OF COURSE it’s “it’s all good” I mean how could it not be but . , ,

Short Story (for those with low attention spans):

Day 1: up at 6, arrive by train in ,Saint Jean Pied du Pont by 9am, start The Road (yes, I am  being precise with my capital letters) by 11 and then walk 10,5 HOURS , 9 hours UP A MIUNTAIN , 1,5 down a VERY STEEP treacherous path (which was worse) to arrive at minestary in Roncesvalles with barely enough time to eat a sandwich (and drink beer) before lights out in the dormitory of 40 snoring pilgrims (ok, only 10 were snoring loudly). Did I mention that I am carrying 20 extra pounds and I am not talking about my backpack which weighed 20 pounds before I added 5 pounds of books that I “just gotta read.”

day 2: started the day at 745, leaving the dorm just before it closed, with 45 minutes of yoga on a picnic table (ground muddy) trying  to get my knees , and generally entire body, operable and ready to walk another 12 miles, although this time only 25% up steep hills. It turns out that The Walk starts in the Pyennies, which dispite looking like hills from the train are actually mountains.  Finished the day with half hour “ice bath” in local stream in hopes that I will be able to move in the morning.

The longer story:

Day 1:  its all very cool, we started in the Pilgrim Office where  we get our official Pilgrim Passport and the  head onto Orisson, Andre 2.5 hours of climbing 1400 meters. When we arrived at Orisson , we decided we felt so awesome that we would keep going all the way to Roncesvalles disputes the pleas from random strangers (“have you done this before? Do you realize its all up hill beside a rather dangerous downhill? This is how people get injured! Etc).  It actually turned out fine, but it was touch and go. There was this amzing fog which gave the whole environment a rather mystical feel, but also meant we couldn’t see more than 15 feet in front of us. It was wild! We would be walking along and then all the sudden a whole beard of cows would appear in the road running straight at us. They stipples on a dime when they saw us and very considerately moved to the side so we could pass.

Anither time we left the road I search of an angle statue and the  suddenly realized we didn’t know where the road was. Wild!! apparenly the fog must be common since animals wore bells, so the whole time we were serenaded by the ringing of  Epps that were on animals that we knew were there but could not see except for the fandoms times they would appear on our path. My favorite was the beard of horses (with bells) who RAN toward us and then drop just to stare at us as though we were the attractions (come quick, there are some humans). Then they simply followed us. Awesome!

crossing the border from France to Spain was cool also. No passport control, no people at all just a gaggle of rams staring at us.

So when we finally made it to the summit, we were so excited “all down hill now, whoot whoot!” OMG! It was the most brutal down hill! I had to walk backwards just to protect my knees, it took FOREVER!! Falling rock, treacherous roots, slip sliding slope, etc. and it went on for just about an hour too long. I was seriously worried that I was going to hurt myself. And theeeeen we arrive at “town” only to discover there is no town, no cafe, nothing but a monastery (that has been supporting pilgrims for 1300 years. F@&! history I wanted a beer! Fortunately it turns out the monks believe that pilgrims need beer so all was well that ended well, we managed to get the beer and a sandwich before the strict  10 pm curfew.

So I wanted to write about day 2 and post pictures but this is cumbersome on the iPhone and taking forever, so it will just have to waIt until tomorrow or when I have more time and Bette wifi

i am fining to try to attach a bunch of picture some before fog an others after.

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