Camino De Santiago in Pictures: Part 1 St Jean Pied de Port to Pamplona

Ollie and Anthony contemplating life on the way to St Jean.

Sterotypical pilgrim photo at the start of the Camino. You will be glad to know I stopped taking photos of place names after this.

The adventure begins: we left the Pilgrim passport office at 8.30 pm to start walking (everyone who walks the Camino needs a Pilgram Passport to access the cheap accomodation called Alburgues, open only to Pilgrims).

We walked up one of the steepest parts of the Camino, for several hours, in the dark with only our head tourches and then camped in a field filled with poo. It was a wicked first day.

Ollie firing up the stove to cook our first breakfast on the side of mountain. We had left the field of poo and walked further for breakfast for hygeine reasons.

Lightweight, flat pack, origami crockery with a 10 year warrenty. 

One nil to Selena on the lightweight gear showdown.

Anthony using the Happy Frog (or the Honey Cone Stove) to cook our breakfast.

View from our breakfast table as the sun was rising. I believe we were listening to Radiohead's In Rainbows at the time.

Anthony, me, Gibbo and Ollie.

Selena finishing her breakfast.

Epic sun rise over the Pyrenees mountians.

Thick fog and cloud weaving in through the valley on the French side of the Pyrenees. 

Oh yeah.

The boys.

We had finished the first steep climb of this 27 km day and had pretty easy walking for the next few hours.

View point 15 or so km into the walk.

Shortly after this Anthony lead our first "session" that involved much thrusting and girating in an attempt to warm us up after stopping. Gibbo lead the next session of yoga which consisted mostly of the downward dog.

Selina looking pretty.

Hahaha. Cheers Veronica, made my day.

Lazy horse.

First Pilgram Albergue. We decided to push on.

Up and over the heighest point of the day and down into woods very close to the French/Spanish Border.

Proof that Ollie's quads are no match for Selina's as he is pincered in a vice like grip by Selena at a Camino way marker.

First band album cover.

We all proceeded to rip the tape off Ollie's injuried leg which was very satisfying and somewhat sadistic. Sorry Ollie.

The most brutal part of the day. A 400 metre descent in only a couple of km, followed by depressing lentils at the bottom.
We then went to the bar and had the best beer and tortilla bocadillo of the trip.

The following day we didn't leave our camp until near 11 am and being a Sunday most things were closed.

Headed into the woods again and it began to rain.

These ferns were taller then me. It then begin to throw it down with rain and my waterproof trousers proved to be not so waterproof after a few hours. 

The rain of the day soaked Anthony's bag and disintergrated the box containing the lentils, filling the bottom of his bag with an allmighty lentil baby.

This was the first Albergue we stayed in, in a town noone knew the name of. It was a beautiful old Spanish house and we had an amazing home cooked, 3 course meal with vino tinto.

Spanish Cemetry from the 1930's.

On the third day we had more rain and headed back up into the mountians. We did get a whole 30 seconds of sunshine captured right here.

Sunshine retreats and life continues as normal on the Camino, in the rain. The walk was spectacular nonetheless.

A thick fog then descends on the mountian giving it an eerie Lord of the Rings feel.

Ollie and Selina descending the mountain. 

The previous day Ollie had decided to use a walking stick which we named Richard and Judy.

Classic Spanish house from the Navaretta provences of Spain. This was the only town that we would pass through that day with a shop open for supplies. 

We decided to get pasta, a few veggies, eggs and 5 litres of 6 euro vinto tinto. 

None of the guide books, especially our crappy guide, really mention the crappy parts of the Camino like this delightful factory that smelt like rotten eggs. I can only guess that it was Sulphur that was being leaked out somewhere. 

Incidentally Anthony is holding our 5 eggs that we carried for about 20 km.

Anthony slacklining on a chain. 

We miss our slacklines.

5 litres, 6 euros, 13%. 

There my kind of stats.

Our third campsite was at the bottom of a field next to a beautiful river (which may or may not be laced with industrial run off from the factory up stream), which was filled with grass hoppers.

Anthony and the vinto tinto.

Peppers grilled on the Happy Frog wood burner.

Me cooking the peppers before I was demoted to kindling gatherer. 

Anthony tending the fire just before ordering me to get more kindling.

Ollie trying to gain man points.

Well earned dinner and vino.

Everyone getting a bit larey after more vino tinto. We then went on to play garden Olympics thay involved the onion toss and wheelbarrow race. 

Gibbo floored me on the wheelbarrow race, but to my memory me and Anthony still won.

We then made a fire by the river and had a good dance post 5 litres of vino. This is Anthony just before he burnt his shoes after too much dancing. The shoes, however, are still going strong. Well done Merrell. 

Later that night I layed back right into the river thinking that it was rock behind me. 

What an idiot.

Larrasoana, day 5.

We stopped for lunch just after meeting Christopher. 

Christopher had walked all the way from his house in Brighton through France, and now Spain with a bag weighing 25 kg. 

He hates walking but was walking to South Africa to see his sister. 

He also hates camping but frequently camped. Very interesting chap with many stories.

Happy Anthony.

Chef and Sous making tortilla.

The beautiful, sunny walk into Pamplona.

No idea why so many places have manikin legs covered with jeans in Spain.

The Bridge into Pamplona!