We started the Camino at Notre Dame Church in St. Jean Pied de Port with a prayer. The church was everything we had imagined-dark, musty smelling, prayer candles burning, beautiful stained glass and an old docent in robes cleaning. Very authentic.

Notre Dame Church in St. Jean Pied de Port

We started walking the most common route, the Napolean way. It starts out quite steep, but we knew that. Along the way one of the locals offered us coffee from his cafe and of course we accepted. The coffee was cold and served in a juice glass-ha, but so sweet of him.

As we continued to ascend the 11.5 miles to the top of the Pyrenees, we met many pilgrims along the way. Germans, Hungarians, Mexicans, Canadians, Koreans, etc…were all traveling the Camino. We were surprised to see many women traveling it and many women traveled alone.

Before long the continued ascent became very difficult. Let me rephrase. It was so physically grueling and I mean that by every letter of that word. Lanny and I would go many miles without talking to each other just to reserve our energy. We stopped many times to catch our breath and take our packs off for a bit. If you live in SLO all I can compare it to is High School Hill and parts of Bishop Peak. Up to an elevation of 5000 / 11.5 miles. As extremely difficult that it was, we were rewarded with incredible beauty. Hills were dotted with sheep, lush meadows, incredibly breath taking views, wild horses, thick woods, Griffon Vultures with 8 ft. Wing spans and pure silence.

The summit

The descent

Once we reached the summit, we knew we only had 2 miles to go to reach our Albergue in Roncevalle. It was very steep and a bit muddy. If we were snow skiing the path down would be considered a Black Diamond run. We traversed the path to have better footing and then the unexpected happened. Lanny slipped on a muddy rock and broke her arm. We were .5 miles away from our albergue. We thought…what the heck are we going to do!? I could not physically carry my pack, her pack and guide her down. We sat for a moment and contemplated our situation. Thankfully two Hungarians were coming down the Camino and stopped to help us. Peter and Hans became our angels. If it were not for them, our situations would have been much more difficult.

Heading back home

Right now we are in Paris hoping to catch a flight in the morning back to the states. The doctor in Pamplona said that she shattered her elbow and needs surgery.

As difficult as it is to leave the Camino, we both know that this was not our time to be on it. We are at peace with going home. But…we both would love to come back.

This is our last post.

Buen Camino, Lanny & Deb