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!

THREE-IN-ONE CAMINO 2009

Things change! On Saturday Linda asked if we could pleeease... walk to Santiago. Well, just the last 100km that is. So - we are now planning to start at Lourdes and walk to Somport: walk the Aragones route to Pamplona: get a train to Lugo and Ferrol and start walking the Camino Ingles from there to Santiago. This way the girls will get to see Santiago de Compostela, hug old Jimmy and earn a Compostela. And we will spend an extra day in Madrid on the way home.I am happy with the changes because I get to walk on three different routes, and visit Santiago for the 4th time.
And... I am thinking of volunteering as a hospitalera for a week or so afterwards. If I do have an opportunity to work at an albergue, I'll start straight after Santiago and go home a week or two later. Let's see what happens.

FERROL

ANSWERING THE CALL - PLANNING THE NEXT GROOT TREK!!!

Here begins the journey
now begins the day
with one step upon the path
my soul is on its way!
© JS Selfe

Chemin du Piemont Pyreneen
http://vppyr.free.fr/vpp_cartes.php
http://www.ariege.com/cheminstjacques/etapes/index.html
http://vppyr.free.fr/vpp-index-etapes.php3
http://www.chemins-compostelle.com/voie-du-piemont.html
http://pagesperso-orange.fr/vtt.compostelle/piemont.htm
http://www.pyrenees-pireneus.com/RANDO-CheminPiemont-Etapes.htm

Decisions, decisions.
el camino calls and we dream about returning but we are like curious, sentient beings searching, trying different paths, different routes, all to the same destination - ourselves?? I couldn't resit the call and am planning to walk the Chemin du Piemont Pyreneen from Narbonne - on the Mediterranean coast - to Pamplona in Spain via Lourdes and St Jean Pied de Port. Well, maybe that route - maybe not!

Perhaps I will walk the first half of the Piemont and then swing left at Oloron St Marie to the Somport Pass and over the Pyrenees onto the Aragones route which joins the camino frances at Puente la Reina.

This is, by all accounts, a stunningly beautiful route and it would be a pity to miss it. After the Somport Pass and Jaca, we will visit the monastery of San Juan de la Péna with it's massive overhanging rock (that gives it its name). Here is a legend about San Jaun.

"One day in about 732 a noble Mozarabic youth from Saragossa went hunting deer in these mountains and he chased a steer until it fell over the cliff. The young man almost fell over as well but he was able to rein in his animal. Looking over the edge he saw the dead steer lying next to the entrance of a deep cave. Inside the cave was a tiny shrine and on the ground, lying dead with his head on a stone was the venerable hermit Juan de Atarés. The youth buried the hermit, sold all his own wordly goods and with his brother came to live in the cave. Before they diedm, they handed over the hermitage to two disciples and thus the fame of this saintly place reached the outer world. In this tiny sanctuary was born the Kingdom of Sobarbe which gave birth to the Kingdom of Aragon." (Walter Starkie - The Road to Santiago)

http://www.monasteriosanjuan.com/monasterio-san-juan-de-la-pena.php?L=en

As there are no English guide books for the Piemont section, I have bought the French Guide - Le Chemin du Piemont Pyreneen: de la Mediterranee a Roncevaux.
I have also downloaded about 32 Google Maps as well as a couple of profile and stage maps. I have received the brochures I sent off for the Languedoc Roussillo region and also for the Midi-Pyrenees.

EARLY STAGES OF PLANNING
For now, it is my two old walking buddies Val and Marion who will be joining me and perhaps Linda, who hasn't done any long distance walks but is a good walker and who we have known for many years.
In 2001 Val, Marion and I walked the Wainwright's Coast to Coast in England. In 2006 we walked the Via Francigena from Switzerland to Rome.. Marion and I walked the Camino Frances from Roncesvalles to Santiago in 2007.