Day 39 October 4 Lichos to St. Palais

26 km 551 ascent 624 descent 6:26 hr. 27⁰C

Nice breakfast, absolutely lovely b&b. Left at 8am. The fellow we thought was german but now are convinced is French, was leaving from his gite just beside our b&b.

We talked a bit then he said, bonne chemin tired of trying to communicate

It really is lovely walking now with the Pyrenees looming large in the background. There was mist hanging the valleys making for a magnificent landscape.

We had no supplies with us except a grapefruit, Russell’s beef bourguignon dinner, and a granole bar. We passed no stores yesterday, and there was nothing where we stayed last night. We knew this in advance, but we were supposed to pass through Aroue-Ithorots-Olhaiby after 3km today, and it had a picnic basket on the guide (symbol for grocery). We were going to get our lunch for today there. Unfortunately, coming into that town we were walking along a very busy highway with virtually no shoulder (memories of Italy), and the GR65 cut off from the highway well before the town. We could add on another km of walking along that highway and another km walking back, or forget about the store. There were no other services shown along the Way today. We were only supposed to walk a total of 18km today, so we decided we could do that and eat at a restaurant in St. Palais when we got here.

Our Micheline guide didn’t show much climbing until later along the Way today, so when we started doing some major steep climbs, I was wondering where we were on the map. Going up a particularly steep incline, I noticed the cows on a distant hill were all on a slant. It made me think of Emily Dickinson, and her poem, ‘Tell all the truth but tell it slant’. ‘The truth must dazzle gradually or every man be blind.’

We caught up to the blonde lady from France we met yesterday. We were at the top of a hill with an incredible 360⁰ view. 

She said she was reading a book and the author said ‘walking was like painting a landscape’. We all spent some time admiring the glorious view. We asked her what kind of pate she and her Aussie friend had last night. She said the Aussie lady was a bit strange. I laughingly said, we’re all a bit strange, or we wouldn’t be doing this. She got a look on her face like she had disappeared into another universe. I don’t think she had ever considered the possibility she herself might be strange!

At one point we passed a farm where a number of ducks were gathered around a white van.  One duck was nibbling at the rear door.  When they saw us they seemed to put their wings in their pockets and tried to act very duck like.  Russell thinks they were planning to take the van and escape.

More ups and downs, and I asked Russell what km our GPS said we were at. The route really just didn’t seem to be syncing with the guide. Finally we got to a sign saying we were 15 minutes from Olhaiby, which is at km 7 according to our guide, but we were already at km 10. Obviously another case of them redirecting the GR65.

First we caught up to the airline stewardess and her 4 companions, then we caught up to the Belgiums.  We took turns taking group photos at a lovely lookout. Today was the 42^nd anniversary of one of the Belgium couples, and last week was the 40^th anniversary of the other. I did the math, and realized that my brother and sister in-law also celebrated 42 years in September, so they got married about the same time. Russell and I are at 23 years. We should live so long as to hit our 42^nd anniversary! Maybe. The German fellow at Morlanna told us that if you could walk the Camino, you were very healthy. Maybe heart healthy – but there are a lot of other things that can kill you (not to be too negative).

Twice today we passed a sign saying go this way if you are going to St. Palais. I’m sure that ignoring them caused us a lot of extra kilometers.

We got to a place we thought was Larribar-Sorhapuru, which was supposed to be at km 13 but we were now at 19 km.  We kept following the GR65, and then we arrived at a town called Larribar, which had a Tienda a go-go. This was a van parked along the road serving snacks. Most of her snacks were pretty weird, blood sausage, lamb something or other, …, . She had an omlette , which sounded safe enough, so we ordered that to share and got two cold drinks. There was a young girl from Lyon there with a young fellow from Hamburg she had recently met. He was going to start the Camino at St. Jean Pied-de-Port and go to Santiago. He had flown to Toulouse and was hitch hiking his way to St. Jean Pied-de-Port, when he met the girl from Lyon. She was talking him into starting now, since he was on the GR65, and he could build up to the 1200 meter climb going to Roncevalles. He had a map, which he just didn’t seem to be able to read. We told him to just follow the red/white GR markers and then the scallop shells. I don’t know, but I got the feeling he was going to have a bit of a problem.

St. Palais was billed as 5km from Larribar-Sorhapuru, and I was getting a bit concerned about the distance today. We crossed over a bridge, good, and we were supposed to follow the sign to Stele de Gibraltor. I found a very homemade sign to La Stele, and we went up to the monument, and then had a bit of a fight over where to go next. His GPS was saying one thing, and the research I had done was saying another. We followed his GPS another short distance, and then came to a very definitive sign saying to go the way I wanted to Stele de Gibraltor.

We went that way, and after a while Russell agreed that was the proper way to go.

When we finally got to St. Palais, it was a very nice city. I was thinking that for Macs to send us 5km off the GR65 to this place, there must be some good reason. Ostabat-Asme is where virtually all the other pilgrims are going today.

Our Hotel Midi looks really nice, but the hotel room itself is not the reason! It’s very small and I think there are fleas in the carpet. Russell disagrees, but he likes to live in denial. Perhaps the food is really good?