Travel

September 23 2021

I arrived in Pamplona yesterday afternoon.  Unfortunately, I arrived too late to take the bus. At this time of the year there is only one bus which leaves Pamplona at 2:30 pm and arrives in St Jean Pied du Port at 4:15 pm.  

That actually gave me a good chance to walk around the city and get reacquainted. I walked over the Jesus y Maria albergue and made a reservation for my return on Monday the 27th. Interestingly, the albergue was completo so that tells me that the camino is still crowded but I have to take into account that they are only allowed 50% occupancy.  I now have reservations for the first 6 days of my Camino.  I will figure out as I go along if I need more.  

I was able to stay awake until almost 9 pm last night which is a victory considering I only had a few hours sleep for the prior few days.  I slept until 6 am and feel great today.  A few café con leches does not hurt the cause.  

I am still amazed at how many people smoke in Spain, and yet the life expectancy here is the second highest in the world.  I guess all of the walking must help.  People young and old are out walking everywhere.  It is so great.

This morning I went for a walk along the Camino.  I was late at around 9 am so there were few pilgrims.  I will assume that they were all out on the trail since you need to be out of the albergue by 8 am.  

I’m off the walk around and then catch the bus.  

I have missed walking the Camino and being in Spain. It has now been almost two years since I was either walking the Camino or acting as a volunteer to assist those that were walking the Camino. Tomorrow I begin my journey back to Spain and to the traditional starting place of the Camino Frances, St Jean pied-du-port France.

I have been walking each day with my pack fully loaded, and then some.

As I make my last-minute preparations I go over in my head all of the things that I am supposed to do, and new ones pop up. You would think that after doing this so many times I would have it down, and I do but not totally. Each Camino is a new adventure. Even though I will walk the same path, only the path will be the same. The people will be different, the weather will be different, the experience will be different, I will be different, and most of all this year we will have COVID to deal with that will make it very different.

I have never walked the Camino in a Holy Year. From what I understand it is normally very crowded. However, this year by all accounts there are far fewer people on the Camino. However, most albergues are only allowed to operate at 50% capacity so beds are harder to come by and many are closed altogether. Reservations are needed which will be a big change for me. I normally, am out very early, well not that early, about 7 am to 7:30 am and finished by 2 pm or so. I have never had to make reservations except for Orisson. This will be a new experience.

Today was a bit of a hard day. The way out of Leon is very commercial and since it is early in the season we figured that the alternative round might not be open. We walked an extra 2.5km to stay at an Albergue recommend by Rebekah Scott. Albergue Villars de Obrigo is run by a lady from Belgium named Christine. The Albergue is great. So far at 4:30 the only two people are me and Ed. That will make for a great nights sleep.