Day 3: Mercadoiro to Portomarin

Day 3
The Irish lady decided that she might try a couple of km today.  The group was taken back to Mercadoiro and she and I were dropped a few km along the path.  It was cold and windy. We walked a bit and then stopped.  The road was fairly flat so she sat and I pushed her on the walker.  Then she tried walking with her sticks but tired soon after.
We found a patch of sunshine and sat in the sun for a while. After an hour she was feeling sweaty and weak.  I called Reinette and asked her to phone David (our trusty Portomarin taxi owner) and tell him where we were, about a km from where we had started.  We waited at a cross-road at the taxi came to take us to Portomarin.

The others arrived after lunch.  I got an email from Isa to say that she would arrive in Sarria the next day and would walk to Portomarin.  Reinette and I walked around the square, visited the supermarket and a couple of little shops.  That night we ate out at the O Mirador. Pat and Janet don't like evening meals so Pat joined us for a while but Janet and the other lady didn't venture out.

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amaWalkers on the trail again!

This will be the second amaWalkers Camino trek this year. The first amaWalkers Camino walk was in June when I lead 13 people on three sections of the Camino Frances. It was a wonderful walk, with wonderful people and I am looking forward to leading this next group from St Jean Pied de Port to Santiago.
Just 3 more sleeps and we will be in Pamplona. There I will meet up with Judith (Canada), Bell (Johannesburg), Alan (US) and Tricia (South Africa). Judith is worried about the effects of hurricane Irene will delay her flight out of St John.  We'll just have to wait and see.

The next day (1st September) we will travel to St Jean Pied de Port. Brian (flying in from the UK) and Christine (from Sweden) will meet us there. I've booked a table at a typical Basque restaurant on Thursday night and we hope to be joined by Tim Proctor who has a B&B in St Jean.

On the 2nd September we will start our walk. Depending on the weather we will either walk the Route Napoleon to Orisson or the Cross. The Auberge Orisson was full and Jean-Claude offered us tents behind the cabin. Having walked in torrential rain in September 2007 I decided against it and booked us into a Gite in St Jean for two nights instead.  If the weather is bad we will walk on the road route to Val Carlos. Caroline will collect us at 3pm to take us back to our Gite in St Jean. This means that we don't have to carry our backpacks and we don't have to sleep in tents. The following day, Caroline will take us back to where we left off the day before and we will continue walking to Roncesvalles and on to Burguete.

I checked the long range weather forecast today for Pamplona, St Jean Pied de Port and Zubiri. It looks as though we will have perfect weather for a walk in (up?) the mountain! Pilgrims often report on high winds, lashing rain or thick mist with no views when they walk from St Jean to Roncesvalles.
We start walking on Friday 2nd September and it looks like it will be a beautiful day!
31 August: Pamplona - 16/24°C Rain and possible thunder during the day. Partly cloudy skies during the night.

1st September: We travel to St Jean Pied de Port - 13/22°C - Few morning clouds, light rain with clear spells during the day. Few clouds during the night.

2nd September: We walk from St Jean to Orisson - 18/26°C - Sunny! 3rd September: Orisson to Burguete - 13/24°C - Sunny with some clouds.

4th September: Zubiri - 17/31°C - Sunny with some clouds. (Wow - 31°C??? Perhaps it is an error?)

5th September: Pamplona - 16/22°C - Cloudy.

6th September: Puente la Reina - 14/25°C - sunny with some clouds.