Buen Camino!

After many days of travel (pas de pied) the team safely arrived in Saint Jean Pied de Port, the most common start of the El Camino, as portrayed in the movie 'The Way'.  

The first step is to get your passport and speak to the super friendly, French, volunteer. These volunteers are a rare breed of surprisingly friendly French people. After getting our 'Credencial del Peregrino' and our first stamp it was off to dinner and wine. A weird little motel was booked by us where no fridge was available for my medicine, the owners were not interested in helping, the bathroom, beds, price, all gave us the urge to head into the Pyrenees towards the Spanish border.

 

Early Chocolate croissants and cappuccino with buckets of sweet whipped cream, j'us d'orange, and nice French bread marked our early morning (after everyone seemed to have left town). Maybe we will miss France after all.

Destination for today is Orison, a mere 9-10km up the hill... And up it is! Fortunately we are not the last peregrines as it turns out and lots of people, still manage to pass us. Everybody is very social. The Austrian women with great tattoos and three dogs, a bunch of Americans and Canadians, a Hungarian man from Brisbane, Spanish people.... Going uphill is very very slow for me despite all my meds being carted up by car. In fact we all have some stuff brought up by a transport service. Three bags in total at €8 per bag, not bad.  

Eagles and Vultures watching us from above, and on the top of the hills we hear them soaring through the wind. 

Reception at Orison just after lunch time is super friendly. Prices friendly too it seems. Everyone is fed dinner and breakfast here for the €30 or so. Tomorrow we walk more than twice today's distance, but now we're seasoned peregrines and we're up to it. My Vibram five fingers are doing a good job too.

We are really on our way!!!