St. Jean Pied de Port

I decided to savour the albergue (hostel) experience on the Camino by staying in a small 2-star hotel in St. Jean.

As the Army is fond of saying: Time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted (see Art, I was paying attention). Ergo, I had my Camino passport (Carta de Peregrino) stamped at the local Centre d'Acceuil and then walked around town to see the sites, locate a grocery store (not open until 16:00 in the afternoon), a bakery for an early breakfast tomorrow (06:30), and the first 100 metres of the trail. I have seen rucksacks between 38 and 80 litres, so my 50 litre Deuter seems fashionably correct.

Up to now I have been adding to my blog in bits and pieces because I had the time and the comfort to do so. Starting tomorrow, I don't expect to have those luxuries very often. That will likely mean that my blog posts will be shorter and less comprehensive as I will be drafting them from memory at the end of most days.

Tomorrow is the big one: the 800K walk begins with the first step. It feels akin to retiring from work: you think that you're prepared but only the actual experience will prove the case.

I expect WiFi will be only intermittently available on the Camino, so this may be my last blog post for a few days.

 

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