Some of you know that I have a little walking club where I live in South West France (Then We Walked). And sometimes I walk with my club members along the Camino. COVID made this difficult but I did manage to walk with a group last September from St Jean to Burgos and this year I made plans to walk with two groups. The first group walking from St Jean to Logrono.

The Glorious Pyrenees and the Camino Frances

I don’t blog when walking; I feel that when I walk with the group then it’s ‘their walk and not mine but we had a glorious time and worthy of posting a few photos. This is the 7th time I’ve walked the Napoleon route and we were so lucky with the break in the weather, that gave us the perfect weather for the crossing. A few days before we arrived Pilgrims were able to walk to Borda but then taxi back to walk the Valcarlos route to Roncevalles. A few days after we walked, the route was again closed… so our little group were indeed very lucky! Rain was threatened many times during our ten days and whilst we walked under grey skies there were only a couple of times when we actually got wet!

This year is a Holy Year and also post COVID lockdowns, I did expect the trail to be very busy as life slowly returns to some kind of new normal. It wasn’t though, or certainly not as I much as I expected however, there are still lots of pilgrims walking. It’s nice to be in the company of folks from around the world, talking and sharing stories. We stayed in a mix of albergue and small hotels, in albergues we were the only pilgrims in our bedroom… it’s a good compromise in these difficult days.

Why Still Walk the Camino?

Many folks ask why I continue to walk the Camino Frances; the answer is simple. It’s a glorious walk and the stages between St Jean and Logrono are perfect for an introduction to the Camino. My lovely group may have met as strangers but they definitely left as good friends and I am as always, very grateful for their company along this fabulous trail!

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