Stapleton Travel Blog

We left Pamplona in the dark again and had a good walking day – no blisters.  The highlight of the walk was seeing the famous statutes  at Alto de Perdon.

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Anyone who has seen ‘The Way’ should remember them.  There’s a commemorative plaque about the movie and a signpost showing kilometers to New York, Seoul, Berlin and Santiago de Compostella.  We’re pretty certain all were wrong ?. Many of the people we’ve met along the way have been Canadian, when we asked why this is so popular in Canada a woman told us they just recently got Netfix and saw the movie.

 

This was also a good spot to air out our feet and change our socks.  We do this every 5 miles or so to avoid blisters. It isn’t pretty but it’s necessary.

We went off the grid yesterday in a little town called Obanos.  We stayed in a lovely house that we had all to ourselves and were spoiled by the owner doing our laundry.  Unfortunately that was where the spoiling ended.  The town had 3 restaurants and none were open.  It also rained all afternoon and early evening so no good pics of the town.

Today (9/15) we walked through several vineyards and 4 towns for a total of about 20 k.  It threatened to rain all day but stayed dry and the clouds didn’t take away from the beautiful views.

Tonight we’re staying in an Albergue called La Casa Magica and we’re in a room with 4 other people.  Hopefully no one snores. Continue reading “Obanos and Villatuarta; Sept. 14th and 15th”

We left Zubiri at 6:30am on 9/12 and walked just over 21 k bringing our total so far to 68 k.  We walked along a river and through several towns that were supposed to have cafes open but weren’t causing a lot grumbling among the peregrinos!

 

We had Pinxtos  (pronounced pinchos) for dinner.  They are bigger than Tapas but you can taste and try different things. Tom had one with blood sausage and another with a fried egg and cod fish, I had no desire to try either no matter what Anthony Bourdain says!

Today (9/13) is a rest day for us so we did some sightseeing.  We went to the Cathedral and attended Mass and explored the Museum.  This cathedral dates back to the 14th century and is said to be the most beautiful in Spain. The Mass was beautiful but the priests were behind an iron gate.  Made you wonder was Mass was like in the 14th century.

In the museum we had the chance to see how we’d look as historical figures.

 

No trip to Pamplona is complete without seeing the statue of the running of the bulls.

We had a question about walking in groups.  We’ve met many people walking and in the albergues and we see them on the trail and walk together for a while and then separate.  We’ll then see them again in the evening for dinner or drinks or just to catch up and see how they’re doing. We even ran into a few people at the Cathedral.

For example, Ingrid is the woman from England who sang the Irish blessing in Orisson.  We’ve met her on the trail, in 2 different albergues and on the street in Zubiri, peregrinos become a community.  Here’s the view from our terrace in Zubiri, the music you hear us Ingrid on another terrace playing  her recorder.

We left Roncesvalles at 6:30am and we’re surprised how many of the 200 + pilgrims were up and getting ready at 5:30am.  It reminded me of being back at work. Only 790 k to go!

Tom wore a headlamp to guide us until the sun came up.  This walk was 21 k and took us through 2 small towns before we hit the mountain. Many of the houses looked like this one – all had beautiful flowers in the window boxes.

While much of the walk was shadded we did get achance to rock our very cool floppy hats.

Speaking of cool, check out the latest video. Tom is still learning how to use the GoPro 🙂

We arrived in Spain yesterday by weren’t able to upload our photos and videos. So here’s yesterday’s post:

We took a train from Bayonne, France to our starting point at Saint Jean Pied de Port on Friday morning and collected our credentials – we are officially peregrinos!

We stayed in a great albergue (hostels especially for peregrinos) in Orisson where we met some amazing people from all over the world. Our roommates were from Belgium, the Netherlands, and Seattle. We met others from Ireland, England, Austrailia, Austin, Canada, Minnesota, New Zealand and even a man from Union NJ! A lovely woman from England sang us an Irish blessing at dinner. We needed it today.

Unfortunately we had a lot of fog in Orisson but when it began to clear the views were amazing – the photos don’t do them justice.

Today we walked over 17 k in pretty challening terrain and reached the highest elevation we’ll walk in the Pyrennes. We had lunch on the roadside with a wonderful couple from Austrailia.

We arrived in Spain about halfway through today’s walk and are staying in Roncesvalles.

We attended a very moving Mass at Roncesvalles this evening where the Priest gave a blessing in each of the languages of all of the pilgrims in attendance.

A few people have asked about our gear and what we’re bringing on our Camino.  Before we get into specifics we would like to thank Rob and Amy as well as my coworkers at Macy’s Backstage for their generous and thoughtful gifts which included REI gift cards as well as other practical items. It was great fun to shop for exactly what we need and REI is the perfect store for trekking gear!  Thank you!!

According to those who have completed treks like the Camino, we should limit what we’re carrying to about 10% of our weight.  All in, including full water bottles we are way over.  My backpack, with water, will be about 18.0 pounds and Tom’s is over 21.5 pounds so we’re still reviewing it to see what, if anything, we can reduce.

Here’s a general list of what we’re each taking with us:

Backpacks
Hiking boots
Trek poles
Sleeping bags
Ponchos
Fleece (double as a pillow)
Rain jackets
2 pair of convertible pants
3 lightweight shirts
3 pairs inner and outer socks
3 underwear
Flip flops
Sun hats
Buffs
sporks
Micro towels
Head lamps
Toiletries – soap, shampoo, toilet paper, tooth brushes & paste, deodorant, shavers, etc.
Medical kit – medical tape, Aquaphor, anti-itch and antibiotic creams, prescriptions, sunscreen, bug spray, band aids, etc.
Electronics – 1 shared phone, 1 shared tablet, chargers, GoPro and selfie stick
Misc. plastic bags to protect the electronics
Guide book
2 water bottles each
Passports, cash, credit cards.

We know that it’s the electronics that are pushing us over our weight limit but this is a once in a lifetime trip for us and we want to be able to share the experience with family and friends.

13 days and counting.  Today we met another training goal – hike Mount Tamany at the Delaware Water Gap.  We know the elevations in the Pyrenees will be very steep so we wanted to test out legs.  Mount Tamany was really part hike, part mountain climb but we made it.  The walk was only just over 3 miles but took almost 3 hours because of the very steep climb.  We were relieved not see any bear as we’ve read that there’s a large black bear population in this area.  The views were absolutely worth the sweat and there was A LOT of sweat.

 

 

Thanks to Brian who told us about this trail, it was challenge and felt good to make it.

 

We are just 24 days away from our Camino departure date and we’ve been training for 12 weeks.  We began walking 3 to 4 days each week without our backpacks and have been tracking our progress on  Strava.  Strava is an app that’s designed for runners or bikers but it’s worked really well for us.  It tracks distance, pace and elevation which is great as there are a few steep climbs at the beginning of our Camino in the Pyrenees.

In the middle of June we added our backpacks.  We’ve walked over 300 miles since we began and our longest walk was 15.6 miles.  That was cause for celebration!

We’ve very fortunate to have several beautiful parks and state reservations to hike in New Jersey including Nomehegan Park, Echo Lake Park, Watchung Reservation and the South Mountain Reservation.  We also have been training on the roads around our house in the Poconos.  While not as picturesque it does have the advantage of better bathroom breaks and not having to carry food.

More on our training and gear in future updates.