Bonjour! After 30 hours total travel time – plane – train – and waiting hours – we arrived in SJPDP at 7:30 pm in the rain. Today, Friday it is a continuous down poor and wind. In the pilgrim office where we received our passport and cockle shell they told us to not go over the mountain pass until the weather breaks on Sunday…..to dangerous now. So we wait! Thankfully the “Hotel” it’s more of a B+B is very nice and has comfortable beds. At breakfast this morning we met some very nice people from Australia….they will be camping all the way and he is carrying a 20 kilo back pack …500 miles. Charlie met two very nice guys from Rio, Brazil who will be biking the whole trail. He has a lot in common with them and enjoyed their company greatly.

Frankie and Alan from Australia

Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in the rain

…..please let the weather clear tomorrow

Hello again! Leaving in the morning. Time got away from me with final preps and one more walk fully loaded……it went good.

It still has not hit me, but we are ready to go. All we may need for several weeks is in these back packs…..one change of cloth, extra socks and liners, sleeping bag and liner, treaded bed sheet (bed bugs uuhhh), rain jacket and poncho, crocks for in the shower and evenings and all the little body tending soaps and ointments etc. it all adds up…. I was weighing shirts and stuff on the kitchen scale and still…. I just don’t know why Charlie’s pack only weighs 14 pounds while mine weighs 18 pounds…..hmmmm. He will  just have to carry all our water and food since I carry all the medical necessities like all you can imagine for blisters and pains and then some. I like to be ready for anything and I have read all of the forums, sooo…..

We are flying to Paris and then by train to Saint Jean Pied de Port http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port with changing trains in Bayonne. We will spend two nights in SJPDP to get acclimated and rested, then start the walk on to Roncesvalles in Spain. The first day is to be a hard walk 15+ miles over the mountains….lots of steep uphill, from 590 ft to 4680 ft…aaahhh… I should have lost those 18 pounds I have to carry…..too late.

I try to keep up with this whenever I can and WiFi is available. I only carry my iPhone and will use it to post unless the hostel has computers to use. So please be patient till my next post from Saint Jean Pied de Port in the French Pyrenees.

…..until D-day and I have not trained to much… some 4 to 8 mile walks with loaded backpack, so hopefully all goes well. Charlie as usually is right on… walking 14 milers almost daily. Hmmm….

Hello everyone! Welcome to my blog. Yes, me….I am blogging…about walking 558 miles across northern Spain. Craaazy!!!

The way is called “El Camino de Santiago” or “Jackobsweg” or “The Way of St. James” – an ancient pilgrim path also known as Camino Frances. We start in the Pyrenees at St. Jean Pied the Port, France and over the mountains on to Santiago de Compostela and then on to Finisterre on the Atlantic ocean.

Camino Frances