Camino de Santiago
Eventually, in the drop-down pages, will be our experiences and discoveries during our walks and hikes.
In 2019 we walked from St-Jean Pied de Port to Santiago and onto Fisterra.
In 2020 we started at San Sebastian through Santiago to Muxia
In 2021 we walked from Lisbon to Porto, via Fatima, and onto to Santiago.
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We chose the Camino Frances Way, perhaps the most famous Camino de Santiago route. It’s 800km of trail, starting for us in St-Jean Pied-de-Port in France, before traversing the Pyrenees and continuing through the La Rioja region and along the rolling hills of northern Spain, before finishing in Santiago de Compostela, the burial place of St. James.
We left home on the 9th August to travel down through Brittany to the Monastere Sainte-Presence, near St-Dolay. We attended the feast days of both St-Tugdual and Ste-Susanne on the 11th of August.
Early on the 12th we set off to St-Jean Pied de Port by train – in fact by 4 trains – Redon to Rennes, Rennes to Paris, Paris to Bayonne, Bayonne to St-Jean – 12 hours!
First steps completed – we’ve arrived at St-Jean Pied de Port. Booked in for 2 nights at Les Remparts, good hotel, double room with en-suite bath, and Restaurant. Happy to cater for vegans. Next day, the 13th, we collected our Camino passports, climatised and prepped for the Pyrenees climb tomorrow morning.
August 14th – a la sainte terre begins
Complete shock to the system – a dramatic first stage and definately one of the toughest stages. Zig zagging climb up and through the high mountains and deep valleys of the Pyrenees. Really hot day. After 8 kms we called it a day, exhausted. The only accommodation was a communal ‘bunk-bed’ hostel at Orisson.
Day 2 – August 15th – Orisson to Espinal Aurizberri – 25 kms
Very slowly I’m getting round to adding the experience of 50 days walking across Northern Spain.
(47 days to Santiago and a further 3 days to Fisterra)
