Onwards and upwards

Bag left in the lobby before 8am and off to brekkie we went. "Lots of hills" we were told so we ate up big. Bacon and eggs and toast and juice and caffeine.

Around 9 we departed, out of town to the left, on a quest that would take 5 hours. Sometimes walking was on the main, windy (that's windy, not windy, as to say that there were bends and not wind) road. Then we would end up on little roads, then on narrow tracks with 20 metre drops to the river below. 

I regaled the Editor with stories from the 70s of Hammy Hamster (Tales of the Riverbank). She pretended to listen.

The main focus of the day was "up". There was lots of it. Kilometres 5 to 8 were tough but the Revvies we had gave us the caffeine kick that we needed.

I've never been a big fan of bush walking, as in Australia flora comes with fauna and I associate that with venomous creatures. Apart from a cat, the only animals we've seen so far have been from nature mocking us.

Oops, forgot about cows and sheep and ponies.

Today's walk was good. Thank you nature.

We pressed on through the forests, happy in the realisation that rain had not reared its ugly head today. That would make the tracks a bit tricky. 

At the top of the climb we met a young guy from Australia who had done the mountain pass through the snow. We chose wisely in going the alternate route.

Finally we found our accommodation and decided to eat outside. 

On ordering, Annette was asked her name so that they could call it out when the order was ready. Unfortunately, after more than 5 hours walking uphill, understanding and speaking are not one of her strong points. The waiter decided to call us Raul.

There is not a male amongst us who has not fantasised about being Raul, the Pool Guy. Wait a minute. Did I write that out loud? Where is the delete button?

More chips, soup for me, and calamari at 1km altitude was possibly a wise decision.

Our bags turned up. Hooray for efficiency. The people who keep putting us on the second floor to make us carry the bag up the stairs at the end of the day are beginning to annoy me. We did a quick tour of the town, because it's mainly just a place where walkers pass through and I'm hanging out for dinner. Last night's pasta carb loading plus chicken and dessert worked, so that's what I might do ahead of tomorrow's 21km not quite as hilly walk. 

My last two walking shirts have taken on an unpleasant odour and my hat has taken it a step further. I have shampooed the hat in an attempt to get it to Pamplona, where a suitable "rest of the holidays" replacement hat will be found.

We managed to watch 10 minutes of Taskmaster before the wifi pooed its pants.

Footnote: last night some people were trying to unlock our door. I kept yelling that they had the wrong room. They kept trying, I kept yelling and they only listened once they had unlocked the door and slightly opened it.

Carb loading done, over 2 hours to sunset, the room is so so hot and I need to sleep at 7pm. I am ashamed. Will keep in touch in half a marathon.

The rain in Spain

An interesting night with strange sounds threatening to keep me awake. Luckily I did sleep and woke up before the alarm. Our Camino walk starts today so first priority was to have our bag downstairs before 8am so that the luggage people could collect it and drop it at our next accommodation. 

Next it was our included breakfast of pastry and baguette with a coffee x 2 for me. 

We finished our brekkie, hung around our room and at approximately 9am headed out into a light rain on the 1st leg of our walk to Valcarlos. 

You know when you're driving through France and you turn off onto a small one car wide road? This was today's walk. 

The rain was constant, stopping some time to refill and start again. We walked and photographed on repeat. 

The big mystery of the day was how, on a seemingly one direction walk, two women overtook us 3 times. Where did they keep disappearing to?

Getting onto the right trail was a bit tricky to start with, but there were enough small yellow arrows pointing us in what we assumed was the right direction.

There were some forks in the road that we decided to take.

I may or may not have broken France's public urination laws on the way (or Spain's as I assume at some point we crossed the border).

In the middle of nowhere we came across a factory outlet type of place. The toilet there came in handy and onwards we climbed.

We came to a point where 2 options were available. We took the option by the river, feeling that the extra 100m was manageable. That extra 100m was straight uphill.

Lots of cows and sheep and pigs to see and smell on the way and some great scenery.

It took just over 4 hours. There is not a lot happening in the village. We grabbed a baguette and cheese and ham from a shop which was really nice, and the Coke was excellent.

After 13km walking, you always want your room to be on the second floor just for those few extra steps. 

Sitting around outside in the cold had left us freezing. I got the feeling back in my hands with hot water and we both slept on and off for a couple of hours with the extra blankets.

The town church bell goes off every half hour. Yay. Can't wait to be woken at midnight.

Dinner was easiest to have downstairs and to my surprise, the potato salad that came with my breaded chicken was actually chips. No complaints here. We fought a good battle with the tv and tried casting from our phones but the internet couldn't handle it.

The shower was hot and welcoming. It's a pity the bathroom smelt like a gym shirt that you find in your bag 3 weeks later. That's all until tomorrow.

Good luck or good management?

A 6:29 wake up after a really good sleep and straight to the kitchen in search of caffeine. So many appliances that could possibly offer up a coffee fix but I took some time to work out which one to use. I found the coffee pods, figured out where they went and away I went. I couldn't find the sugar, and coffee without sugar is sad, but with the timeshifter app currently ruling my life, I pressed on.

We had prepacked for the next 5 day walking adventure so all that was left to do was eat. Bread, pastries, juice, another coffee and  we were on the way to the station.

Our previous Europe trips on trains have taught us that an unreserved train means a dash for seats. We did well and had a good trip to a place starting with B (this is where the editor earns her money) (Bayonne - Ed.). The further we went, the darker it got and the bigger the raindrops grew. 

We changed trains at Bayonne onto what was a one carriage train trying to fit all the people with hiking gear, a few bikes and the weird guy opposite with his Esky.

On arrival at a place starting with one of the 23 letters of the alphabet (I'm positive it's not x, y or z) (Saint Jean Pied de Port - Ed.) we were greeted with heavy rain, and the small shed-like structure at the end of the platform was packed as rain attire was put on. There were more ponchos than an entire series of Funky Squad (I've really taken my cryptic comparison to new heights and expect nobody to understand the reference, assuming that someone is reading this).

All these years of watching the tour de France passing through the Pyrenees and seeing the wet and cold conditions and I've just come to the realisation that this is where I currently am.

That picture is a mountain with snow on it. Did I buy my new rain jacket and Gore-tex shoes out of sheer luck or did I know it would be like this?

We went out into the sunny afternoon to the citadel. Then it became a rainy afternoon so we headed back to the hostel. Uphill with tiny wet cobblestones is not great.

Then the sun came out again and we succeeded in not getting wet.

I hit my 10 flights of stairs target before I had taken 2,000 steps. So much travel and so little exercise. We dropped into the tourist office and got some intel on the walk. Apparently there is some uphill involved. Who knew?

We got back, prebooked our 7 Euro  lasagne and dozed off while waiting for 8pm and meal time.

Of the 8 people at dinner, 7 had cold lasagne. Had I chewed, mine also may have been cold.

On the advice of the Manchester United supporter sitting next to us, the editor decided to have the lemon flavoured dessert for 2 euros. It wasn't lemon and she regretted it until they said it was free. Winner winner marzipan dinner.

Trying to stay awake until 11 for the last episode of "beat jet lag" didn't quite happen and despite all the weird noises around the hostel, sleep was very welcome.

Paris for a day

The long lines at immigration as Europe rolls out a new fingerprint recognition system never materialised. Mainly because they didn't do it.

The usual struggle with getting a new sim card to work always happens but I think we kept it to under 45 minutes this time. 

We got ourselves on the correct trains, got off at the correct station and dumped our bags at a small shop to store just after 11am (love Stasher and Nannybag apps!).

Then it was off to our Parisian nemesis, Notre Dame.

Since its extremely inconvenient burning down, we have tried many times to get inside, and always failed. Today we tried again.

For those avid readers from the past who have been saddened by our continuing failed searches to find Hard Rock Cafes, you will realise that getting into this church has presented the same problems.

But the rain that had our plane skidding on the runway earlier had returned. It was cold and wet, but we soldiered on and finally got to go inside.

Was it worth the wait? Nope. Sorry but I'm not sure it makes my top 10.

And just a quick note to the Catholic Church. The place has burned down once, yet you continue with this practice:

For those of you in the betting pool, the result was 11:22am on day 1.

We stopped by a Maccas to get our caffeine fix, although the 3 flavoured teas that were on the menu did not please the Editor. If you ever offer her tea, don't mention Earl Grey or the wrath of the tea Gods will come down heavily on tea cups of the world.

We collected our bags and started the 5 minute walk back to the station that had delivered us. Of course this event was met by cold rain. I will use this platform to grade the $49.99 rain jacket purchase from Anaconda 2 weeks ago. I really should do a review.

I had a sneaking suspicion we were at the wrong station, but just for fun I carried 2 brick-laden suitcases down, and then up the stairs. In our defence, there were a considerable number of similarly confused suitcase people in the area.

Back out into the deteriorating elements we went and way down over yonder we saw what appeared to be the correct station. Same name, different location. 

We arrived with an hour to spare, got on the correct train and sped off through the countryside to Bordeaux.

Outside we were met, after a 200 metre walk in the rain, by Jeremy and off we went through quite small streets that I don't feel were made for cars, and arrived at our home away from home. 

Emma was cautiously happy to see us until I got to hold her, at which time it was off to bed for her. 

A giant rissole between tomato (I imagine that's not what it's called in France), black rice and salad followed by a really nice cake and then to sleep at 11pm on the dot, because that's what the timeshifter app said to do.