We can’t believe it’s finally here! We have been planning, training, anticipating, organizing, preparing, testing out equipment, ordering, buying, booking, scheduling, for nearly a year now. It has felt like such a long time, and we didn’t think we’d ever get here…but we are. Our bags are packed and we fly to Spain in the morning.
We each have a large suitcase and a backpack. We each are bringing 3 pairs of hiking boots; 1 high-top and 2 low-tops.
The suitcase will be transported each day to destination for that day. We will be staying in small hotels, B&B’s and rural quest homes along the way. We are not going on a tour; we will be on a self-guided trek of nearly 500 miles averaging about 14 miles a day, some days longer some days shorter. It will take us 35 days of walking with two rest days in-between. If you are interested, you can check out our itinerary on the tab above. We will each carry a day pack full of various daily necessities and our hiking sticks for added support.
It’s the fall and we are expecting rain so we will always have our umbrella rain jacket and rain pants just to be safe. We are pretty sure we have everything we will need, only time will tell!
Tomorrow will be a long day. We fly out of San Diego at 7:45am with a stopover in New York. We arrive in Madrid at 8:30am on Sunday morning; take a taxi to the train station and catch a train at 11:30am for Pamplona. We are told it’s about a 3 hour train ride through the Spanish countryside; sounds wonderful! When we arrive in Pamplona around 2:30pm, our driver “Fermin” is supposed to meet us there to shuttle us to Saint Jean Pied-de-Port, France which we are told is about a 1-1/12 hrs. drive. We should arrive by 4pm on Sunday if there aren’t any complications.
Saint Jean Pied-de-Port is our final destination of the journey over and the beginning point of our walk on the Camino de Santiago. It's the gateway to the “French Way” on the Camino, and the beautiful Basque Country. We will be starting on Monday from this town in the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains between France and Spain. We will be sure to check in with you all again when we arrive.
Goodbye, Au Revoir, Adios, Ma-a ssa’lama
