Off the Road, for now

I'm back in Canada now and am enjoying a quiet Saturday morning in my own home.  After four weeks of sleeping in different beds and always being on the go, this is a feeling like none other. 

I do miss the Camino de Santiago.  I had a great experience being a pilgrim for a week and a half and met some truly wonderful people.  I walked from St Jean Pied de Port, France to outside of Logrono, Spain - eight days and nearly 150km - but this is not even one quarter of the whole Camino Frances, which spans all the way across northern Spain ending in Santiago.  I know that the Camino will always be waiting for me to pick up where I left off.  I know exactly where my starting point will be based on where I finished the Camino this year - the small Knights of Templar church in the middle of the village of Torres del Rio.  When will I return to the Camino?  No clue.  It could be three years, ten years, or twenty years from now.

The highlight of the rest of my trip was travelling with my brother Brad for ten days, of which I have a few blog entries that you may have already read.  Something I didn't blog about earlier was that Brad and I had a great day in Paris meeting up with my parents (who had been travelling in Ireland and were spending a few days in Paris before returning to Canada).  What a city to meet up in for the day!

So this marks the end of my travels (for now) and I'm officially Off the Road for the time being.  BUT... please do check my blog from time to time.  I will continue to post, often about local trips and hikes, but also future trip plans and just general thoughts I'd like to share with you all...

The Ashmans in Paris... strangest family portrait ever!

Bilbao

Today is my full day in Bilbao, the largest city in the Basque region of Spain.  It´s a nice city and reminds me of a smaller version of Buenos Aires, Argentina.  Lots of grand boulevards, old Spanish architecture, gardens, and bridges.  Also a lot of modernist architecture.  It´s a hilly city too, with the edges of the city climbing up the nearby hills and mountains.

But... it´s a city and it´s unfamiliar.  I can´t think of a place I´d rather not be right now.  Bilbao is in such stark contrast to my days hiking on the Camino.  The fast pace of the city, it´s noise, construction, and traffic are the complete opposite to the warmth and nature I´ve been walking through at very slow pace over the past week.  So in short, I want to be home now instead of in this strange grey zone in an unfamiliar city.  I´ll be back in Canada on Friday after a day in London... can´t wait to get home!

My last night on the Camino

Since my last update in Lorca I´ve had two more walking days, starting early in the rising sun.  Last night I stayed in a Dutch albergue in Villamayor de Montjardin, a small town on a hillside overlooking the countryside.  I had a great day relaxing after arriving early in the afternoon, beating the worst of the heat.  After a few days of walking with girls, I had the chance to hang out with some guys in Villamayor and had some beers and laughs together.  Two Danish guys and one guy from Navarra (the province of Spain I am currently in, which is part of Basque country).  Today I walked to Torres del Rio, the final stop for me on the Camino.  I walked alone most of the time, but two of my original group (Anna-Kathrine and Petra) started and ended with me, and we are staying at the same hostel.  Just said farewell to both of them... they will continue tomorrow without me!

Tomorrow will be much different than my past eight days on foot.  I will take a bus to Logrono (my original planned ending point of the Camino) and then take a different bus to the large city of Bilbao.  It will be interesting to see what a large city in the Basque region will be like.  Apparently it used to be very industrial but now has a lot of culture (including a Guggenheim) as well as it´s own metro system.  I plan to relax and eat the great food and see if it lives up to the hype.  The wine and the pintxos are spoken highly of.  "Pintxos" is a Basque word and is basically the same things as tapas in southern Spain.

Then off to London on Thursday and Canada on Friday!  Just booked my hotel for London.  More updates to follow, either from Bilbao or London.

Albergue (pilgrim hostel) in Villamayor de Montjardin

Dawn, looking over Villamayor from front steps of albergue

Spending a hot day in Lorca

I left Puente la Reina this morning and arrived in Lorca, a small village, around noon in searing heat.  Many of my friends from the past few days arrived either before me, with me, or a while after me and most decided to stay at an albergue (hostel) here rather than go further in the afternoon heat.  So I was faced with a decision.  Continue in the heat and really push myself to my intended destination of Estella... or stay here, rest, avoid the heat and spend another day with friends?  I chose the latter, so am enjoying a low key afternoon inside the cool albergue.  Had a nice cold San Miguel beer in the hostel bar.  Tomorrow´s weather forecast is for slightly cooler temperateratures so I may go for a long haul.  I am thinking of starting before 6am, as the day wakes up, to get the most out of the morning!  Only two days left in my camino... 

Happy Canada Day from Puente de Reina

Happy Canada Day everyone!  For the second year in a row I am not in Canada for this day (last year was in Iceland) so I am definitely missing home today. 

It´s been a long day.  I walked alone mostly but did walk for a bit with two guys from Spain who studied English in Vancouver... they wished me Happy Canada Day as soon as I said I was from Canada.

It has also been a hot day.  The morning was cool to start and the views incredibly scenic as the path climbed up a mountain outside of Pamplona.  On the hills leading up to the mountain were sunflower fields.  Along the mountain ridge was a wind farm, with dozens of turbines.  The afternoon was very hot as I was walking through open farmland with little shade.  It was nice to arrive in Puente de Reina and find many of my friends at the same hostel, even Petra who stayed behind in Pamplona a few days ago with really bad blisters.  She walked the whole way today (over 20km) in sandals!

In the heat, the right gear makes all the difference - hat, sunglasses, hydration pack

Through Pamplona now, taking a rest today

Thank you for your comments, everyone, on my last post.  Two full days have passed since that last update and I now have around 75km of the Camino behind me.  Thankfully the weather has gotten colder and cloudier, making the trek easier physically, but the pack is not getting any lighter (well, actually, I have discarded a few items, but a few litres of water seems to cancel this out).  I´ve been heading westward away from the Pyrenees so the terrain is more forgiving now - rolling wooded hills interspersed with farmland with bright yellow hay.  The path has crossed the Rio Arga a few times, a small river we´ve been following.

I´ve been hiking with a great group of people.  There have been six of us since Day 2, all individual travellers who have met up along the way.  Some started in St Jean, others further back in France.  There is Gerd, the bearded German who I like to think of as "The Elder" and is clearly the group leader, and Anna-Katherine and Charly (both also German) who are both tai-chi instructors and have stopped a few times to do tai-chi in serene settings along the Rio Arga, and there is Claudia (from Austria) who I have walked with on and off since Day 1 in St Jean, and lastly there is Petra (from Slovenia), the youngest of the group who we adopted after we came across her tending to her blistering feet beside a water fuente along the way.  The group has gone separate ways now, however, due to injured feet, plans to go home from Pamplona, and ambitions to go on ahead.  I am still with Claudia and Anna-Kathrine resting in Cizur Menor (just over 5km from where we all stayed in Pamplona last night) but I am feeling the need for some alone time on tomorrow´s hike to Puenta de la Reina, so we may all split soon enough.

Pamplona is a wonderful city.  Once you get over the fact that it hosts the Running of the Bulls (San Fermin festival) every year (in early July), you realize that there is much more to the city.  Lots of trees and parkland and beautiful old walls around the city.

Clockwise starting with Claudia (in pink), Anna-Katherine, Petra, Charly, Gerd

This stop sign has the right idea

Made it over the Pyrenees

Wow, that was probably the most challenging day I have ever experienced!  I made it to the village of Roncesvalles (valley of thorns) in one piece after crossing the Pyrenees from France into Spain, starting in St Jean at 6:30am arriving at Roncasvalles at 5:30pm.  There was a 1300m ascent to the pass, then steep 500m descent for the last two hours.  It was hot, the sun was high, and my pack heavy.  My body is in shock.  Luckily the other Camino pilgrims are helpful and encouraging; we are all travelling together as a family.  So now I sit in a pilgrim hostel in an old monastery, tummy full, and planning to go to bed soon.  My wounds today range from foot blisters to a huge welt on my lower pack where my pack rubbed.  And I mean HUGE welt.  Tomorrow I will walk towards Zubiri but depending how I feel I may stop at intermediate accomodation.  This is not a race of course and I don´t want to wear myself out completely on Day 2.

A neat side note about today... the route I followed was the Route de Napoleon, and has been used not only by Napoleon but also as a route across the Pyrenees by many other groups in the medieval period.  Much of the route is high and open, as opposed to other routes in deep dense valleys below the peaks where it was easier to be ambushed in the medieval era.

Nearing the pass over the Pyrenees, still in France at this point

Taking a break in the shade, utterly exhausted and light headed, but still 4km descent to go