Hospitalera in Corcubion - Day 3

We are in Santiago!
Isa´s friend offered to bring us after we had done our chores and with only a few pilgrims it didn´t take too long to tidy beds, mop floors and clean showers and toilets. I put on Gregorian Chants at 7am to wake the pilgrims and they came down to breakfast with a smile on their faces!

Yesterday a Polish pilgrim left 10 eggs in a box which he didn´t want to carry to Santiago so I boiled them for our pilgrims for breakfast. I did a few extras which I´ll use in a potato salad for tonight. We each got hug hugs and muchas gracias´s from all the pilgrims. It started off misty and raining in Corcubion and this might mean that we will have more pilgrims tonight. Will have to wait and see.

The return journey to Corcubion was misty and rainy.

"How many pilgrims do you think we will have tonight?" asked Isa.

"14" said Lola.

"Completo" I replied.

"No Sil, not completo, maybe 18" said Isa.

When we arrived at the albergue there were 9 pilgrims waiting for us - all wet and cold , including a family with two young boys - so we let them in early, registered them and let them upstairs to shower and settle in. Then two arrived, then 1, then 3 more and by 5:30pm we were completo with one pilgrim looking really sick. Isa gave him water and his companion led him upstairs. He told me in the morning that he had walked 40km to Santiago, felt tired and headachy but still celebrated with his friends until the early hours and then didn´t drink much water the next day when he walked another 40km. He was probably hung-over and dehydrated!

I wrote a sign for the door - Completo, Full, sorry! but still they came. It was terrible to turn them away. It is another 9km to Finisterre and a long downhill 1km back to Corcubion. (No pilgrim likes to go backwards, ever.) One poor pilgrim was most distressed so we arranged for a taxi to fetch him, take him to the hostal in Cee and bring him back to the albergue so he could continue walking the next day. A third pilgrim arrived, saw the sign on the door and turned disconsolately away. I don´t know whether she walked on or turned back. Turning pilgrims away is hard - it really sucks!! Especially when it is late, cold and wet and there isn't anywhere close by to go to.

Dinner was salad, macaroni with Chorizo (Salsa for the vegetarians) and melon for desert. Pilgrims keep telling us that they are hungry. "I am so hungry" says one. "Ich bin hongrig" "Tengo hambre". I borrowed an idea from the albergue at Granon and suggested they join the San Roque Albergue choir and sing for their supper . To the tune of "We will rock you" they clapped their hands and banged on the table singing in their various languages. I start them off in English. Clap, clap, Bang - clap, clap, bang "We are... we are hungry" bang, clap, clap bang. "Tengo, tengo....hambre" bang, clap clap bang "Ich bin... ich bin hungrig". Queen would have been proud of them!

While we were eating Isa asked me if I was a Catholic. "No, I am a Buddhist" I said. "Que? What?" she looked positively shocked. "A Buddhist" I said. She laughed until the tears were rolling down her cheeks. The word for prostitute in Spanish sounds very similar to Buddhist in English and it seemed I was proudly telling her that I was a prostitute!! We had to share the joke but it was lost on so many different nationalities - Korean, Dutch, Italian, French, German, Dutch - there was even an Aussie there but he was hard of hearing so didn´t catch the whole story. There wasn´t much food left and after the meal one of the Dutch pilgrims sang a song that he had sung in the church at Santiago. Some of the pilgrims helped wash the dishes - bonus. One would think that with 20 pilgrims and a good home cooked meal the donations would be generous but they left less than the 7 pilgrims we´d had the night before. Once again we set out the plates and cups for breakfast and we finally got to bed at 11:30pm.

Breakfast at San Roque

Hospitalera in Corcubion - Day 2

Isa and I share a small room. There are two beds, a bedside table and a desk. No cupboard to hang clothes so they hang on hook on the walls.
I am an early riser so I got up quietly at 6h00 and crept downstairs to put on the kettle, the coffee, boil the milk and cut the bread for breakfast. Isa came down soon after and we put out jams, biscuits and melba toast for breakfast. One by one the pilgrims came down heading for the coffee machine or the hot milk to make chocolate - ColaCao. One of the pilgrims who had looked really tired the night before and who didin´t participate in the singing or conversations was decidedly perky! He put on Dire Straits CD(Masters of Swing?) and was bobbing and boogeying to the music. I joined him and we did a synchronized hand jive at the head of the table to much applause from the pilgrims! We managed to get them all out and on their way by 9am and then started cleaning. I told Isa that I would do upstairs so I started by straightening all the beds, folding blankets, dragging a big plastic bag around picking up bits of plaster papers, old leaflets, a couple of empty water bottles and clearing out the bins in the rooms and the bathrooms. Then I swept the floors in the bedrooms and mopped the floors and then I started in the bathrooms. I wiped down the walls and scrubbed the floors in the showers, scrubbed the toilets - yes, I really did! - and the washed hand basins. I swept the stairs down to the lower level and passed Isa on the way down. Once I´d put all the trash in the large tip-bin outside the albergue I went back upstairs to find Isa now mopping the floors and washing the walls in the showers!
!No! No!" Isa, "I said, "I have done the rooms upstairs. Completo".
She just laughed. We decided that we needed to communicate better. I asked if I could use the washing machine to wash my pilgrim clothes and we added the albergue towels, dishcloths and a few pillow slips to the machine. At 9h15 there was a ´toot! toot!¨outside from the "panaderia' (bakery van) and we grab the bread bag and go together to buy bread for the day. We prefer the fat round cottage loaves to the long bacquets and bought 4 just in case we had another full house. When we had done all the chores we sat and wrote a shopping list. Isa´s friend, Lola, came to take us shopping.

Our first mishap - Isa slammed the door with the keys still in the lock and one of the keys got stuck in the frame. We jiggled it and wriggled it but it wouldn´t budge. We couldn´t open the door and we couldn´t take the other keys off the ring. Eventually I managed to shovel it up and down far enough to get the circlular part out and use a nail file as leverage. Finally we got the key out. But we couldn´t open the door so Isa telephoned Begona who gave us the number for a locksmith. He was very quick and soon the door was open and we were on our way to town. We sat at a terraced restaurant where I had a coke and Isa had a Martini! We then did the shopping. You have to put a Euro coin into a slot in the shopping trolley before you can push it around the store which you get back whn you return it. Carrefour is a huge shopping chain and they had most of the things we needed at reasonable prices.
By 3pm we only had one pilgrim. By 4pm there were 3 and in the end we only had 7 pilgrims. "There will be another late pilgrim" said Isa. "I don´t think so," I replied. "OK. We take a bet" she said. "If there are no more pilgrims I will buy you coffee tomorrow". "Alright" I said "and I will buy you a Martini!" By the time we sat down to dinner Isa´s hopes of a free martini had faded.
It was a beautiful day and from the upstairs windows you could actually see the village of Finisterre as well as the lighthouse at the top at Carbo Finisterre. At night the sweeping lights of the lighthouse shine into the rooms and one can hear the fog horn sending off its mournful "whoooo...whooooooo..." Finisterre is about 9km away and the lighthouse 12kms away. We returned to the albergue and unpacked the shopping. During the day an occasional pilgrim will knock asking for a sello (stamp in the pilgrim passport) or to use the toilet and children come to play in the park. There was a large cabbage in the fridge and I offered to make a salad. "With this?" she asked, incredulous. "Si - es delicioso!" I said. She pulled up her nose - Isa doesn´t like cabbage. I made a cole-slaw salad with finely shredded cabbage, grated carrots, chopped oranges, a few red pimentos and chopped olives. Then I made a dressing with mayonaise, garlic salt and olive oil. It was delicious and there wasn´t a scrap left at the end of the meal. I also made another green salad and placed the little yellow lemon peel arrows on top again much to the delight of our pilgrims. This time Isa cooked a risotto and added chopped sausages. We had miniature ice-creams for desert and these went down very well. After dinner the two Swiss-German girls - Sarah-Jayne and Leah - played guitar and sang folk songs. Pietro, an Italian pilgrim, had a sore foot so I gave him a foot massage and he got tears in his eyes. He said it was the sweet singing of the young girls and the caring of the hospitalera. Dear, dear pilgrims. They all went to bed at around 11pm and once again Isa and I set the table for breakfast and went to bed. The lights from the lighthouse sweeping across the bay from Finsiterre to Corcubion was hypnotic and I don´t remember falling asleep.

Hospitalera in Corcubion

In 2007 I walked the camino Frances (3rd time) and wrote this on my blog after staying at Granon and Tosantos:
These ´donativo´refuges are run solely for pilgrims to Santiago and we find it amazing that people are prepared to volunteer to cook and clean up after us, out of the goodness of their hearts.
I decided that if I ever got back to Spain to walk a camino, I would volunteer in one of the donativo albergues. I was able to do a pilot online hospitalero course and was fortunate to be assigned to the albergue San Roque outside Corcubion on the Santiago to Fistera route. I should have started there on 27th June but whilst in Santiago I got a call to say that the albergue was closed for 4 days as there was a fiesta in the park and the stands were right up against the albergue building. I decided to walk to Finisterre and once there I was able to help out at the municipal albergue there for a day before being taken to the albergue San Roque.
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From 4pm to 10:30pm I was assistant Hospitalera at Finisterre. Well, Begoña said that I was the hospitalera and she was the Police!

Walking around Finisterre, I met up again with the two Cape Town pilgrims I'd come across at Oliveiroa. We sat on the sea front for a while talking about home, the camino and other nostalgic things. We had our photographs taken so that we could submit them to the CSJ of SA for the newsletter.

Back at the albergue municipal I was put to work! I learned how to register the pilgrims as they arrived - queues of them waiting at the door at 4pm - handed out the Finsterra document, the disposable bedding, explained about the doors closing at 10:30pm but a side gate being left open until mid-night for late comers and that they had to be out by 8h30 which is when the municipal cleaners move in. No scrubbing toilets at Finisterre - that was still to come! One of the pilgrims in the queue was Conny (the Dutch girl I´d left at a cafe bar on the way to Finisterre).

I didn´t get to bed until after 11pm and was up and ready by 7am. At 8h30 it was time to chase up the many young peregrinos who had partied at the lighthouse until late.

"I´m looking forward to seeing how you handle this" said Conny.
I walked through the dormitory tickling feet and telling everyone in a loud voice to get up and get out because it was after 8h30.

"Why do we have to get up so early?" asked one sleepy pilgrim. "This is the end, we don't have to walk today".

"So that the cleaners can come in and scrub the showers and toilets and make your bed for the next pilgrim" I said.

"Arghhhh...!!!" he moaned, and put his pillow over his head. Conny looked at me and laughed. "Tell him vee hav vays of making them move!"
By 9am most of the peregrinos were downstairs in various stages of dressing. But when I went to check for a last time, there were clothes on the folding dryer, boots under a bed, a good collapsible walking pole in a corner and other paraphenalia in the room.

"Don´t worry" said Begona, just put it in the laundry room with all the other lost stuff. I was amazed to find clothing, shoes, sandals, boots, backpacks, hats etc in a large pile in the laundry. Perhaps being at the end of the walk many pilgrims can´t be bothered to carry all their stuff home so they just leave it behind!

Perhaps there could be a 2nd hand depot for pilgrims who can't afford to purchase all this stuff?When the cleaners came I went across the road to the cafe-bar and joined Conny for breakfast. We said our 2nd goodbyes and promised to email. Then I went back to the albergue and met Isabel who will be my companion hospitalera for 2 weeks. Isa is a tiny little thing from the Basque country and doesn´t speak any English - besides ´thank you´and ´good bye´ so I´m expecting my Spanish to improve in two weeks! It is also her first stint as hospitalera so we both felt a bit nervous when Francelino fetched us to take us to Corcubion.
The Albergue has such a good reputation that we feel like custodians and promise each other to do our best to maintain the high standard of cleanliness, warm welcome and love established by our predecessors. Judith met us at the albergue and after showing us the rooms up and downstairs, where we would share a room, the showers, First Aid box, how the stove and washing machine worked, how to stack the pantry, what the general daily routine was, she helped us make a grocery list, then she took us into Cee which is the village right next to Corcubion, to do shopping. We went to Carrefour, a large supermarket where we bought provisions. They have an excellent delivery service and the goods arrived at the albergue almost at the same time as we did.
On the way back to the albergue she took me to the Correos to collect the parcel I had sent from Santiago with my working clothes, rubber gloves and On-Line hospitalero notes prepared by Rebekah Scot. These were to prove really useful in the days to come.
Isa offered to cook lentils for dinner and I said that I would make the salad. By 2:30pm pilgrims were queuing outside. San Roque officially opens at 4pm but Judith suggested we use our discretion and if it is raining or someone looks really desperate, we could open earlier.

"We prefer not to have more than 14" she said, "But if more arrive, open the other room where there are beds for 6 more pilgrims."

It was a mizzy-drizzly day so we opened about 30 minutes early. I registered the pilgrims as they arrived, 19 of them in the end - almost completo. Isa helped question the Spanish pilgrims - age, profession, where did you start? I managed with those from Belguim, Holland, Germany using my Afrikaans skills. Under no circumstances are we allowed to accept even one extra pilgrim (even though there is stacks of room on the floor) because of the insurance rules.

We soon had all our pilgrims upstairs, showered, some resting, others reading or writing. Isa and I chopped and cut up vegetables for the lentil pot and I made a salad. A couple of pilgrims helped us set the table and cut up the bread. I stole an idea from Eunate and made little yellow arrows out of lemon peels to place on top of the three salad bowls. We turned them so that they pointed towards Finisterre. The pilgrims were delighted and most took photos. I asked the French pilgrims if they would sing Chanson du Pelerin St Jacques as the oracion and we soon had all 21 of us joining in the chorus. We had made three large bowls of salads, cut up 2.5 loaves of bread and had a huge pot of lentils and nearly every scrap of it was wolfed down by the hungry pilgrims. We served wine and water with the meal and desert was yoghurt, and then tea/coffee or hot chocolate. All of this including the overnight stay is donativo and we lit a candle next to the donation box which is kept on the fridge.

There is a guitar in the albergue and a Chilean pilgrim played and sang for those pilgrims who had stayed up. Eventually we were able to sweep the floor, set the tables for breakfast and get to bed ourselves by 11:30pm. Isa and I were pleased with our first day and felt a sense of satisfaction when we switched off the lights and closed the front door before tip-toeing upstairs to get to bed.

THE PATHS FROM LOURDES to PAMPLONA

Day One - Lourdes to Asson:
It rained for two days before we got to Lourdes and was raining on the day we left. Everything was very muddy but we thought we might still be able to walk the 'chemin' paths. On leaving the sanctuary we followed a green line drawn by the woman at the INFO office.
''Just walk out the gate at the far end of the sanctuary' she said, ' turn left and straight on from there follow the conches. We exited the sanctuary, turned left and walked straight up a steep hill for over 4km before coming to the picturesque twin villages of Omex and Segus. We asked a man if this was the way to Asson. "Oui, oui" he said, pointing his hand directly ahead. It didn't look right so we dcided to ask woman in a La Poste van if this was the way to Asson.
'Oh non, non! You must go back to the Camping and turn left there,' she said. Back we went 4km downhill to the Camping de la Foret. After 8 kms on the wrong road we had a coffee and hot chocolate and asked the woman in the cafe for directions.
"It will be very muddy' she said, 'better you go on the road.''
So, we ignored the signs, crossed the river and walked all the way to Asson on the D937. We met pilgrims who had walked on the paths and they confirmed that they were muddy with large pools of water and very slippery mud especially on the steep ascents and descents.
The entrance into Asson is up a short hill. The gite is down a little side road to the right. When we arrived some men were laying out a tent across the entrance to the gite.
"I emailed about staying here" I said "we are the three pilgrims from South Africa". A young man went into the house on the left and a woman came out. She looked confused and upset and spoke rapidly to the young man who told us that they had not received the email and that two other pilgrims, a man and a woman, had phoned about staying in the gite. It only slept 4 people so would we be prepared to sleep on stretchers in the house? We had a look in the room but there would be no access to toilets and there were people working in the room we would have to stay in. I asked if we could stay in the gite, downstairs in the foyer. Smiles all round! No problem. The stretchers were brought in, we were led upstairs to look at the gite where we could use the showers and toilet. The charge for staying in the gite is 10 euro and we were charged the same for slepping on the stretchers! I opted for a mattress on the floor instead and was jolly pleased I did because the girls nearly froze to death with the cold coming straight through the canvas strecther from the tiled floors.
Day two: Asson to Arudy
We walked on the paths all the way to Arudy - stopping for a picnic lunch of fruit and cheese at St. Colone. We arrived in Arudy to find the streets full of fun-fair merry-go-rounds and stalls. I had emailed and received a confirmation email from Pierre, the priest, that we could stay at the Presbyterre. I had given Sebastien and Marie the phone number and they called ahead to book beds as well. When we arrived in Arudy Marie found the house where we could get the key for the Accueil Paroissial au Presbyterre - home of the Parish Rectory and Father Pierre Sallenave - a wonderful priest who Sebastian later described as his kind of priest - one who lives with the people. This pilgrim refuge is donativo but when asked, he said that 5€ is the norm for the bed and also for the use of the kitchen and foods. We decided to give him 15€ each as well as a little yellow beaded arrow. Marie called the albergue in Oloron and booked beds for tomorrow night so we will be together for one more day. From Oloron they go west to St Jean Pied de Port and we will turn south to Somport.
Day Three: From Arudy to Oloron
We walked through farms, fields, woods and small village roads. We stayed at the Relais du Bastet, a nice new albergue (not yet in the guide books) with beds instead of bunks. We were in a 4 bed room and Sebastien and Marie in a 2 bed room.
Day Four: from Oloron to Sarance
We walked on the road for about 3km and then took the 'chemin' path through a very wet, muddy, slippery forest. In places it was almost unegotiable and we did a 'slippy-sloshy-slide' for about 4km. Parts of the paths were then on roads but once again we were led off road and the mud was so thick it stuck to our boots until we felt as though we were on skates! When we did finally come out onto the road we dithered about a bit trying to decide whether to continue on the path or stick to the road. ¨The rest of the way can´t be as wet as the first part´we said, but it was! Val sent an SMS to Ann and her friends warning them about the mud and they thanked us later for the warning as none of them was ready for a slippery sludge walk to Sarrance. The last few kms were a combination of small roads and paths, one section in a stream bed which at least cleaned most of the mud off the soles of our boots. The old St Jacques study centre and monastery, Les Fonatines deÉscot, is about 1.5km before Sarrance and you have to take the road option to reach it. I had booked two rooms on the internet and Annie and her friends had phoned ahead to book rooms as well. 13 euro each and about 8 euro for a delicious dinner.
Day Five: Sarrance to Borce
Marion's post for this section: We walked alongside the valley of IÁrrec d´Isson high above the Gave dÁspe which flows in a deep gorge. The path was very rocky and lots of mud, almost clay earth which sucked onto our boots. Most of the day was on the mountain side. We had a mountain on our left our path then the river, then the road and then another mountain on the right. Lots of green trees and sometimes a garden of flowers. Sometimes the river was right next to us and sometimes deep down below. At times the path was very rocky, we crossed over a bridge a couple ot times to the other side. We also saw a lot of Royal eagles, such beautiful birds. Although our path went up and down we were actually climbing the whole day. At times you could see the mountains on the other side with snow on top of them. It was such a tremendous day.
My post: We covered the first 5km in 2hours, up one slippery slope and then down equally slippery slopes, sometimes almost next to the raging river but at other times high above. We finally came out of the river onto a small road and climbed up to Borce, a charming, spotlessly clean village with a St James refuge on the left as you enter the village (that was full when we stopped) and finally to the Communal Gite in the centre of the village. We had an 8 bed room to ourselves and managed to do most of our washing and buy soup and vegetables, bread and wine for dinner which we ate in the Gite diningroom.
Day Six: Borce (630m) to Somport (1600m) and on to Canfranc Estacion (1200m)
The CSJ guide describes the road route as being more scenic than the forest path so up the road we went - and up, and up, and up. For the first four hours we couldn´t see higher than the tops of the trees due to the heavy mist but when the sun did break through we caught glimpses of snow capped moutains and craggy peaks. Whereas I was feeling a bit flat and wooden yesterday on those rocky, riverine paths, it was Marion´s turn to feel like a wooden doll today. We stopped more frequently, not only because of the climbing but because the sun finally came out and was burning down on us. We climbed from 636m to 1600m at the pass. What a welcome sight and a good stop at the cafetaria for a drink and a rest. It is 7.5km down to Canfranc Estacion and once again we opted for the road rather than the steep path down to 1200m.
On the road a fellow in a 4X4 stopped us and gave us a card for the La Tuca Casa Rural in Canfranc Est. I had emailed Peppito Grillo to book beds but when we got there we rang the bell a few times and nobody came so we found the La Tuca Casa Rurul and booked in there. A charming house with very comfortable rooms at 20€ person bed incl breakfast.

Day Seven - Canfranc Estacion to Jaca
Today rocked! We rocked! The paths were rocks! We rocked and rolled on narrow rocky paths at the base of scree slopes on large gravel stones, crossing shored up landslides and scree beds. We kept climbing up and then going down to cross the road and walk on the other side. Then back again we go, down to the road and climb up the opposite hill. At one stage we had to duck to walk under the overpass of the main road above us, circle around the concrete supports and climb up the other side. On one long winding rocky path we heard cowbells and kept trying to look through the hedges to see them. And then, around the corner came a shepherd and his enormous flock of sheep and goats, many of the larger animals with cowbells around their necks. We stood aside to let them pass (it was a bum to bum traffic jam anyway!) and it seemed as though the flock was never ending. Another shepherd and his dog brought up the rear and he said that there were over 300 animals in the flock. After exiting the countryside we entered Castillo de Jaca on a very steep village road down to the main village and highway below. Most fortified towns were built on high ground and this one was no exception. Going down, down, down we marvelled at the locals who have to walk up and down this winding, steeply graded road every day.
There is a steep climb up to the outskirts of Jaca and then a fairly long walk into the town and to the albergue following yellow arrows and gold shells in the pavement. The albergue is very modern with cubicles and beds instead of bunks. The showers are good and the kitchen well equipped.

Day Eight: Jaca to Santa Cicila
We have three options today. (A fourth option is to walk to San Juan de la Pena and back down again but we have discarded that option as San Juan is a detour and not really on the camino path). So, these are the options:
(1) Get a bus at 8h10 to St Cilia and walk up to San Juan de la Pena and back down again.
(2) Get a taxi to San Juan and ask him to wait for one hour then get a lift down to St Cilia - which means an 8km walk to Arres, our next intended stopover.
(3) Get the taxi to San Juan and walk the 7.5km back to Santa Cruz and then to St Cilia.
"I don´t mind to walk" says Val.
"I don´t mind walking" says Marion. So, I ask the driver to take us to San Juan and we will walk back. It costs us 25€ - 35€ if he had waited. We pay 3€ (pilgrim price) to see the monastery and leave our packs behind the ticket booth. After visiting this stunning place we collect our sticks and packs.
"It is not a dificult path" says the young lady in the ticket booth. "Only 7.5km".
It IS a difficult path! It is rocky, narrow, VERY, Very steep and although we spent the first km going up, the rest is all down, down, down - impossible ledge paths with no hope of recovery if you wobble or stumble. At one stage it looked as though the path had disappeared into an abyss but there it was when we peered over the edge, snaking its way sideways down only to disappear again around another gully. I was exhausted at the bottom and even after stopping at Santa Cruz for a cold drink, I started to feel light headed and wobbly as we walked to Santa Cilia. "I think I need to lie down" I told M and Val at one stage. We found a tiny patch of shade and I lay down with my legs up and my head on my backpack, I had goosebumps even though it was 35oC in the shade. I think I had a touch of sunstroke. When we got to Santa Cilia I headed straight for the albergue. After a shower, something to eat and a drink I felt as though I could have gone on another 5km or 8km but by then our washing was in the machine and we were very comfortable in the albergue. (Wonderful albergue with a very kind hospitalera).

Day Nine: To Artieda
Marion's post: Most of our walking was through farm land lots of golden wheat fields with a scattering of wild poppies every now and again. We walked on a path of sand and stone lots of wild flowers alongside us. It was quite flat and again very hot with very little shade. We stopped at a little village called Martas, unfortunately no shops at all, so no coffee. Luckily we saw three elderly men sitting on a bench and the one showed us where we could get some cold water to fill our bottles. We then walked through the Lunar valley, it was quite weird, hills that are porous, soft rock, grey coloured and it looked like they had a top layer of very fine looking gravel. The village that we were going to stop at Artieda was on a top of a hill, it was quite a climb. At the bottom of the hill were about a dozen Royal Eagles flying around and whilst I was walking up I could not help but wonder if they were watching to see if I would make it to the top and if I did not would I be good food for them. I was exhausted by the time I had reached the top, at first could not undrstand why I found the day so tiring but then realized how I had perspired in the heat and had not had enough carbs and salt, also had not had enough to drink. Albergue/Hostal.

Day Ten: Artieda to Sanguesa
We decided last night to ask the owner of the albergue give us a lift 8km down the trail to Ruesta - where we should have been last night. You´ll remember that we lost 8 kms by walking down from San Juan de la Pena to Santa Cruz (which is not on the actual camino) and then to Santa Cilia. Ruesta was abandoned due to the planning of Yesa but now a few of the derelict buildings are occupied and there is a very modern albergue in amongst the ruins -and nothing else that we could see. The path today was very easy - mostly along gravel or dirt. The first 7km went straight uphill all the way to the wide ´meseta´at the top. It was then a long, winding road through scrub land, similar to the moors in England with scrubby vegetation and very few trees. We stopped at the only village between Ruesta and Sanguesa - Undues de Leida - for a coffee and coke. From there the path dropped quite sharply and soon we were in the valley walking between wheat and barley fields. A few kms from Sanguesa we passed a large stone marker that marked our entrance into Navarre. The terrain softened, with no more stark, stony hills and weird gravel formations. As we entered Sanguesa we saw our first European stork and followed his flight as he-she swooped onto a next, one of many, on top of the church. We were led to a pilgrim albergue by a wizzened little man but when we climbed the stairs to the dormitory we found it fully occupied by pale faced old men! We think that it is a group that is starting from here as we have not seen them before and none of them had sunburn! We, on the other hand, look positively burnished with brown legs and arms and sunburned noses!
We find a room at the Hostal across the river - 82 euro for s 3 bed room. We are too tired and Val's feet are too sore to walk any further so we take it. There is a pilgrims' dorm at the Camping site that charges 9 euro for a bed. Sanguesa is a tired looking town. The main street - Calle Mayor - is also dusty and tired looking.

Day Eleven - Sanguesa to Izco
We left at sunrise along straight, wide gravel paths with our shadows strecthed out before us. It is a good way to warm up. Then it was upill to Rocaforte to the Alto de Albar and Alto de Olaz with a stunning view over a wide valley that looks as though a gargantum glacier gouged out this valley millenia ago. From there the path narrowed to a single clay track, becoming a narrow clay and rock animal track which must be lethal when wet. Having climbed to the Altos it was time to go down again along a very steeply downward trail through the woods. The last 6km were an uphill climb to Izco. Albergue in the Sociedad Complex.

Day Twelve - Izco to Tiebas
We weren´t planning on staying at Tiebas. I had copied the diary of a pilgrim who walked the route last year and she said that the albergue in Tiebas was dirty and uncared for. However, we were on track for a stay at Eunate so decided to risk Tiebas.
Sometimes the camino lulls you into a sense of false camino bliss. ¨I love these kind of paths" I said to M and Val as we walked along wide gravel paths through fields and farms. Having just said that, the path became a forest path, then a double track on stones and clay, then it disintergrated into a single rocky path no wider than one boot. We started climbing up the side of the mountain and down the other, through a stony gulley, then up and down rocky, stony gullies all the way from Monreal to Tiebas. It looked the Sierra Nevada with steep, pitted sheep tracks hugging the side of the mountain, taking you halfway up the hill and dropping you down, down down on the other side.
There is a village on a hill across the valley and we keep thinking that it might be our refuge for the night but we keep skirting it, hiding from it, then it appears again. Eventually we see Tiebas - also on a hill but on our side of the valley. As we approached Tiebas we could see the ruined castle of Teobaldo 1 of Navarra. If we´d had more energy we might have explored it but we were too hot, too dehydrated, too weary to do more than follow the flechas amrailla to the hostel which was way over at the other end of the village. Once again, this room forms part of the Community Centre and besides our small room with just 4 bunk beds, it also has a large room with matresses on the floor for groups. There is no hospitalero, just a caretaker who lets us in. I find a broom and a mop and sweep the floors in the entrance, dorm and bathroom. I find flowers outside and steal a few to put in a plastic cup on the table. The place looks celan, homely and inviting!

Day 13: Tiebas to Eunate
What we will remember of the paths to Eunate is mud, mud, and more mud. There are few places to stop and even those mentioned in the CSJ guide are merely hamlets with no facilities other than an occasional fountain. We stop at Eneriz for a breakfast of nectarine, cheese and hot chocolate - delicious. We are in Navarre and pass through more and more vineyards. Marion and I recall walking to Eunate from Pamplona along a treelined road. This time we approach through a woods along a very muddy track that hugs a hedge on one side. Finally we come upon the little octangonal church in the field. The albergue opens at 4pm. Wonderful place to stay - wonderful meal.

Day 14 - Eunate to Pamplona
By the time we are on the path to Muruzabal the wind has strengthened and it is starting to rain. We take out our ALTUS raincoats for the first time since France. We are walking the ´wrong´way - that is, everyone else is walking from east to west and we are walking to Pamplona. We pass through Uterga and many pilgrims stop to ask us why we are going in the opposite direction. Many of them have pale complexions, showing that they have just started walking (we look like walnuts).
By the time we reach the rocky path up to the Alto del Perdon the wind is howling and we are being buffeted so strongly that even our sticks are swaying in the wind. The wind nearly blows us off the mountain. The rain is lashing down. It is a gruelling climb up the river boulder strewn path to the top of the Alto. We take photos of the metal sculptures and then start our descent. It is muddy and narrow and we jostle on the path with pilgrims coming up. The sun comes out and we walk uphill to Cizur Menor. From the outskirts of Pamplona we follow the large camino signs in the cyclist´s lane all the way to the Plaza del Castillo. We find our hotel and check in. This is the end of the camino for Val and the end of the Aragones for us three.

WWW.2009PILGRIMS.BLOGSPOT.COM

Only one week to go before flying out to France!! I will be posting on the 2009pilgrims.blogspot.com blog while I'm away and will only add a post on the walks here after I get back in the middle of July.


Here is my itinerary for the next 5 weeks:

4th June - Fly to France.
5th June - Arrive in Lourdes
6th - 11th June - Walk to Spain via Oloron Ste Marie and the Somport Pass



12th - 19th June - Walk on the Aragones Route to Pamplona

20th June - Train to Lugo
21st - 26th June - Bus to Ferrol, start walking the Camino Ingles to Santiago

27th -30th June - Walk to Finisterre and back to Corcubio

30th June - 13th July - Hospitalero at the Albergue San Roque in Corcubion

13th July - Fly from Santiago to Madrid to Johannesburg and back home

Four different routes in four weeks and a first time stint as a volunteer in a pilgrim shelter - like a dream come true!!

Hasta Julio!

A journey can become a sacred thing

"Of one thing I am certain, the transformation I yearn for is incomplete. I do not know whether I am any closer to enlightenment - I do not really expect to achieve it - but I know that the attempt is worth the effort."
Oliver Statler (a Shikokupilgrim who wrote 'Japanese Pilgrimage')















A journey can become a sacred thing,
Make sure, before you go,
To take the time
To bless your going forth,
To free your heart of ballast
So that the compass of your soul
Might direct you toward
The territories of spirit
Where you will discover
More of your hidden life,
And the urgencies
That deserve to claim you.
May you travel in an awakened way,
Gathered wisely into your inner ground;
That you may not waste the invitations
Which wait along the way to transform you.
John O’Donohue, from - To Bless the Space Between Us- A Book of Blessings:

There was quite a long thread on one of the camino forums about preparing spiritually for the camino. The subject raised the hackles of some pilgrims and caused confusion amongst others who interpreted 'spiritual' as 'religious' preparation.

I can understand those who prepare for a religious experience on the camino (after all, it has always been a Christian pilgrimage) but I don't know much about spiritual preparation.
What I do know is that with only two weeks to go (I'll be flying out of Johannesburg two weeks from today) I feel that my 'spirit' has already gone before me! It's a strange phenomenon, this feeling of withdrawing from your everyday life, from those around you - nothing is important because soon, very soon, "I will be on the camino". I am starting to feel like a pilgrim. I feel as though my psyche is preparing for the hardship, the cold, heat, hunger, camaraderie, leaving places behind, always moving forward of a pilgrim's life. Perhaps it is this letting go, opening up, inviting the pilgrim way to take over that is a spiritual preparation?

I have prepared all the practical details - travel arrangements, flights, train times, getting from A to B to walk to X, W, Z.
I have prepared rough itineraries for the 4 different routes we will walk and have booked a few hotels in places where we will start those walks.
I have prepared my body by training hard, walking in the new boots, having a medical check-up, collecting the medication I need to take while I'm away (asthma pump, nasal spray, bone pills and calcium tablets.)

My backpack is ready. I think I've packed and weighed and repacked and weighed everything at least a zillion times! It is standing in the corner of my spare room, patiently waiting to be hoisted onto my back and carried off on its long trek. It weighs just under 5kg.

I have deleted about 15 Google Alerts so that my Gmail inbox isn't overloaded when I clear it on the camino. I have unsubscribed from daily email digests, from e-newsletters, and from the thrice daily NEWS alerts that no longer seem important.
I have been telling friends that I am leaving on the 4th June and have already been left out of arrangements being made for while I am away.
This 'clearing out' daily details is like '...freeing the heart of ballast so that the compass of your soul might direct you toward the territories of spirit..'

In the middle ages pilgrimage was often penitential and was undertaken as a journey of expiation. It was a journey of the soul - literally to save the soul. For me, walking the camino is food for the soul. Leading a minimalist life, walking in the country day after day in the footsteps of millions that have gone before, communing with nature and strangers is soul restoring.

Last weekend we went to the mountains to do some hiking and the mountain scenery, gravel paths, rocky river beds and undulating terrain had me transported to the Irago Mountains. "This is just like the camino" said Marion. I smiled, knowing that she was also transported back to the camino.

The planning and anticipation of walking a camino is almost as special and exciting as the actual walking. I know that others feel the same. Every time I walk a camino I learn more about myself, about people, about the world we live in. I have reached the stage now where I am dreaming the camino.
I can't wait!!

WALKING THE CAMINO IN SPRING

Photos with permission - Juan Carlos http://www.galiciaenfotos.com/tag/nieve/

These photos are obviously NOT what you want to see in Spring on the Camino!! They were taken between February and April in Galicia.

2017 has had a longer winter than usual;

Facebook posts:

30th April:
Wow! I just finished walking through forceful winds and driving, sleet like rain between Hornillos and Castrojerez... very cold!

It's snowing in Foncebadón !!!! ❄❄❄. Be careful please.

April 30, rain, snow and wind in Rabanal del Camino all the way pass Cruz de Ferro towards Molinaseca

Four pilgrims from the Camino were rescued in Navarre with symptoms of hypothermia yesterday.
Firefighters decided to travel the traditional Camino route route to check if any pilgrim needed assistance in the face of bad weather.
They were transferred to the shelter of Roncesvalles and have not had to receive medical attention. According to the Government of Navarre, at about 15.20 hours a woman of Brazilian nationality, who was next to two other pilgrims in the shelter of Izangorre, requested help due to poor weather conditions. The Burguete firefighters were mobilized to the place in an SUV and have moved the woman, with symptoms of mild hypothermia, and her two companions, to the hostel of Roncesvalles. Given the weather conditions in the Zone, with precipitations of water and snow and strong wind, the firemen have decided to cross the traditional way of the route jacobea to check if some pilgrim more needed assistance. They found a woman of English nationality, also with symptoms of hypothermia who was also transferred to the shelter of Roncesvalles.
https://tinyurl.com/m2bazkc

27th April:  According to Weather Underground, it's snowing tonight in Burgos! Is anyone there who can confirm?

Just finished! Started in Pamplona with lots of sunshine and very warm weather, then came the wind, then the rain, and finally the snow! Just beautiful!!

26th April:  Leaving Fonfria toward Sarria today and I encountered ice, warmth, snow, and finally sun again! 

A bit of snow and a lot of mud on the way to Pola de Allande on the Primitivo today.

25 March:  

Wet, cold, and muddy day today (March 25, 2017) from Puente la Reina to Estella. Now it's snowing.

13 March:  Winter weather finally came to Maryland, with significant snow now expected. 

March 2017:  Snow photos in Burgos
http://burgosconecta.es/tema/nieve/   


.........................................................................................................................................................

2013 has had a very late spring with snows, sleet and hail, heavy rainfall and some flooding on the Camino Frances.  Pilgrims walking in May have experienced freezing temperatures, snow in the Pyrenees (making the Route Napoleon impassable) and snow on the Cebreiro range. 
Galicia had heavy rainfalls from November to June with flooding causing the closure of some paths and rivers bursting their banks. 

March 2013:  The body of a Brazilian pilgrim was found not far from the  Lepoeder summit.   Everything was covered in snow and it appears that he lost his way and fell.  His body wqas only found a few days later.

April 27:   http://walkingtheway2013.blogspot.com/2013/04/o.html

16 May:  "The snow is coming down heavily now and it is the middle of May. I wonder what tomorrow has in store for us. We awoke to a winter wonderland with several inches of snow on the ground. It was absolutely beautiful. They say this is the first time that O’Cebreiro has had snow in May in ten years."  http://www.renereid.com/blog/2013/05/17/journey-from-la-portela-de-valcarce-to-o%E2%80%99cebreiro/

23rd May:  "Yes, Roncesvalles had big snow last week,and when I slept over there on the 21st, there were still banks of snow about 18inches thick. So no surprise the temps are around 0 and 1 degree in the morn, maybe going up to 7 degrees during the day."

"I also walked on 23 May, but we could not take the Route Napoleon because of the weather. We were also told of 2 other deaths on the Pyrenees in May. There was a rumour going around that a woman had fallen and died and her body was attached by vultures but no one substantiated either deaths."

June:  http://thedancingpilgrim.wordpress.com/2013/06/16/o-cebreiro-rebirth/


THIS IS MORE LIKE IT!!

Free wall paper - Endless Poppies in Spain by: http://crazy-frankenstein.com/

A few months ago I wrote a post on "Walking in Winter" with lots of photos and links to blogs about walking in winter. It was very useful for people planning to walk between November and March. Here is some info on walking in Spring.

Many people ask the question - "What will the weather be like in ....... March, , June, September? There are websites with some general stats for daily temperatures, average rainfall and so on for most of Spain, but the weather has been so unpredicatble the last few years that it is really difficult to advise anybody about the weather.
The camino forum - www.pilgrimage-to-santiago.com/board/weather-in-spain/ has a discussion section on the weather and you can find daily and 7 day forecasts for most Spanish towns, even small ones here:

Weather:
Check the weather history here:
http://www.peterrobins.co.uk/camino/weather.html

http://www.gaisma.com/en/dir/es-country.html

What will it be like in spring?
Spring, late spring that is, can be a wonderful time to walk the camino. Everything is green and the wild flowers are spectacular.
Although the first of March is regarded as the start of spring on the coast and in the coastal mountain valleys, it comes a few weeks later on the colder central plain and in the high mountain areas – sometimes as late as May in the snowy villages of the Pyrenees.
By then the spring bulbs are flowering, fruit trees are blossoming, the early almonds are followed in succession by peach, plum, nectarine, quince, pears, avocado, mandarin, oranges, grapefruit and cherries etc..(http://gardeninginspain.com/)
Spain is the second largest producer of cherries in Europe and the seventh largest producer in the world.
Spring is the 'growing and flowering' season so fruit and some vegetables might be scarce until early summer. (September is the harvest festival season). The wheatfields of the meseta are like rolling, rippling seas of green and when you are in the 'Zen zone' you can hear the crickets and the wind in the wheat. In summer and autumn the wheat fields turn to ochre and gold and by October there are massive hay towers in the fields.

What else is special in Spring?
The large white and black European storks return to their gigantic nests atop church towers and structures in early spring. You will see them swooping down into the fields to find food for their young who sit upright in those gigantic nests, clapping their bills loudly, calling for food.
For anyone into birding, it is interesting to know that Spain is considered the ‘last bastion’ for Europe’s declining bird populations and according to Howard Youth, a Contributing Editor to ZooGoer who lives in Madrid, all told, about 70 percent of Europe's 495 bird species either visit or breed in Spain. However, Poland is the ‘kingdom’ of the stork and there is no other country with more stork residents per square kilometre. (Visit http://www.poland.pl/ for more info).

About 3000 pairs nest in Spain each spring. The storks - Ciconia - (cigüeña in Spanish) have been building their nests on man made structures since the middle ages when the great forests disappeared in favour of agriculture. According to an article in AMIGOS (June 2004) they form monogamous pairs for breeding but do not migrate together. They reappear at the same nest site in late winter and early spring.

The last stork nest in Great Britain was deserted in 1416. The Dutch name of the stork – ooievaar – comes from old German odobero – bringing luck (ode – luck, baren – bring).
In the Arab world the Muslims believe that storks incarnate the souls of those who did not manage to fulfill their duty of pilgrimage to Mecca. Thus they take this journey in the body of a bird. This is why Muslims feel great respect towards storks, and killing them is equal to killing a man.
From 1934 to 1941 a family of storks was observed 400 km east of Cape Town. At the end of the 1920s storks built a nest in Bredasdorp 200 km east from Cape Town and 25 km north from the Cape Agulhas (southernmost tip of Africa). Storks breed in Bredasdorp till this day. What is more, there were seasons when up to four nests were inhabited in Bredasdorp.
Decades ago, a few nestlings were taken out of Bredasdorp nests to be brought up in the Tygerberg ZOO near Cape Town. In 1975, encouraged by the presence of their kin, wild storks built a nest in the ZOO. Since then storks breed in Tygerberg ZOO every year. In 2000 there were five wild stork nests.

Most guidebooks will tell you that the best time to walk a camino is in May and June or September and October.
Why not in springtime?
Because, walking earlier than May you could, and most probably will, experience snowstorms and blizzards. By November winter is setting in again.
July and August are very hot months and August, being the European holiday month when schools, colleges and factories close, is exceptionally busy on the camino.
The video DVD - "Within the way without", which inter-weaves the pilgrimage stories of a winter, spring and summer pilgrim, clearly shows the different landscapes through the seasons.

As the camino has become more and more popular, people are walking earlier in the year to escape the crowds.
In 2007 the pilgrims' office in St Jean recorded interesting stats on the numbers of pilgrims in the months of March, April and early May that showed that the beginning of May was a peak time on the camino with an average of 238 pilgrims per day starting or passing through St Jean Pied de Port.
http://www.aucoeurduchemin.org/spip/IMG/PDF/stati.pdf

The graph on the website shows two high seasons. One from 23 April to late May with a very high peak from 7 to May 13. (1668 pilgrims in 7 days, an average 238 pilgrims per day).
The 2nd high season from August to mid-September is less clear, since there was a drop in numbers in the 2nd half of August.
As in previous years, in 2007 there was a pronounced decline in June-July with about 900 pilgrims per week.

The table highlights the popularity of May and August in 2007 as in 2006 with significant increases of 127% and 124%

2004 2005 2006 2007

March 453 443

April 2325 2007 2427 3324 134%

May 3946 4651 4749 6025 127%

June 2731 3382 3791 4342 115%

July 3288 3945 3850 4366 113%

Aug 4001 4240 4536 5605 124%

Sept 3241 3569 3991 4820 121%

Oct 1232 1183 1477 1570 106%

Nov 196 169

Walking in early spring has other problems besides snow storms and freezing temperatures. A pilgrim may have to contend with these situations too:

1) Many albergues are still closed.

• In 2009, Esprit du Chemin in ST Jean Pied de Port opens on 4th April and closes 26th September.
• The albergue Orisson (between St Jean and Roncesvalles) is only open between March and October.
• The municipal albergue in Zubiri also opens from March to October.
• In Pamplona, the German albergue - Casa Paderborn - is open from April to October and the new albergue of Jesus y Maria opens after Easter and closes in October.

2) Many small shops, restaurants, hotels and businesses are closed until the summer ‘season’ so you might have to walk longer distances before you find somewhere to have a cafe-con-leche or lunch.

3) It can snow right up to May in the high places and for the past 3 years March and April have had cold, snow and rain.

• If it snows, many of the markers and yellow arrows will be covered.
• You might have to walk on the roads which can be dangerous.

4) Sunrise is later and sunset earlier, so in February and early March you'll have shorter days.

Read this blog's entry for the 6th March 2008:
http://mscamino.blogspot.com/2009/03/new-pilgrims-arriving-at-foncebadon.html
"Our third day here has begun. The main room now resembles descriptions of Mt Everest base camp! Several new pilgrims who were stuck at Rabinal have made it here since the storm seems to have broken. Supposedly the road is being plowed so if no change for the worse occurs tomorrow I will try to continue. Outside there are at least 75 centimeters [snow] on the ground with much deeper drifts."

In 2005/2006/2007 and 2008 - March and April were unseasonally cold with late snows and heavy rain. Mud slides and floods closed some of the camino paths and pilgrims had to take transport or long detours on roads to get from one village to the next.

24th March 2008:
A pilgrim struggles up the snow laden path to the Alto del Perdon. The Collegiate of Roncesvalles was snowbound after heavy snowfall whichfell for two days on the area. One of the strongest storms in recent years resulted in snow levels of between 60cm and 1.2m deep

March – April 2008:
Truth is, anyone who takes the route from Roncesvalles before May is running the risk of slogging through puddles and mud, snow or rain. I did it in April, and had ankle-deep mud to contend with, as well as driving rain. It was misery, but thankfully we had stopped at Larrosoaña on the way up and reserved a room at the same house where the meals are served. (That was one of the finest hot baths ever taken!) Through the rest of my camino I felt miserable several times, but I could look back on that first day and tell myself, "Hey, at least its not THAT bad!" (Rebekah Scott)

In 2005 and 2007 pilgrims died crossing the Pyrenees from St Jean to Roncesvalles in March and April and in 2008 many snow bound pilgrims had to be rescued from various passes.

What about 2009?
Spring 2009
Early March started off with a cold snap and then the weather improved and according to this blog, they had 16 straight days of sunshine from the 11th to the end of March with cold weather in the high places (which is to be expected) but a few days of over 20oC.
http://artos-camino.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html
March 2009:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrG6yL7FiAP16K1MOZyQsABYSDU8kR2cPXgcDBW0NTLulYeobrUWqS827iKhPAqqmahUGYSdxDQBEaZ4R0XO_Rmzcx51TkLQnf7FuLu1Z4ELLEnEwk321pS7eRD1zTMuUQ_iZn/s1600-h/60660709_21mai8MaeruVillamayordeMonjardinQuandlafamillenepeutnousbordercesontlescheminsquilefont.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwIKOHe949o

But, by mid April, things changed....
This blog describes snow on the way from St Jean to Roncesvalles, freezing temperatures and rain. These Australian peregrinas ignored the advice of the locals in St Jean NOT to take the Route Napoleon and carried on regardless. They were fortunate - they survived to tell their happy tale but in the past 10 years, at least 10 pilgrims have not lived to tell theirs and their stories are written on their grave stones. PLEASE - listen to the locals if they warn you not to walk the cross country route from St Jean to Roncesvalles. Take the road route - it is the 'authentic' pilgrims' route and a much safer alternative.
http://micheleandchrisscamino.blogspot.com/

Easter 2009: Photos - Diaro Navarra
Intense snow has resulted in an Orange Alert on roads in Navarra.
The rain began to fall with intensity from 15:00 hours and the snow came down on the asphalt. A snowplough cleared the road to allow the movement of trucks.
Orange Alert was activated in Navarre forecasting snow this afternoon. According to the last message sent by the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET), the center of Navarre recorded snowfall of 8 inches in 24 hours.

Two hikers were rescued from Burgos on Saturday night on the peak San Lorenzo (La Rioja), at 2271 meters above sea level, after being crushed by a large amount of snow just before the adverse weather conditionsof up to 10 degrees below zero. Mountaineers themselves warned the emergency services of the emergency. After 30 hours the two hikers were located unharmed and led the team of rescue until the parking Valdezcaray, where they arrived around midnight

16th April
http://www.diariodenavarra.es/ reports:
Troops of the Fire Service of the Government of Navarre rescued eight Camino pilgrims this afternoon near Roncesvalles who were in difficulties because of intense storms occurring during the whole day in the Pyrenees of Navarre. The rescues were carried out in three different incidents.
When the first troops were rescuing a pilgrim of 45 years, they were asked by another pilgrim to help three other companions who were about 4 miles from Roncesvalles and showed signs of exhaustion and mild hypothermia. Then, at about 18.16 pm, the Fire Service was called out to help four French pilgrims who had lost their way on the same route. Finally, at 18.16 hours, four French camino pilgrims requested assistance of the SOS Navarre and Navarre Agency.

And on the Aragones route....
a pilgrim described how the Somport Pass was snowed in,
That night there was thunder, lightning and pouring rain. We met a Spaniard and a Frenchman who also wanted to go to Somport. When the bus came to take us up, the driver said that there was much snow but we decided to see for ourselves. Yes, the driver was correct...in fact a blizzard was still going on. We left and started walking but there were about 6-8 inches (16cm) of new wet snow. We could not even see the path, so walked the road down. I took a couple of Photos but not more because of the wind and snow. It was really beautiful when you could raise your head to look. It was a very steep decline so gravity helped us down. The snow became just cold rain. The path was a still very steep downhill trek made of rocks of various sizes from pebbles to small boulders. This made it very difficult to keep your balance, especially since the rain and runoff from the tops of the mountains turned some stretches into little streams of water. My ankles would be going one way, my knees another, and my hips still a different direction to keep balance. Along with this being my first day of walking, I was quickly becoming very tired and hurting a bit. I knew I would not be able to make it back to Jaca, and saw that there were accommodations in Villanúa. This meant only 16 km that day, but they were strenuous ones. Just as I got to the town, the temperature dropped, and a strong wind came up. Then it began to hail...pea sized hail. To my dismay, I found the first Refugio closed...and the second...and to my horror the only hostel in town was closed. I stopped in a bar and asked about a place to stay and they told me of some hotels on the main highway. By this time the hail was thickly frozen on my hat causing the brim to droop. I walked on to the highway. Then I saw a door open and a repairman was there talking to a lady (Isabel). I went up to them and told them of my situation. The lady invited me in, perhaps the frozen look of desparation spured her compassion. She and her husband (Felix)from Logroño were there on holiday. They made me hot tea and he phoned around to find that even the hotels on the highway were closed. He explained that the last day of ski season was Easter and that was probably the reason that everything was closed. It didn´t explain the refugios being closed...but then there were obviously not many "pilgrims" around. After sitting and warming up and getting refreshed.The weather had cleared up a bit, and Felix called the next village, Castillo de Jaca, and secured a room for me. Any room would have done, but this one had a tub...a rare and welcomed feature during my time in Spain. I soaked for a half hour. What a delight!!!!
All emotions that I experience here on the Camino, are more intense than normal. This is especially true when I experience these random acts of kindness like I did from Felix and Isabel. There seem to be a lot of mysteries on the Camino, and one is tuned to interpret them mystically. I chose to think that the hardships of that day set me up to have the peak experience of the kindness shown to me by these two EX-strangers. That is what I will take back with me from this difficult day. That is what will remain in my heart forever.