Yesterday it went all the way up to 64 degrees and today it was predicted to go to 66, but a blanket of fog kept it below that at the top of Monte Avril. Anyway, this constitutes a heat wave in our experience.

The mud hasn’t been quite so bad the last few days, but the ups and downs of the mountains make this highly strenuous. It’s no wonder that the more southerly, inland route, called the Camino Frances (the route we took in 2015 for our first Camino) overtook this Camino del Norte route in popularity back in the 13th century or so.

Some of the long uphill slogs have been conducive to meditation, but they are succeeded inevitably with steep downhills that require careful attention.

Since we started at Lourdes we have walked about 300 km and almost all of it was either uphill or downhill. For example, in the last 3 days we have had a +2,000 ft up and 2,000 ft down followed by a 3,000 ft up and a 2,700 ft down followed by today’s walk into Bilbao with a 2,500 ft up and 2,400 ft down. Some of the slopes are reasonable but many exceed 10° and there have been frequent 15° and 20°+ slopes. The downhill walking is tough on the thighs and caused Ed to get his first blister since our first Camino in 2015.

It has been enjoyable to see the Basque people up close at walking pace. Their ancient language seems to be flourishing in the modern context, and their economic clout proportionately exceeds their numbers. The little horses (batokas) are adorable and the goats are sure creative (don’t worry, he got his head back through the fence, horns and all, without mishap.)

For those of you considering walking the Camino del Norte, we can highly recommend Carmelo and his service, Le Petit Bag http://greencartrans.webcindario.com/ or (+34) 635 730 852. Carmelo provides the (for us, essential) service of transporting our luggage forward to the place where we’ll be staying that night. Ever since our Portuguese Way Camino last year, when Ed had his problem, we’ve determined not to carry our full packs.

Carmelo picks up our bags around 9 am each morning, and they are waiting for us at the new aubergine- hostel when we stumble in five to seven hours later. He has been completely reliable from our start in Irun to Deba, our fourth walking day in Spain.

Since Deba, Carmelo passed us on to Mikel, who will transport our bags to Bilbao (which we will reach tomorrow, D.V.) Then a different Mikel will take over to our end point (for this spring), Santander.

It was raining and 46 degrees when we set out from Orio yesterday (Sunday, May 12). Then it stopped raining and the sun came out. Then it rained again, with a chill wind blowing off the Atlantic. It seemed as though at least five distinct bands ranging from “winter” to “summer” swept through– but it never got warmer than 58 degrees.

Rain pants have been essential gear, and we’ve been busy zipping and unzipping various layers. The scenery is gorgeous and the paths very quiet.

We felt blessed when we walked up the steep hill to the 17th century church San Nicolas de Bari in Orion on Saturday at 5:20 pm and learned that there would be Mass at 6:00 pm! We were equally fortunate to be able to celebrate Feast of the Ascension at 8:30 am in St Jean Pied de Port. May we continue to enjoy His protection. (Mass times don’t seem to be shown on any website. If posted at all, they are written on a sign stuck INSIDE the door of the church, which is, of course, closed and locked when there is no mass…)

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We failed to tell most of you that we are visiting THREE countries this trip. Not only France and Spain, but Euskadi — the Basque Autonomous Community. We participated in a fabulous Ascension mass in which there were not only about 50% male attendance, but the male and female voices rang out strongly and beautifully.

There are a lot of “x’s” and “z’s in Basque, but it seems like the pronunciation is pretty straightforward, so we joined in the singing.

How lucky that yesterday’s walk, day one on the Camino del Norte, was sunny and warm! (The forecast is not so good…) There was a long climb, with enticing glimpses of estuary and ocean. Lots of rocks and rough path made the going slower, but, unlike in France, the waymarking has been excellent.

The night was spent in Renteria, high on a hill above the shipbuilding port of Passejes de San Juan. Part of the Spanish Armada was constructed there.

One of our last meals in France was prepared by a professor of French (lady standing at the back) and her husband, hosts of a B&B in a beautifully renovated, but remote, farmhouse. It was a gourmet feast of Basque specialties, shared with two pilgrim friends and two French couples taking a “long weekend” (French term) for the Armistice Day (May 8) and Feast of the Ascension (May 10) holidays.

There followed an 18 km walk through the constant clouds and drizzle to the gateway town of St Jean Pied de Port, from which in 2015 we began our laborious trek over the Pyrenees.

There were more pilgrims on this last day than we had seen the previous six days, perhaps 10 in all, including the little doggy getting a free ride from his master. Behind him you can see the contraption that another pilgrim was dragging instead of carrying his pack in his back.

So au revoir to France. We will soon be catching a bus to a train to another train to a taxi, to hopefully arrive tonight in Irun, Spain, the start of our next phase, the Camino del Norte — the camino along the northern coast of Spain. Dare we hope for some breaks in the rainy weather???

Monday, May 7 we saw a rare sight: a sunny day! And we decided to eschew the scenic walking path through the woods (and the mud) by walking on the road. (We did walk in the wrong direction at one point, adding 2 unnecessary kilometers, but at least they were dry underfoot!

Overnight we stayed at the picturesque town of Mauleon. As with our first Camino (2015) we have become friends with fellow pilgrims, two Canadians, a Frenchman and a woman from Miami. They are each delightful people on their own spiritual journey. And they are the only pilgrims we’ve seen so far, as this route in the French Pyrenees has been little travelled so far. (Possibly because of the wet spring and the mud…?)

Today (May 8) we shared the road with a flock of sheep whose shepherd rode a mini bike. The sheep were running flat out, their little hooves clattering over the pavement. Ed thinks they were cold because recently shorn. Our road took us over a mountain top where fog blew across thicker and thicker until we could only see a few metres ahead. Signs promised “un vue panoramique” but we saw none.

La boue means “mud,” and that is the headline for our first three days of walking west from Lourdes. Day One brought us to Lestelle-Betharam and the whole day was rainy and cold. Day Two’s destination was the hamlet of Arudy; it was cool and cloudy.

On Day Three the forecast was the best yet: sunny and 72 degrees. But the path, running through pastures and forests, was all too often a slippery descent through churned up mud to a slippery stream bed. Locals say this has been one of the wettest springs in memory. The sound of rushing water is an accompaniment to bird song and occasional early crickets!

One highlight was catching up with a bunch of white water rafters fully togged with wet suits and helmets. They gathered on the Pont du Diable (Devil’s Bridge) and, one by one, jumped off with blood curdling yells 25 feet into the greenish cold swirling water below. When they saw us crossing the bridge, they invited us to jump, but we declined.

Jumping from Devil’s Bridge

We arrived in Lourdes on Tuesday after a long, uncomfortable plane ride to Paris and then a 5 hour layover to our flight to Pau which is about 50 Km from Lourdes. There were no taxis at the Pau airport. We waited at the taxi stand in the cool wind for 40 minutes to get a ride to the town where the train would take us to Lourdes. After checking into the hotel we walked to the Sanctuaire de Notre Dame to look around. We had little sleep over the prior 40 hours but wanted to see where Bernadette Soubirous had her many apparitions with Mary, the mother of Jesus. We spent a little time there and went back to the hotel for dinner and to bed at 8:30. We had a very good sleep.

On Wednesday we woke up at 8:00, almost 12 hours of restorative sleep. After breakfast and washing our clothes and hanging them up to dry we went out to visit the Sanctuaire which is celebrating the 160th anniversary of the first apparition. We walked with thousands of pilgrims. Among the pilgrims were hundreds of people in wheelchairs who were there to take the waters in hope of a miracle cure or a spiritual cleansing.

We went to the Grotto where Mary instructed Bernadette to go and drink from a spring and, while there had not been one there before, a spring of pure water appeared. Bernadette understood that the water was placed there to confirm to her that Mary HAD appeared and spoken to her. We prayed at the Grotto and meditated on her conversations with a simple peasant girl and the healings that occurred there, including 63 medically certified miraculous cures. We went to the Fuentes and filled a bottle with this spring’s water. We drank some of the holy water and said a prayer there.

After a late lunch we went back to the Sanctuaire for Mass. We were there when the 5:00 pm procession was starting. The procession wound over the river, through the Sanctuaire’s extensive grounds to large underground basilica. There were 100+ people in wheelchairs and 1000+ people in the procession, accompanied on the loudspeaker by a choir singing hymns in many languages. It was a humbling sight to see so many people with such strong faith asking Mary and her Son to help them in their distress. I will attach a video showing the procession when we get back to the US.

We were able to secure our Camino de Santiago de Compostela pilgrim passports at the Sanctuaire. Our Camino has officially started.

The pictures show the Grotto and the niche where Bernadette prayed with and spoke with Mary, Notre Dame.

Continue reading In transit, spring 2018 →

On April 30 we’ll be flying to Europe — provided Air France and the French transport workers and others cooperate! Our return last summer from the Caminho Portugues from Lisbon to Santiago de Campostela, accompanied by wonderful visits with friends in Vigo and Madrid Spain was followed by a stretch of medical challenges. Great weather and lots of golf and visitors in Florida over the winter was interrupted by ten days of bitter cold in DC and New England.

So now we are about to depart once again and don’t feel as though we’ve had enough time to prepare, emotionally at least.

In consideration of having a limited amount of spring pilgrimage weather before we need to return to the U.S., we have decided to combine a week’s walking from Lourdes, through southern France, to the foothills of the Pyrenees. Then we’ll hop (by transport this time, not by foot) to Irun on the Spain side for two weeks of walking along the Camino del Norte.

The Camino del Norte threads through Basque country along the Bay of Biscay, in view of the Atlantic ocean and is reputed to be the most beautiful of the dozens of camino routes to Santiago de Campostela. It is much less travelled than the “Camino Francese” which was our first path in 2015. The section starting in Lourdes will be the first time we’ve walked in France, and the first time we have used a local travel service to reserve our nightly accomodations and forward our backpacks ahead to the next stop.

We are looking forward to absorbing the quiet spirit of ancient places and to meeting holy people along this way.  And we’ll be carrying thoughts of our family and friends with us to lighten our steps.