rain gear. We then started looking out for Cahors which was suddenly spread out before us, surrounded by the upturned U of the river Lot. Following a steep descent we entered the town crossing the Louis Philepe bridge, the first building we came to was an official welcome for pilgrims with Coffee, biscuits, pilgrim stamps and maps and information about the town, in return for our vital statistics, about where we came from, where we were going, our start and hoped for end etc.

Following the map so helpfully provided we then headed for the town's Youth Hostel, where we were staying, we were shown into a twin room; that also had its own loo, basin and bidet. (not things you would get in your average British youth hostel room!). However, because of its location etc. my hunch is that the hostel in in an old seminary; hence the posh rooms.

After showers and washing, we headed for the town, and after a walk looking at many of the fine buildings an a visit to the Cathedral for evening prayer, we stumbled upon a fantastic indoor market, were there were stalls selling proper veg with soil on it and veg of odd (non-supermarket) shapes and sizes, there were stalls selling Cheeses of all sorts of hues and colours and I would guess ripeness and smelliness! There were purveyors of fine meats both raw and cooked along with pre-made meals (French style of course) and wine including a litre bottle for 260€ I could have spent hours there and if I had had a car to bring it home, spent a fortune. It was in some ways a super Larners food hall.

Seeing all this culinary delight made us hungry and so we went looking for food, we pith agreed a break from French cuisine would be nice and so we plumped for a pizza!

If the spelling etc. is worse than usual its because I am using a French Keyboard which has all the keys in the wrong place.

From the Camino in France

Limogne-en-Query to Poudally (Mas de Vers)

2009-09-19T15:53:00.002+01:00

Friday 18th September
Today we walked 23.7 km or 14.7 miles
The GPS says we went up 245 m and down 365m (however, the weather conditions will have affected the altimeter as it works on barometric pressure.)

When our room mates said goodnight to us at about 8 pm last night, our hearts sunk, was this going to be another of those 6:30 wake ups, or was it going to be even earlier?

I didn't have a fantastic nights sleep as I was worried about snoring so kept on waking up to make sure I wasn't! After 1 am I gave up worrying and decided to get some real sleep, regardless of the consequences. I woke up at 6 and looked at my watch, and thought I would get another half hour before the others started to get up, at 7:10 when Lesley's alarm went off and they still didn't stir I wondered are they both alive? All was revealed when they were about to go and told us they had finished their walk for this year.

Looking out of the window we saw that it had rained in the night, but now the sun was shinning brightly, just as we were about to leave the heavens opened and the rain came down in buckets. So as we only had a relatively short distance to go we decided to wait until the deluge had abated. We set out dressed in our rain gear but after we had stopped at the bakery, the sun had come out and we packed our rain gear away.

The walking was very similar to yesterday as we are still walking across the Causse, a couple of times in the morning the rain started, we got out our rain gear, and within five minutes we were sweltering and had to take them off again.

We stopped for lunch in the village of Bach but after we had finished we had to dive into the Church to avoid a three minute shower and lots of rolls of thunder. For the rest of the afternoon, we kept just in front of the storm, only donning our rain gear for the last hour.

On the way we bumped into three of the Canadians one had very painful feet and so was taking in slowly. By the time we got to Poudally the heavens had opened and the storm was raging about us with lightening as well as thunder, autumn has now come to this corner of France with a bang!

After a shower and change of clothes we felt a lot better, Poudally is an old farm that has been renovated by it hardworking young owners, who in the rooms have successfully mixed the old with the new.

We went outside to check our phone for texts to discover my iPod had safely arrived in England and had been revived from the dead, but with the loss of all my data, as it had suffered a major crash, Nick our family techno wiz, is going to reload what he can and then post it back. We therefore had to work out where we would be in a weeks time, to give it time to get here. Hopefully we will be reunited with the iPod in Condom in a weeks time.

Our hosts cooked us a lovely three course meal of soup, duck and pudding, and we and our fellow guests sat around talking over coffee (well they all talked in quick fire French and we tried to pick up as much as we could). The conversation ended with a long discussion about bed bugs, their detection and elimination, they are a particular problem on this route because of the number of pilgrims and walkers. We had already heard of one place that had been closed for 24 hours while a cleaning squad went in. Our host blamed the gites communal, as they weren't in her opinion as thorough in their cleaning as someone like her. I'm sure it psychosomatic but since the conversation I have been itching.

On the Camino in France

An easier day - Cajarc to Limogne-en-Quercy

2009-09-19T15:52:00.002+01:00

Totals for today:- We walked 11.8 miles or 18.9 km and over the day we climbed 365 m and dropped down 350 m

After our longer walk yesterday, and also because of where the reasonable priced accommodation lies, we had decided on an easier day to Limogne-de-Query.

Last night when we went to bed at about 10 pm it was to a darkened dorm, all our French (and 1 Belgium) room mates having gone to bed about 9 pm. Again we had a bright emergency light, so out came the eye mask and earplugs.

At about 11:30 the silence was shattered by some crescendo of snoring (it starts quietly and ends in an ear splitting fanfare). After 10 minutes of gentle prodding Lesley managed to wake me up, tell me I was keeping the rest of the dorm awake, and get some sleep herself.

Our roommates got their revenge! At 6:30 an alarm on a phone went off, and for the next half hour or so all we heard was the rustle, rustle of rucksacks being packed. I pretended to be asleep so they didn't know they had won.

We got up at about 7.30, picked up the usual pain au chocolat (or as Lesley loves to call it Choc au pain - to the confusion of the assistants) for breakfast and bread for lunch, and headed for the cafe with free wi-fi access for a cup of coffee and to post yesterday's blog.

We then set off, and for once the trail was kind with the first 2 or 3 km on flat or gently rising ground, walking through fields of sweetcorn and past orchards of Walnut trees. We then gradually began to climb up onto the "causse" a limestone plateau. In fact it was the same sort of terrain that we had walked on yesterday, with the stunted oaks, beginning to show their autumn colours, but now it had a name! The sun came out and we had a great walk.

Before hitting the causse, we had stopped for a comfort break and been overtaken by a group of about 25+ Germans. Not wanting to be stuck behind them on narrow tracks, we power walked past them.

About ten minutes later we heard voices ahead and noticed bright floral hats. I said to Lesley "it's the Canadians" we had met the three Canadian women in Noailhac, and spoken to them more fully in Decazeville when we had an Orangina break. We then seen them again in Figeac when they had shouted to us from a bar. We had expected to see them yesterday but hadn't seen them.

When we saw them today they had multiplied into six as three other friends had joined them, we said we had expected to see them yesterday and they explained how they had got lost and at five pm a friendly native had called them a taxi to get them to Cajarc. We warned them about the large group following us and so they all set off again.

About an hour later we stopped for water and a break, followed closely on our heals by the Germans who we discovered had full vehicle support from a luxury coach, (surely they won't get as many years off from purgatory as us who carry everything? - that is if you believe going on pilgrimage is about gaining brownie points in heaven!) Which does seem a bit like cheating to us.

As we only had a short way to stopped for a leisurely lunch and got into Limogne at about 3:30. As the gite had a well equip ed kitchen we decided to cook and so bought supplies at the local shop and cooked pasta with pesto, finishing the evening with a game of Scrabble.

On the Camino in France

Figeac - Cajac - Wednesday 16th Sept.

2009-09-17T07:52:00.001+01:00

Scores on the doors:- 21.6 miles or 34.8 KM we went up 553m and down 639m

Because we had a long way to go today we started out early, (this was because of a dearth of accommodation after Figeac) so we decided to grab breakfast on the way when we picked up bread for lunch. We left about 8am and the morning was cool and misty.

As usual we had to ascend out of town following a tarmac road which soon became a forest track. Out of the mist loomed a gigantic concrete cross, part of a memorial to 145 people deported from Figeac by the Germans on 12th May 1945. A very moving monument (material for a remembrance Sunday perhaps?)

We carried on up the road and perhaps half an hour later, we passed through our first taste of industrial France, walking through an industrial estate. This was soon replaced by open country. Our guide book said we would have wonderful views over the Lot valley, but all we saw was mist!

Again we were moving into different terrain, we were now in sheep and goat country, and we passed two farms selling their own goat and sheep's cheese.

By lunch we had covered over 20 km and had our lunch on the village green at Grealou.

In the afternoon the scenery had changed again we were now getting onto a Limestone plateau covered in small stunted oak trees turning brown with the Autumn. Where the trees had been cleared they were growing grapes, our first of the trip.

Soon our destination was set out before us, down at the bottom a natural bowl.

We descended down into Cajarc and found our accommodation for the night at the local Gite Communal where a bed for the night in a communal dorm cost us €8.20 each (the cheapest night of the trip so far).

As I was hanging out the washing I got into conversation with a couple from Manchester who are staying in their caravan nearby they were the first people from the UK we had spoken to in over two weeks!

We then went in search of food and discovered a free wi-fi access point outside a closed cafe, so were able to post our material so far, and will stop by in the morning to post this.

On the camino in France

Figeac - A Day of Rest.

2009-09-16T18:10:00.001+01:00

We decided that after twelve days of walking it was time to have a complete day of rest. So we had booked for two nights here at the Hotel Toulouse, last night half board and tonight bed only.

We had hoped for a decent lie in, but hadn't counted on fellow pilgrims in other rooms starting out early with much banging of doors etc. But in fact we still probably got a good eight or nine hours sleep. After breakfast we headed into town an bought up a chemists, with various pills and potions for our ailments. We then headed for an Internet cafe. We had been given an address by tourist information and it turned out to be the local college, where anyone for a fee could access the Internet. We explained we needed to download photos so they dug out a laptop for us with the necessary slot for our camera's memory card.

Two hours later we had caught up on our E-mails, downloaded our photos and uploaded some to our blogs. So do look back at some of the older postings as they now have pictures and more will be added when wi-fi access permits.

We then went for lunch, bumping onto our two Australian friends, Lesley had an amazing salad and I went for the dish of the day, Pork with Puy Lentils. They were both superb.

Refreshed we set about sorting out the problems of yesterday. Our first port of call an opticians who fixed my glasses for free, and then a call to the GB to our family IT expert. The iPod is now winging it's way back to England to hopefully be fixed and then if successful will come back. We also sent home the first two maps of the path walked so far in a bid to reduce weight even by a little bit.

Chores out of the way we went on a walking tour of the town which cost us 20c for a leaflet, there is much to see in Figeac and we would recommend it to anyone.

My problems of yesterday were put firmly in perspective when we went for a beer in one of the many cafes. At the table next to us were the lady I had sat next to at dinner in Conques and the friend she was walking with, who was on crutches, and in a lot of pain with what looked like a very nasty sprained ankle.

For that lady her Camino was over but her friend was planing to carry on by herself.

This evening we a very pleasant meal in a bar, before packing for a quick getaway tomorrow.

From on the Camino in France

Livinhac-le-Haut - Figeac - good walking:- other things went wrong!

2009-09-15T20:18:00.001+01:00

Distance covered 28.2 KM or 17.5 miles - ascent of 590 m and descents of 546 m.

The day started with the local Church bell tolling the hour of seven, five minutes later seven bongs chimed again. This is a feature of this whole region of France that the church bells always ring twice, once on the hour and then at about 5 minutes later, which is a very good feature for those with short memories as we get a second stab at knowing what time it is.

We set out and as usual picked up our lunch and again, as usual, left town via a climb up a hill to the lovely village of Montredon, which marked our transition into the Department of Lot and the Diocese of Cahors. At the church of Saint-Michael under a large welcome notice, was a room where we could rest with juice, tea, coffee and a kettle and cakes to help refresh us, and our fellow pilgrims, on our way. They had also left the Church stamp out for us (attached to the wall by a chain), so that we could add their stamp to our collection in our Pilgrim Passports.

We moved on visiting the chapelle de Guirande some 3 km later, which had some 14th century wall paintings.

We carried on up a hill past an old aerodrome when my left calf went funny, the muscles all went stiff and quite painful. We stopped hoping it would pass, and I rubbed Tiger Balm into it. It died down a bit but was with me for the rest of the day.

We passed through a number of villages and hamlets, as usual passing querky French street art, this time a giant bicycle,

and past a gite with a board all about being a pilgrim.

We were expecting a long walk into into Figeac as the book said that after a certain cross roads, it was 9.5km. However, after a long gentle decent of about 2km, we were in the outskirts,and before we knew it, we were at the river and following the signs for the tourist information centre. At the centre Bernard, a very helpful man, booked our hotel for the next two nights, and gave us a map and told us where to find a cyber cafe. Oppersite the tourist information we also found a laundrette which we visited later.

We got to our hotel and, as you know, I discovered my iPod had died. We then went into town to do the laundry which was slightly confusing as everything was operate by a central control panel, but after some very patient help from the lady in the laundrette, we got the laundry done.

We returned to the hotel for our food and headed back to town to send my post on Lesley's iPod, as we had found a hotspot near the laundrette. By that time I had removed my contact lenses and put on my glasses. To read the ipod screen, I had It's taken them off and carefully placed them on the wall. Whilst showing Lesley an e-mail, I sat down straight onto the glasses bending both arms!

At that point I decided that I better go to bed before further disasters befell me.

On the Camino

Why I hate technology!

2009-09-14T19:04:00.001+01:00

I am writing this post on Lesley's iPod as mine seems to have crashed! When we got in tonight I recorded the vital statistics for the day in the usual way. About half an hour later when I switched my iPod back on all I got was a picture of a USB cable and the iTunes symbol, and I just can't get away from them.

To add insult to injury at 7 pm it reminded me of a meeting taking place back home, so my data is still all there but I can't get to it. If any of you iPod experts out there can suggest anything let me know. When I am in a better frame of mind (perhaps after a few glasses of red wine). I will write up today's post and try and recreate yesterday's.

A short day to Conques from Senergues

2009-09-12T22:27:00.000+01:00

Rough scores on doors:- 9.5 km or 5.9 miles. We went up 31m and down 276 m hitting a high point of 610 m (N.B. These are only rough figures as I forgot to turn the GPS on for the first hour).

After a very comfortable night we set off, again the walk started uphill, but soon it levelled out, the sweetcorn harvest was in full swing, for the second time just for a moment we thought we were in India or perhaps Nepal as we came face to face with a herd of buffalo in a field, obviously kept for their milk for cheese.

We stopped in a wayside church for morning prayer and then started on a steep downhill path to Conques, dropping a couple of hundred metres in about 1km.

We had arrived, we then headed to the Abbey to see if they had a room no rooms were available but we managed to reserve two beds in one of the dormitories but had to report back at 2 to pay and get checked in.

So after a short walk around town where we bumped into a number of old friends from the trip so far and caught up on their news and where they were going next. We had lunch and them reported in. After showers and a change of clothing we went and explored the town had a beer, at 6:30 we attended vespers in the Abbey lead by the three monks who make up the community, (We also discovered that the reason we did not see any nuns at St Come d'Alt was because only one is in her 50's and the rest are over 80, which is all very sad).

Despite the small numbers of monks the service was still very moving, we then went to dinner in the refectory where I had a great conversation with a lady from Britainy who spoke excellent English, and was planing to walk to Ronsavalles in Spain this year and then walk the Spanish leg next year.

Dinner was followed by Compline where all the pilgrims leaving Conques tomorrow were blessed, and we were given a copy of St John's Gospel and an illuminated pilgrims chant, which we had sung before our dinner in the refectory.

The words to it are Ultreia! Ultreia! Et sus eia! Deus adjuva nos!

If any or our readers can provide a translation please do.

Following on from the blessing there was supposed to be an organ recital at 9pm. We sat in the cathedral waiting for it to start and at 9:30 had just about given up hope, when the door of the cathedral opened and we heard a round of applause, and one of the monks walked in followed by a huge crowd.

This was because so many of us were setting off tomorrow, the monks decided to put on a Mass this evening, which delayed the recital. Because their main Sunday Mass is at 11am which is far to late for most pilgrims to go to, as we need to be on the road by 9 - 9:30 at the latest to get a reasonable distance under our belts, as unlike our Medieval predecessors we have deadlines of parishes and jobs to get back to.

And so at 9:40 the recital began, at 10 we decided we had to go as we were both getting tired and we were told they shut the doors early and we didn't want be locked out.

We are in a dorm of 11 beds it about 10:40 and near by is a snorer, I just hope the ear plugs cut him out, night and God Bless.

On the Camino in France

We Have Arrived in Conques

2009-09-12T15:56:00.005+01:00

Just to let you all know we have got to Conques and are staying at the Abbey with the monks tonight. Will be going to services and an organ recital later with another pilgrim blessing. Fuller posts on previous days will be posted soon. Love J & L

On the Camino in France

We meet a Good Samaritan - Fonteills to Senergues

2009-09-11T22:45:00.000+01:00

The daily totals:- Distance walked 21 KM or 13.1 miles. total ascent 564m decent 588m high point 680 m

We left Fonteilles just after 9am and headed for Golinhac to pick up lunch at the shop, which had shut 10 minutes before we arrived.

Oh well we thought lets go on to Eysperac where we will get a meal in a cafe. So we plodded on, when we arrived we went to the only bar/hotel only to be told they had no food. We ordered oranginas while we had a think, in the bar was a machine selling nuts, we decided anything was better than nothing so I went to get some. As I was fighting the machine, a voice behind me said you have no food? I have a little bit of bread and some cheese would you like it? It was a very nice German Swiss lady who had heard our discussion and came to our rescue, a pair of French ladies then offered us a huge tomato and with the nuts there was plenty to eat.

As we ate we chatted to this Swiss angel of mercy who was staying at the same Gite as us this evening, and we agreed to see each other then.

We eventually arrived at Senergues and had relaxing evening where for once German was the majority language.

These German speakers are tough cookies as we met an Austrian who had started out from his home and another German Swiss lady who had started from hers.

On the Camino in France

The wall, well not quite:- Saint Come d'Olt- Fonteilles

2009-09-10T22:35:00.000+01:00

Daily totals:- we walked 18.8 miles or 30.3 km - total ascent 897 m total decent 707 m highest point 667 m

After a leisurely breakfast we set off with the usual stop to buy the stuff for our lunch. We then had a choice of route to the next town of Espallion, either following the GR 65 and going via the statue of The Vierge Notre-Dame de Vermus which entailed quite a steep climb or walking along the side of the river Lot. As we worked out the total distance for the day was 24km we decided to go via the statue of the Virgin,

yes the climb was steep but the views from the top were absolutely stunning looking back over St Come and forward towards Espalion and beyond.

When after a steep decent we got to Espalion the GPS recorded that we had done 2 more km's than the distance mentioned in our guide book. This is a phenomena which has kept on occurring, the book says one distance and the GPS records a higher figure. This is something we keep on forgetting when setting our goals for the next day and consequently we have covered more miles each day than we planned. Hopefully by the time we hit Spain we will take this into account to shorten our days, otherwise we will get to Santiago far to early with bodies in a state of meltdown.

Anyway back to the day:- On the way down from the Virgin I discovered that one of my pockets on my rucksack had come undone and that the ferrules for my walking poles had fallen out. At that point I should have prayed to I think it's either St Jude or St Anthony (a saint who assists when things are lost, (send us a post if you can let me know which one it is)). Instead I just got cross with myself and stomped into Espallion at high speed. I then noticed an outdoor shop and in my best pidgin got some new ones, as I reached for my wallet to pay and the shop keeper tried to find the price I found my lost ferrels. But how do you explain all this to a French shopkeeper in pidgin? Thankfully Lesley as at hand.

Espallion

We carried on our way stopping at the church of St Pierre-de-Bessuejouls one of the oldest churches on our French leg of the trip.

Where we stopped and said morning prayer. We then stopped at a tap for some water and bumped into Jean-Mark who joked about us needing beer and not water. What came next was one of the most vicious uphill stretches we had encountered so far. At the top again we were rewarded with fine views over the country side before our next decent.

In the afternoon we dropped into an arable area, our first since Le Puy, where they were harvesting sweetcorn using one of the strangest machines I have ever seen.

Before long we were walking alongside the Lot again overlooking the wonderful town of Estaing,

where most of the pilgrims we knew were probably stopping, but we had a different game plan so after a quick Oringina, we headed off again, to our final destination at Fonteillis. What we hadn't done was read the book properly! We had 7km of hard walking uphill all the was with one or two very steep sections most of it on tarmac. The wall was there and I nearly hit it, that point where I could go no further. But round a corner we spied our destination a caravan site and gite at the top of a hill. We were shown to a mobili or small mobile home which we shared with Yohanis the German Swiss chap we met last night.

At 7:30 we went to the gite for our meal, and sat around talking over aperitifs while we waited for two other guests who never turned up. Eventually we started and probably had one of the liveliest conversations over a meal so far, as two of the other guests where a young newly married French couple, who work in Finland and spoke excellent English and were happy to translate for us when needed.

On the Camino

Our First 100 Miles - St Chely-d'Aubrac to St Come d'Alt

2009-09-09T21:34:00.002+01:00

The daily totals:- we have walked 19.1km or 11.9 miles
And have reached a high point of 913 m, ascending 407m and descending 686 m

This morning after an early breakfast our taxi picked us up at just after eight and whisked us back to St Chely. After a quick visit to the boulangerie we set off. As usual to get out of town we had to go up hill, first crossing a delightful bridge "the pont d'Peleran" or the pilgrims bridge,

very shortly we entered a delightful beach wood of trees probably less than 100 years old. Very different from Burnham Beaches in the UK.

The wood ended and we were in very different terrain, unlike anything we have at home, with deep gorges and rolling hills. Across the deep valley we could see Salgue where we had spent last night, we then entered a wood of chestnut trees and begun a long decent which continued for many KM. At the bottom was a lovely stream where we stopped to paddle. Leaving the wood after a sharp up hill we were into open terrain again before a final steep decent into St Come d'Alt our goal for the night.

We had decided to have a short day and then stay at a local convent, where our Australian friends had stayed last night. As we were early we, arriving about 2pm we went into town to explore and get a drink, at the cafe we went to we bumped into the German family from Heidelburg again, we caught up on their news, reminisced about the Lake District and wished them well for their last couple of days

We then headed up the hill to the convent where we got the best room we have had so far, an opportunity to wash our clothes in a machine, and an excellent meal with red wine, and a vending machine for beer for 1€ a can.

As we were in a convent we asked about the daily offices and was told that vespers would take place in the Chapel at 6:15, so duly at 6:15 we went to the chapel, but where were the nuns?

Two ladies turned up to lead the office but one of those appeared to be part of the lay community who help with the hospitality. And it was all a bit sad rather than the uplifting experience we were expecting.

However, at evening meal time by chance we ended up with the other non French people staying overnight, two German speaking people, one from Switzerland - Johanis, who had walked all the way from his flat in Switzerland, clocking up nearly 1000 km already which makes out 100 miles look a bit paltry. The other was a very nice Austrian who lives Lichtenstein called Sandra, both have given up their jobs to make this trip which for was very humbling for us to hear when I have a sabbatical on full stipend to make this trip.

We ended the evening sitting in the convent grounds talking about life the universe and everything with Sandra and John Mark (a French chap who is also going all the way,) over a beer, which made a great end to an evening that started so poorly.

It was also great to meet and hear about other pilgrims who are on the trip for the long haul to Santiago and even on to Finistsre as well.

On the Camino in France

Appearances Can be Deceptive

2009-09-09T06:51:00.004+01:00

Last night when our taxi dropped us off at the Hotel-restaurant Gasc La Tablee at Salgues our hearts sunk. We were happy that we had a room for the night, but the building had peeling paint and the welcome we received seemed a little suspicious despite us having booked.

We were shown to a room with the bounciest bed in the world a patches of wallpaper touched up with paint. As we were only paying for the room the same as we paid at the gite yesterday plus another 16 € for our evening meal and breakfast, we were prepared to accept our lot. How wrong we were!

After the usual session of showers and laundry we went to the church to say evening prayer (sadly it was locked) so we sat in the sun and said our prayers and watched a lizard climb up the church wall.

We returned to the hotel and had a drink before our meal while we blogged, happily discovering that there was free wi-fi access (a rare commodity so far on our trip) and so were able to post on both blogs.

Our host beckoned us into the dining room where a gastronomic treat ensued.

The meal started with a salad of chick peas with beetroot, tomato & lettuce drenched in a fantastic French dressing. And we ordered a very fine local Rose to wash it down.

Then our host brought in a large slice of quiche for each of us which was even better (by a very, very slim whisker) than my sister-in-law Liz, who I had always thought made the best quiche in the world.

We both commented that with new potatoes and some green beans or salad it would have been a fantastic meal. At that stage we expected the cheese course (not Lesley's favourite).

However, what appeared was half a poulet each in delicious gravy with frits and runner beans. The bird was extremely tender and just fell of the bone. By this stage we were in gastronomic heaven, and dived into our phrase books for more and more words of praise to lavish on our host's wife the chef.

Suddenly his grin got wider and wider and words of English escaped his lips, he was a very happy man indeed!

The cheese board arrived with cheeses that even Lesley found acceptable! (skinner family take note). This was followed rapidly by a lovely chocolate moose.

The meal wad so good that I decided to have an Armagnac, and a coffee. And so I ordered a cafe au lait and an Armagnac, no no said our host you can't have a cafe au lait with an Armagnac it's got to be a cafe noir! I reminded him that I was English and couldn't cope with French cafe noir to much laughter from both of us. the coffee and Armagnac duly arrived and were the icing on the cake of a fantastic meal.

In future particularly were eating is concerned in France I will try to remember that all that glitters is not gold, and that the real pearls beyond price can be hidden behind the most unlikely exterior.

And if you are ever in this part of France do pop onto the Hotel-restaurant Gasc La Tablee at Salgues.

The Village of Salgues from across the valley.

On the Camino in France

Off piste again - Nasbinal to Saint-Chely-d'Aubrac

2009-09-08T18:29:00.004+01:00

Today's figures:- total walked 17.9 km or 11.1 miles, total ascent 293 m, total decent 609 m highest point 1369. Travel by taxi 9 km

As we knew we only had a short day today, we did not race to get off but had a leisurely pack and then out to get breakfast of pan de Chocolate, we then decided to book our accommodation for tomorrow night when we will be staying in a Convent.

We then hit the trail again, as usual having to climb out of town and across gorgeous moorland with herds of beautiful Aubrac cattle roaming freely, with many young bulls rather than the bullocks we see at home, again the scenery was very reminiscent of the Dark peak area of Derbyshire.

Just before lunch after visiting the village of Aubrac

we began to descend gently at first

and then more and more steeply down into Saint Chely-d'Aubrac where we arrived just after 3pm. We then popped into the tourist information to get our pilgrim stamps and to get them to arrange a taxi to our Gite, which duly came and delivered us safely and promised to pick us up tomorrow.

On the Camino in France

7th Sept - Aumont-Aubrac to Nasbinals

2009-09-07T22:57:00.002+01:00

The scores on the doors:- total walked 27.5km or 17.1 miles. Total ascent 473m total decent 370m highest point 1272m

I woke at 6 and as Lesley was still asleep quietly said morning prayer. Because of the heat of yesterday we had decided to leave earlier than normal to try and get as much distance under our belts before it got hot.

But first it was confession time. Each evening we wash out our socks and smalls and I have been using the tap on the sink to wring things against, unfortunatly last night the tap snaped off. So before we left we confessed to the hotel owner that we had broken the tap, fortunatly for us he just gave a galic shrug and wrote the room number down for his maintenance people. However, I still had visions of being stoped later in the day by the Gendarme on a charge of criminal damage, so my heart beat a little faster when we came into Nasbinal and the first thing I saw was a couple of Gendarme.

We left the hotel and discovered that its Monday and that everything closes rather than on Sunday, but fortunatly there was a small supermarket where we were able to pick up lunch, and also bumped into our French friends and our three Australians friends none of whom we had seen yesterday.

We left Aumont and after crossing railway we came to a motorway where they have built a tunnel which in known localy as the "Saintjacqueduc".

A few km later we passed the tiny chapel Chapelle de Bastide where some French pilgrims were holding an impromptu service and singing "Seak ye first the kingdom of God" in French and we were able to join in with the chorus.

Moving on about a km later an old woman informed us that we were the 32nd pilgrims to pass her that day!

A few km later as we began our ascent up onto the Aubrac plateau the scenery changed again, now it was reminiscent of the white peak area of Derbyshire but on a much larger scale, with vast tracks of moorland seperated by stone walls.

Coming down off the plateau we hit Tarmac again for most of the last 7 km into Nasbinals and so we were very relieved when we got to our gite and were able to kick off our boots and put on our crocs.

After a shower, change and laundry (without broken taps) we visited the Church and said evening prayer, we then headed for the tourist information to discover that all the accomodation at our next destination was fully booked. And tHe next town with accomodation on the trail is 20 km away. After much research and phoning by the man for us he managed to get us a bed in a village 9km off piste.

On meeting the Australians for a beer, we told them the news they decided to skip the stage and get a taxi to the next town, so unfortunatly we might not see them again.

After a meal we headed to bed ready for tommorow.

On the Camino in France

We go to a street party - Sept 6th - Le Faux to Aumont-Aubrac

2009-09-06T22:30:00.000+01:00

The statistics:- distance walked 24.6 km or 15.3 miles, total ascent 487m, total decent 554m, highest point 1132m.

We set off just after nine this morning, our first task was to get back onto the GR65 proper (this is the French GR number for the way of St James), as we had gone off piste by about 1km to get to Les Faux.

Because of the altitude the day started off cold with a biting wind an so soon after setting out we were wearing our cagules to keep warm.

Within an hour it was all change as the wind droped and the sun gave off it's full power. Yesterday we had been caught out by the sun and both got mild sunburn, today there wasn't a cloud in the sky and the sun beat down relentlessly. Unfortunatly neither of us has long sleve shirts so we had to improvise sleeve from our Buff neck protectors and our small caribina towels. Which were effective although a bit strange looking.

The countyside today started alpine but changed to being a bit like Northumbria, but still very lovely. We had expected everywhere to be shut as it was Sunday but on entering St Alban found many shops open, perhaps because it was the morning.

Just before lunch we met a German family from Heidelburg who are walking to Cahors a destination for many of our fellow pilgrims. They were taking it easy because they were suffering from "bladders" (blisters), it was nice to have a conversation with someone in somthing more than pidgeon French.

At mid day we popped into one of the many beautiful churches and said the mid day office and it was tempting to stay in the cool interior for the rest of the day.

On our approach to Aumont-Aubrac we heard a accordian being played and turning the corner saw a large gathering of people under large umberellas and Gazebos obviously having a party.

The next we knew they were all becconing us over to join them. They explained that it was their third annual local community party, and that this year they had been blessed with good weather as prevously it had been a bit cold.

They then plied us with slices of cake and I was given a brimming plastic cup of red wine. As it was Mouton Cadet I could hardly refuse, Lesley very sensibly stuck to orange squash. No sooner had I drunk half my wine then it was filled to the brim again. While we were there a half dozen or so other pilgrims went past but no others were invited to the party! The people were very interested in our trip and made us feel very welcome, but after a coffee we made our leave with many goodbyes and wishes of good walking.

On the Camino in France

Stop press 2

2009-09-06T21:19:00.001+01:00

If you look below you will find a number of new posts - I have been writing them each day but today is the first time we have had a wi-fi connection to publish them! When we find an Internet cafe we will add some pictures as well, so look out for the next stop press.

On the Camino in France

Stop press

2009-09-05T18:09:00.003+01:00

3 great days of walking, have prepared lots of posts but no internet to send hopefully tomorrow. Enjoying it all. Love J and L

On the Camino in France

The natives are friendly, Sept 5th Saugues to Les Faux

2009-09-05T15:33:00.002+01:00

The statistics 29.3 km or 18.2 miles. Total ascent 644 m total decent 481 m highest point 1330 m

After a reasonable nights sleep, we got up and headed for breakfast. We followed in a couple we had sat with for our evening meal, who despite the language barrier, had engaged us in conversation and had organised an alternative meal for me as the dish of the day was fish which I am allergic to. This morning this couple, seeing that we would be eating alone, due to a shortage of place settins, moved their plates over to join us, which was a generous gesture to two foreigners with poor French. We wondered if we would have been as generous, and vowed to follow their example in the future.

Following breakfast we packed up treated the first blisters of the trip (suffered by Lesley) put our boots on and headed out of town. As we left Saugues we came across a couple of large pilgrim sculptures, one of a pilgrim with various other pilgrim motifs such as a scallop shell & the other, a life size sculpture of St James.

On approaching the town yesterday, we had passed other sculptures, including one of a local fabled beast. From afar it looked like a crocodile with elephants legs, however, when we saw it up close on a postcard we discovered that it was in fact a wolf like creature.

We left the town, still carrying on our upward ascent. For the first couple of miles we were walking on Tarmac, but then the surface changed to chalk tracks.

The best way to describe the terrain is Alpine, with lots of small meadows where beef cattle and sheep were grazing, and many stacks of split logs are seasoning for the winter fires. Most of the day we travelled uphill except when we encountered a village or hamlet where inevitably there was a steep decent into it before a climb out again.

In many of the villages we saw métier a ferrer les boeufs, which are devices used to hold oxen so they could be shoed prior to working in the fields.

As we were walking nearly 30km we had decided to take a short cut avoiding a loop to a farm called Domaine de Sauvage. However, the route has changed from that described in our guide book, and so we missed our turn. As we settled down to our lunch, our friends from breakfast turned up most concerned that we were where we were, as they knew we planned to take the shorter route. They tried to explain where we were, but our French let us down and we remained in blissful ignorance until they flagged down the passing turbo boys who spoke some English, and a conversation ensued with much arm waving and consulting of guide books. The result was to say that we were better to continue than to go back and anyway the farm at Sauvage was very beautiful and had in fact been recomended to us by friends Sam & Martin. It was quite tempting to stop and ask for a room but Lesley had already booked our bed at Les Faux, and so we carried on.

A mile or so later we came to the rather lovely fountain of St Roch (the patron saint of pilgrims)

and shortly we crossed the border from the department of Haute-Loire into the department of Lozere. We then came to the Chapel of St Roch where an old woman informed us that the chapel was open and that we could get a stamp in our pilgrims pasport. We went into the chapel which was very cool and peaceful, where a small boy, probably the old lady's grandson, was waiting to stamp our passport with the chapel's stamp.

We then carried on our way to Les Faux, where we landed lucky as got our own room in the Gite, in a wing by ourselves with in effect our own bathroom when we were expecting to have to share a room with a number of others. We were eating in the hotel which the Gite was attached and had a fantastic four course meal for only 12€ each.

On the Camino in France