A Day On A Path
Pronounced Poncho. This fellow is the host/owner of the gite where I stayed in SJPP. A wonderful guy full of humor and good will. He cleans the place by himself everyday. He prepares our breakfast, and when I returned from dinner, I learned he had arranged for my bag transfer and for transportation back down the mountain to my lodging (and for a ride back in the morning. And he gave me a Coke on the house!
This was a short day, but a killer walk for Day One. Straight up. No switchbacks. Slow walking. Sometimes with little counts in my head. 1, 2, 3. Stop. Breathe. 1, 2, 3. Stop. Breathe. The last 2km was 4km long. Truth.
https://caminosunrise.com/stage-one-saint-jean-pied-de-port-to-orisson
Ann, a Pilgrim from California. Ended the day enjoying dinner with a woman from California. We met on a Camino Facebook group and have been communicating these last few weeks.
Gite Makila (pronounced Jeet). Directly across from Beilari, where I stayed in 2019, and two doors down from the Pilgrim office.
They always work so diligently to straighten my hair and make me look civilized. This hair won’t see a blow dryer again until my next haircut.
Started the day with a visit to the Pilgrim office to register and get my sello (stamp). We collect stamps all along the way and must get two per day for the last 100km. The stamp on the left is from our local chapter of American Pilgrims on the Camino, given to me by Dana Ballentine before I left: Your camino begins at home.
Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, France ( SJPP). Rest day. I am staying in an albergue in a private room. We must leave around 0900 so the owner can clean. He does it alone, and there are many areas to clean. We can return at 3:00.
The restaurants aren’t open for dinner until 7pm, so I had a dark walk home. The streets aren’t as isolated as this photo looks – I had to wait a bit to get a picture without people in it
