Day 39 October 4 Lichos to St. Palais
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.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.
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 42nd anniversary of one of the Belgium
couples, and last week was the 40th 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 42nd 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?
You have travelled well together and have hardly mentioned any disagreements. Soon you will be able to relax together on the cruise. We will miss these daily updates; enjoy your time on the next leg of your travels!
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