Day Two

We woke up in Orisson ...sleeping in a tent my clothes were still wet on the clothesline...it was so dewy.  The view from ahigh was surreal, like being in an airplane.  The valley below our regugio was blanketed in cloud and the sun was just breaking in the east with a faint red glow....amazing photos opp!  After a breakfast of coffee, bread and jam we started off....uphill some more.  We saw peregrines, lots of sheep, cows and small Basque horses, the occassional farmer with his herding dog...The wind was ferocious, almost blowing us off the path. We stopped at the Basque fountain...famous....Basques beat the French back in the day !!  We sat in the shade of some trees and ate our leftover lunch from the day before. We have trouble finding food!!  A very steep decline into Roncavalles. We stayed in a private aubergay, next to a monestary.  Joanie and Sandy attended church..then Sandy attended again with Jan and Muriel . We met up with Irish Tom and Anne, Luke, the Waco Texas women.  We had the 3 course pilgrim dinner...a whole trout with some anemic fries!  Food not high on our favourites yet!  but the bread is good!!  Forgot to mention......on our hike out of Orisson we came across a guy in a suv who had a bunch of goodies for sale...best was his hard boiled eggs...most welcome after our bread and jam at Orisson .....

Day Three

We started our walk late at about 8Ñ30...very nice walk to a supermercado to buy fruit and some lunch items, then another stop for coffee...it was lunch time and we had only gone 5 km.  It was an unbelieveable steep descent into Roncavalles for about 3 km....We arrived to find Joanie with her feet in the river where we all joined her....feet are a big issue....they are hot and usually swollen, sometimes with blisters and other hot spots.  We found a penision next to a bar, up about 10 flights of stairs.  The bar was quite fun...lots of pilgrims that we had met along the way.  Our Orisson friends ...the german trio, a dutch fellow and another Janpenese guy.  We again attended the pilgrims dinner .....seems that is all there is in these little towns and we are too tired to seek out anything else.  Sandy and Muriel sat with a father and son from South Korea, son in theology at uni and the father a paster of a 2500 member church.  Very sweet, obviously a mutual admiration between them.  Jan / Joanie met two ladies from >Spain, Eva and Menchu...who tried to teach them Spanish over dinner.   We had a disruptive night with the church bells ringing every hour and half hour.....right outside out window!  We were getting up early...to walk again in the cool of the early dawn.

Day Four

We left Ziburi in the dark, wearing our headlites.  We arrived just at dawn in Larsonna where unbelieveably a dance party was happening at 7am!  Joanie and I, backpacks and all went in and joined the foray...briefly just for a phto opt....lots of young people...having fun....they posed with us for a photo!!!  Hiking commenced...we still had to find foood and are having a hard time adjusting to Spanish eating hours!  ...Shortly we came across a lady wqith an outdoor pizza oven in her garden....she was making pizza, baked apples, croissants and other goodies.....and VERY good coffee con leche.....that was a good stop....a lot of our new pilgrim friends had stopped there also.  Off we were hiking again....arrived in Pampolona about 1 pm....at a lovely German Auberge. We were welcome with juice and cookies and had a private room for 4!  nice clean showers. We ventured into downtown area ..itr was Sunday night so most of town was closed...we had tapas and beer at a bar, visited the cathedral and went back to our hostel..where we sat outside with some other guests young spanish who played guitars and bongos,...bed about 9:30  and were getting up early at 5Ñ30 for 6 am breakfast.