Camino in Spanish means a way, a track, or a road. I like the word “way”, finding a “way” and making your way. The journey is the essential experience not the destination. El Camino de Santiago de Compostela is the Way of St James. Walking pilgrims take many different “ways” following in the footsteps of the pilgrims of the Middle Ages. One way, the most ionic is The Camino Frances. Is a try of around 800 kilometres from the border of France and Spain across northern Spain over the squeezed, dry -rocks of the Pyrenees and across Navarre and its Basque lands and through Pamplona which I first came across in the writings of Hemingway and on through Burgos and Leon to Santiago de Compostela. What do I know?. The “Way” is ahead of me. I start on my own as a solitary pilgrim on April 18th from Saint Jean Pied de Port when the Spring is cool in the northern foothills of the Pyrenees. Santiago de Compostela is the burial place of Saint James the Apostle. Not many more than 400,000 pilgrims make part or all of the Camino. Last year they came from 197 countries. They say that maybe half try to walk the whole Camino in one campaign. That is still a lot. So many make these various pilgrim journeys every year but there is still room for my personal journey, my story. If you want to follow me then you can click on my daily journal in the right side-bar on this page. I will see how far I get. You will no doubt be gratified to know that many entries will be short and maybe very short with a picture better than a thousand words. Buen Camino!
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Nájera
Alarm at 6.30am and out of the apartment in Logroňo by 7.15am. Breakfast at La Fontana and then a slog out of Lograňo on asphalt through modern apartment building complexes and parkland. Arrived at 10.45am arrived at Aubergue La Inglesia right beside the XVIthc Church of the Assumption. What sumptuous grand churches for such small…
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Lograňo Secundo
On Sunday, 28th April, Konstantine, Esther and myself booked a five bed apartment (90 sq metres) at 10 Calle Gallicia for €70.Had breakfast at La Fontana on Calle Portales. Mina from Scotland had also stayed at the Santiago El Real Aubergue but did not have a place to stay. We offered her the pull out…
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Logroňo
Had a breakfast of Cafe con leche and croissant at he Aubergue San Andrés in Torres del Rio. Had a late start just after 8.00am and had a heavy shower over N.S. del Poyo. Rolling hills through vinyards and onto Viana which I reached Bar la Taberna and had a full glass, half pint of…
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Got a private room under the eaves in the attic of a medieval home below the ruins of St Stephen’s Castle in Villamajor de Monjardin Centro. A Dutch ecumenical group runs the Auberge and after the Pelegrino menu del dia (mixta salad and crispy lasagne ) there was an hour of reflective bilingual meditation –…
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Through a Star Lightly.
Left Magical Auberge late around 9pm as I had to get clothes spun dry. Gentle walk downhill about 4 km to Estella. No place to get breakfast until a little satellite town out on a steep rise outside. Hips a bit tender carry the pack.Pleasant ramble through arboreal hollows and over little streams and final…
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Poppies and Rape Seed
Left the Auberge Santiago Apostol around 5.20am in the dark. The Korean group started moving shortly after 5am with flashing lights and thundering rolling luggage wheels and then they were gone long before dawn. We strode down the hill and turned right along the Arca River out past the nun’s monastry Comendadoras del Espiritu Santo.…
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Puete la Reine in the Rain
Persistent drizzle came in on a northerly wind. Therenwere 111vin my bedroom in the Jesus y Maria Aubergue in PamplonaKim from Korea was on the top bunk over me. He had heard of Hemingway but had not read him. One clown rose at 5am and started straffing his light around the dormitory. It rained and…
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Casa Paderborn is a smal Aubergue run by German volunteers. I reached this quaint old hostel on the banks of the Rio Arca after the trek from Zubiri. It was my third day and third stage. I was tired but no aches. Usually the third day is the wall of fatigue regardless of the stage’s…
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Zubiri Through Paleogene Karst
Walked 15.3 kilometres from the Albergue in Epinal to Zubiri. A relatively short stage and I reached Albergue Ezpeleku at about 2.30pm. It was €14 for the night just for a bed. The last few kilometres were very steep down along exposed limstone strata and rubble. You had to keep concentrated and there was strain…
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Over the Top
Walked the challenging Napoleon Route over the Pyrenees and down into Roncesvalles, a distance of 28 kilometres and rising over 1 200 metres through the Col de Lepoder from Saint Jean Pied de Port.We left in a soupy fog at 7.20am. It was around 3 degrees C and we arrived in Roncevalles at 4.30pm with…