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  1. Aurigny

    LIVE from the Camino Walking the Norte Trail: Journey Interrupted and Resumed

    My average time this trip has not been stellar: I haven't put in a single 30+ km day since leaving Espelette on the VNB. Partly that's been a function of the topography and climatic conditions, and partly because on the Norte in wintertime one's selection of potential night-stops is considerably...
  2. Aurigny

    LIVE from the Camino Walking the Norte Trail: Journey Interrupted and Resumed

    That's an interesting and evocative expression, B. And in fact it underlines what separates a pilgrimage from a tourist experience. With the former, "the suck," and learning how to handle it, is largely the point.
  3. Aurigny

    LIVE from the Camino Walking the Norte Trail: Journey Interrupted and Resumed

    Even in the midst of pilgimages, my employer sometimes has need of my services, and does not hesitate to call upon them when circumstances arise. For that reason, I had a much later start today, the morning being spent doing work at the Café Vega and making use of its rapid internet connection...
  4. Aurigny

    LIVE from the Camino Walking the Norte Trail: Journey Interrupted and Resumed

    Going on pilgrimage has many benefits beyond the strictly penitential elements that are its original raison d'être. One of them is that it serves as a reminder of how very difficult ordinary life was for the overwhelming majority of people during almost the whole of human history. Travelling...
  5. Aurigny

    LIVE from the Camino Walking the Norte Trail: Journey Interrupted and Resumed

    Stretches of level terrain along the Norte have not been so very rife in my limited experience of it. I found it a pleasant change, then, when the first 5 km of today's leg from Zarauz to Deba turned out to be a coastal promenade as far as the port town of Getaira. The weather, having...
  6. Aurigny

    LIVE from the Camino Walking the Norte Trail: Journey Interrupted and Resumed

    The municipal authorities in Donostia/San Sebastián have done a commendable job in indicating the way out of town to rejoin the Norte. Numerous finger-posts from the city centre not only give the correct direction, but offer an estimate of how long it will take by foot to get there. Because...
  7. Aurigny

    LIVE from the Camino Walking the Norte Trail: Journey Interrupted and Resumed

    I had not planned on my journey from Geneva to SdC, to be completed in sections, taking any more than two calendar years, but the coronavirus disrupted a lot of people's plans, including mine. It's now clear that a trip that started in October 2022 has a better than even chance of earning a...
  8. Aurigny

    LIVE from the Camino Pilgrimage through the Voie Nive Bidassoa: A Winter Adventure

    Closing thoughts:- * The VNB is, as it were, a "service" Camino. It has no specific identity of its own, nor any particular spiritual significance beyond being one of a large number of routes used by pilgrims over the centuries to reach SdC. Its existence is defined by being the end-point of...
  9. Aurigny

    LIVE from the Camino Pilgrimage through the Voie Nive Bidassoa: A Winter Adventure

    Having made heavy weather of getting out of Espelette, I proceeded to repeat the experience in trying to leave Ascain. In reality the process is not at all complicated, though I found that out only when it was too late. Once again the difficulty stemmed from a lack of waymarking out of town...
  10. Aurigny

    LIVE from the Camino Pilgrimage through the Voie Nive Bidassoa: A Winter Adventure

    On those occasions when I have to sleep out of doors, consideration for the locals dictates that I be on my way before anyone knows I was there. Last night being clear and very cold provided me with additional incentive to pack up early rather than to lie around to greet the rosy-fingered...
  11. Aurigny

    LIVE from the Camino Pilgrimage through the Voie Nive Bidassoa: A Winter Adventure

    Yes, that's the French website to which I referred above. It no longer corresponds in several respects to the currently waymarked trail.
  12. Aurigny

    LIVE from the Camino Pilgrimage through the Voie Nive Bidassoa: A Winter Adventure

    It's practically a year to the day since I was out on pilgrimage, on a route that began in Geneva and reached SJPP in January 2022. My intention was always, having reached this point, to make my way across to Hendaye and proceed via the Norte to SdC. Originally I'd hoped to do so by following...
  13. Aurigny

    Fear of heights - Le Puy July 2022

    I am not myself a lover of steep precipices. Last year I walked the entirety of the Podiensis. There was only a single brief section that gave me any concern for my physical safety: I described it here. Fortunately, that part can be easily circumvented by avoiding the steps altogether and taking...
  14. Aurigny

    LIVE from the Camino Live from the Podiensis

    Some observations are in order about the Podiensis as a whole. I've now completed seven different pilgrimage routes—eight, if you count the Gebennensis, the 350-km "prequel" from Geneva to Le Puy, which I don't—and I can say with emphasis that this one is my favourite of the lot. For me, it hits...
  15. Aurigny

    LIVE from the Camino Live from the Podiensis

    The Podiensis, I've learned, saves the best for last. Admittedly, that wasn't what I was thinking last night when, after dumping my bags, I went on the scrounge for a hot meal. In the normal course of events, I believe that Saint-Palais would be able to supply such a thing more than adequately...
  16. Aurigny

    LIVE from the Camino Live from the Podiensis

    Navarrenx, a garrison town of long standing, is another of these officially classified les plus beaux villages de France. Personally, I'm not quite seeing it. It has a couple of nice little squares, and a sixteenth-century church with one of the pepper-pot bell-towers that are characteristic to...
  17. Aurigny

    LIVE from the Camino Live from the Podiensis

    On the long list of my besetting sins, impatience is certainly to be found in the top three. My wife and daughter may well give you cogent reasons, with copious examples, as to why it ought to receive top billing. But when one has an injury, there's simply no alternative to readjusting one's...
  18. Aurigny

    LIVE from the Camino Live from the Podiensis

    Concrete is cold; water is wet; hence, to belabour the obvious, dossing down in doorways is not recommended as a means of obtaining a good night's sleep. The miracle is that in those circumstances it's possible to get any kind of sleep at all. A state of exhaustion after a long day floundering...
  19. Aurigny

    LIVE from the Camino Live from the Podiensis

    During a winter pilgrimage along one of the routes less travelled, one of the difficulties one confronts is not so much losing the bed race as the fact that the beds themselves may not exist. This was the problem I was encountering for today's leg to Arthez-de-Béarn. The great majority of gîtes...
  20. Aurigny

    LIVE from the Camino Live from the Podiensis

    Aire-sur-l'Adour has a festive appearance to it, the Christmas street-lights not having been taken down yet. But behind the façade, it's having as difficult a time as everywhere else. Practically all its hotels, restaurants, and bars are closed, either permanently or for much of the week, in...

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