Today we go to mass and then walk to Orrisson, easy?

Sunday 1st September

Another fine day and after a short stroll across a car park to the supermarket for a baguette, breakfast was sorted. Now today is a very big day indeed as Joan has suggested that we should try and do the first day of the Camino. I readily agreed and I have suggested we do the whole walk again next May. My only slight worry is that we have not managed to do any training, but hey, it’s only about 12 miles. So having packed a couple of bottles of water “in case we need them” we set off for 11am mass. This was not very rewarding as we struggled to understand any of it. The music and choir were great and usually we manage to follow all of it and even get a bit of the sermon, but we had no chance as the service was not in French but Basque!

After the service we set straight off on the Camino, very easy as the church is right next to the start point. The weather was just right, with a bit of cloud, so quite hot but not beating down. Plus a little breeze blowing made it just right. The first half was quite easy with fresh legs and optimism.  The last 3 miles, with tired legs and a very steep path was soo much harder than we remembered. This was not helped when we rounded a corner to find several huge cows with horns, appearing to block the path as they were laying down. Standing up they look big but sprawling across the path they looked enormous. Joan nearly had a fit, but they are actually quite docile and we managed to pick our way through, avoiding them and the huge cow pats. Very smelly! 

I don’t know quite how I managed the last mile, but Joan seemed ok and I’m not going to be beaten by a Girl! Still we made it and enjoyed a sandwich and a drink, to revive us. On the way we’d stopped 3 or 4 times to chat to people and arrived at Orrisson at 3pm. After a rest we contemplated getting a taxi down but decided as it was all downhill and we were looking forward to an easy walk. BIG MISTAKE!!!

It was such a steep slope down for the first 3 miles that our knees were killing us and we almost crawled the last mile to our van. We got back at 7pm with very sore knees, backs and hips. Still as we lay sipping our very large glasses of wine, we thought a 12 mile, very difficult walk with no training isn’t bad. Then Joan insisted on cooking a lovely meal plus more wine, 2 Brufin plus Paracetamol and we feel almost human again. However doing the Camino again next year is now very firmly in the, “Are you really serious?” Box. 

That’s all folks. To quote a famous cartoon. XXX