Backpacks have arrived! :)

We have just received our backpacks and so that is certainly a relief! They were delivered moments ago; unfortunately, it was too late for the 3:00 p.m. bus to St Jean Pied de Port. So now we have two hours and so will go to a museum. Still haven't made a decision with regard to tomorrow and whether or not we will tackle the Pyrenees - I guess the decision will wait a few more hours until we can get another weather update.


Hope all are well, we are ... after a bit more sleep.

Bayonne!

Hi there!


We are in Bayonne, France. :) Unfortunately, our backpacks remained in Paris! So, without going into all the details, we are hoping that they will be sent on the 2:00 p.m. flight. It is now 12:25 p.m.


We just had a wonderful walk in the rain, through ancient streets to see the cathedral and along the way passed many fashionable shops that my girls would love!

We learned this morning that the Pyrenees have had much snow and yesterday they had to rescue pilgrims, with hypothermia, from the mountains. :( ... we are not sure what we will be doing considering the weather. Might have to take a bus to begin with ... but, first will be waiting for backpacks. Hope everyone is well back home. Sending our love. xo

Just hours from now ...

We had a wonderful church service with all of our children, son-in-laws (expect for Kyle who was in Portland) and our little grandsons present. Following the service, Martin had all of his hair shaved off, both for a fundraiser for Self-Denial, and also to spare the 'hat hair' on the walk! It is quite a change, but, turned out great and everyone, young and old, had much fun watching it take place. First of all Floyd and Richard had him looking like 'Mo' from the Three Stooges and of course now he resembles 'Curly!'

Well folks, 4:30 a.m. will come early and although it is raining heavily outside hopefully our first plane from Nanaimo airport will be taking off at 6 a.m. and so at this time tomorrow night we will be somewhere between Toronto and Paris. My goodness air travel is amazing!

My God is so BIG

According to the following map the first day doesn't seem all that daunting does it? Hmmm ...



Yet, the elevation chart below, of the 800 km route between St Jean Pied de Port and Santiago de Compostela, reveals that the first day of 31 km from St Jean Pied de Port, France to Roncesvalles, Spain is really all about climbing straight up 'Mount Crumpit,' the Grinch's mountain in 'Whoville!'




I am so glad that I have a God that is bigger than any mountain ... this reminds me of the children's chorus that says My God is so big so strong and so mighty, there's nothing my God cannot do. The mountains are God's, the valleys are God's, the stars are God's handiwork too - My God is so big, so strong and so mighty, there's nothing my God cannot do."


I will sing this as I climb the Pyrenees - surely it can be accomplished in God's strength.

Last long training walk ... 17.17 km

At our doorstep!

At our backdoor!

Well we started out this morning and went downtown to see the staff at the thrift store, stopped in at Home Hardware to get some more nylon cord (for a clothes-line, or whatever), then on to the bank to say hi to Steph (a run buddy), met one of Martin's barbershop buddies (singing chorus). Then on to Shopper's to get my prescription, after that on to the Hearing Centre (yup, it seems I might be losing some hearing) ... but, discovered they can't do a test until I get back. After this we figured we were about ready for lunch, it was 11:30 a.m. - I had forgotten to eat breakfast ... crazy since I had been awake since 4 a.m.!


Had lunch at Lefty's, (met a fellow Rotarian there) then carried on out the town highway. It was crazy, you would think it was summer and all the tourists had arrived in town with the amount of traffic! We went as far as the Industrial Park and headed up the Top Ridge trails (a running trail that I love) ... it was a perfect day, the weather was just right and the scenery in the park awesome! It was Martin's first time ... he just loved it too! I tried to get him to make an agreement with me that when we come back from Europe we could do this lovely trail many times ... if he will come to run it with me, I would come to hike it with him - very fair I think (especially that he was a runner once upon a time!). Yet, he has decided to defer his decision until after we have completed the 800 km ... hmmmmm

We carried on to cross over the bridge and came back Allsbrook ... a road that is for the most part quite quiet, but, I found out that it doesn't matter if you are running it or walking it ... it still feels like the road that never ends!

So we took a little break and stopped in at the Forestry office to see my running bud Penny. After leaving there and starting to walk again we knew the bods were pretty tired, especially the feet and I was ready to get home ... we picked up our speed and made it into the house just prior to the rains coming. Wow! this has happened time and time again ... quite incredible really, now if we can have such good fortune on the other side of the world too. :) All in all we were gone 6 1/2 hours with our packs on almost all of this time except for our lunch break! Pretty good ... that will be about the length of time we will need them on there.


We did a trial run with our fully loaded packs today ... mine weighing 20 lbs (my hubby graciously carrying my sleeping bag for me) and Martin's 25. Not sure if this is the final weight for them or not; but, we don't want to go over this weight and so we may have to take a few things out as we squeeze a few essentials in ... like toilet paper!

... 3 sleeps to go!

Went out with some running buddies last night for a farewell coffee. I have been missing them since exchanging running for walking while preparing for this pilgrimage. I had such a nice time ... but, I'm sure I 'talked everyone's ear off' ... trying to get caught up with our missed time thus far and the time that we will be missing while I am away! :) I hadn't seen my running partner Penny since our half-marathon on March 21st in Comox. It was so great to see her and the others who could make it.


Today is our final training walk before leaving ... these last couple of days are going to fly by. Only 3 more sleeps and so much to do! Laundry, packing, housework, preparation for Sunday's church service ... all our kids and grandkids and son-in-laws will be there (except for Kyle, who is in Portland playing basketball). I think Charis and Andrew are going to do a duet in the service, that is always a gift to me.


Well it is 6:15 a.m. and I haven't slept for hours ... it seems that between 4:00 and 4:30 has become the normal time to wake up these days, I just can't turn the thought processes off and end up making 'final to-do lists!' Hopefully, I will be able to sleep on the red-eye flight from Toronto to Paris Monday night. I will be needing a good rest as our first day's 'walk' is going to be a 31 km hike up and over the Pyrenees from France to Spain. God give me strength!

The departure: preparations

You make arrangements, you choose your
route, you decide what to take along and …
what to leave home, you start some training
hikes and prepare yourself mentally as well.

- what do you intend to
gain with your journey?
- what are your expectations
about your way
and about yourself?
- what held you back
earlier on?
- which role do these old
barriers play now?
- what is the most
important thing that
you take along?
- which certainties fall
away and which have
not yet fallen away?

“The real quest is not
looking for new
landscapes but looking
with new eyes”
(Marcel Proust)

The above thoughts found at www.espritduchemin.org can be beneficial to all pilgrims.

Another day closer ... just 9 more sleeps now. We were able to fit three more hours of walking in today and just about escaped the rain. I know that we are spoilt right now in that we can plan our walks around when we most feel like going out and what the weather is ... very very soon this will not be the situation! We will be walking every day - wind, rain, heat and possibly even snow.