Liz and Linda and El Camino de Santiago de Compostela Pilgrimage 2017

Two Irish sisters staying with us at Orisson told us they had checked out the trail past Orisson yesterday and it wasn't too bad. But they were wrong and hadn't gone far enough. It seemed okay at first , but then the road went up and up and up. The grades were not as steep as yesterday, but the clouds and mist and rain made up for that.   At times the visibility was down to less than 50ft, and although it didn't rain, the mist was so thick it was like walking in a blanket of wetness.  We could hear but not see the bells hanging on the necks of cows and sheep.  Their tinkling made a mysterious melody in the mist, the cows with their deeper bell clangs and the sheep with smaller, lighter, higher pitched ringing.  At times we walked into the sounds until the shape of a cow emerged and disappeared again behind the cloak of fog leaving the melodious slow clanging and ringing as proof that they existed. Up until almost the summit, we followed a one-lane track. Four taxis

Day 1 can be summed up: OMG! Which when you think about it, is exactly what pilgrimages are all about: Oh My God, please forgive me for I have sinned..... Only 8k but 7.9 was all uphill. 3 hours to go 8 k. Some of the grades are 45%! Steffen took the lead, and we soon lost sight of him. There are some people younger than me but not many, and they soon pass us, as do older Norwegians. This was something I came to learn: Norwegians always passed me.  I think they are super-humans. We leapfrog others, passing them when they took a break and likewise, they passed us when we took a break. Towards the end, I have to stop every 100 ft or every shade tree whichever comes first. My heartbeats are 144 beats per second and after a few minutes drop to 122. I wonder if this stopping and starting counts as interval training. If so, and if I survive, I will get fit, real quick. Most people go straight from St. Jean Pied-de-Port to Roncesvalles in one day. But it is one hell (think penance)

Some days the internet gives up. Some days there just isn't any. And some days it surprises you at the summit of a mountain where a dozen people hover around the cell tower which advertises free WiFi but doesn't deliver.

It is 10:15 p.m. French time. I have been sitting for 12 hours  today and walked maybe a total of 1k. I am exhausted. This does not bode well for a walking holiday. I left Protection Island 7:30 am yesterday and arrived at St. Jean-Pied-de-Port, France, at 7:30 pm today: Wednesday.  As we lined up to catch EasyJet from London to Biarritz, a young woman with a backpack that still had empty space in it (we noticed), asked if we were doing the Camino. This was Ditte from Denmark who joined us as did David from the UK and Steffen from Germany, who were also on the plane. Our clothes and backpacks identify us to each other. By the time we passed thru customs, we were a group. From R to L: Ditte, Stefen, David, Linda on the train from Bayonne to St. Jean Pied du Port We huddled around the bus stop trying to understand the schedule and the various options. We knew we had to either get a bus the whole way to St. JeanPdP or bus into Bayonne and catch the train which we preferred.

The gear. Packing for the Camino needs to start six months in advance.  But it didn't.  Luckily there are a lot of packing lists available on the 'net.  They say you should aim to carry no more than 10-12 % of your weight.  I aimed but failed although I confess that I rejoiced in being overweight.  However, I did keep my backpack under 18 lbs (around 8000 grams)!!! And that included a few luxuries: THE Camino book weighing in at 275 grams; IPad at a hefty 476 grams; a battery charger at a heavy 274 grams and, my phone.  It also included a few items that I have no choice but to bring: epi-pens and emergency allergy meds at 255 grams and my daily meds at 232grams which will get lighter day-by-day. So the IPad and the meds kind of balance the load, both weighing around the same amount and they are at the opposite ends of the enjoyment scale. Deciding what to take was a process of weighing an item, adding it to a spreadsheet, pressing the total butto

The before picture. Photo by Denise Gotta Run Bonin Linda and I walked just about every trail on Newcastle Island Park and some trails twice today and yesterday.  Carrying our full (20 lb packs that are supposed to be 16lbs)  we managed to cover 14 kilometres on Saturday (we left late as it took us 2 hours to pack our packs) and 16 k today. Cathy, my sister, came with a pack that weighed maybe 3lbs - when she wasn't looking we put our lunch kits in her pack. Walking gives you time to think. And this is what I thought about today: Training is just a way to upfront the pain.  I would like to point out that the maps on Newcastle that show the distance around the island are wrong although that could be due to which trails were used to measure. In any case, the Park map says 7.5 k when our GPS tracking program tells us it is 10k. More to the point no matter how you measure it, our hikes are short a full 10 k of our 25 k per day average we expect to do! It only took 3.5 ho