Early morning of our last day before we set off on El Camino.

D2 is sleeping. I do my washing and go for a walk down town to find the Pilgrims’ Office. I see pilgrims heading out of town, laughing, fresh and eager to face their first day.
Mid-morning
D2 is still sleeping. I head down town again and have a coffee. At the cafe I chat with a German pilgrim who has walked 5 kms up the trek and back already, training he says. I feel inadequate, but then wonder if perhaps he hasn’t left it a bit late to train. Then he tells me about the pilgrims he has seen on his way back, already struggling with the Pyrenees. I add apprehension to inadequacy.
Afternoon
D2 finally wakes and we head down town again for lunch. She has a galette, it is big, and unlike anything we have in Australia.
Then off to the Pilgrims’ Office where we get our pilgrim passport, our first stamp and the scallop shell for our backpacks, the symbol of the Camino.

Evening
A French cider, enjoying the balmy evening, watching the passers by, wondering which ones are pilgrims, and how they feel. I imagine people from all over the world, just like us who have been planning and training(maybe), for the past months.
And here we are, gathered at the foothills of the Pyrenees, ready for the challenge ahead.
Yes, I am excited, and scared, but with me I have the words of my guide from my first trek to Everest Base Camp.
“Small steps, slow steps Madame and you will make it”

PS I am doing this post in a cafe that has really weak wifi, and my phone’s battery is running out, so sorry the photos aren’t where they are supposed to be!!!

Travelling can be a joy, full of wonderful adventures. But sometimes things don’t always go to plan, and there are those moments when your heart just sinks…….
1. Standing in the dark at 9:30 at night after a 19 hour flight, outside the apartment you booked over the internet, not knowing how to get in
It helps to read the email from the owner carefully all the way through to the end. Then you don’t miss the bit that says the key is under the mat…..

2. Not being able to find any light switches that work once inside the dark apartment
Despite the handy flashlight on my Mobily Tools app, we were unable to find any lights that worked so we went to bed. In the morning we found a kitchen and bathroom light but no living area lights.

3. Suffering badly from internet withdrawals, finding the network ‘chatchic’, but not having the password
How did we know the network was chatchic? We deduced it from the extremely tasteful mural above the sofa bed

Thank goodness for McDonalds!!
Free wifi, and we were able to catch up on news from home and family and friends, as well as email the owner who answered promptly and solved situations 2 and 3 above!

I don’t know how we missed finding where to turn on the lights?

4. Waking up early in the morning, deciding to read a book on your brand new, birthday present Kindle, and realising that you left it in one of the dinky little compartments next to the Business Class seat on the flight from Dubai to Paris.

Thanks to D2’s Gold Frequent Flyer membership we were upgraded to Business Class!! Very classy!! But so many little compartments to hide things that I forgot to check them all. At least at the back end of the plane there is only the one pocket. Frantic phone calls to Emirates and my Kindle was located. Readers of Baguettes and Vegemite may remember my boast that I could ‘do’ the Metro, well I didn’t do it so well today, but despite heading off in the wrong direction and buying the wrong tickets, we finally retrieved the lost Kindle.

Despite all that there are so many things to make your heart sing.
Just walking the streets of Paris,
eating Normandie Tartine at Amelie’s cafe,

and of course my first baguette and vegemite