Day 1

St Jean Pied de Port to Orisson - 8 kms
11 April 2019

Today we changed from being tourists to being pilgrims. We were excited to be starting our Camino after thinking about it for so long. We set off from St Jean Pied de Port this morning in the rain looking very elegant in our rain pants and the ponchos that we had bought yesterday in St Jean. The rain came and went, a couple of times the sun almost broke through and other times low cloud completely covered the our pathway. We went from around 200 metres above sea level at St Jean to 800 metres at Orisson. The last two or three kilometres of our walk were very steep and it was raining steadily and was quite cold by the time we reached Orisson. The albergue, Refuge Auberge Orisson, was a very welcome sight - as was a warming bowl of their fabulous soup. Evening dinner was a very tasty communal meal of 38 people of mixed nationalities, all giving a brief introduction. Top bunk in a mixed dormitory was another experience yet again.

Pilgrims at last - leaving St Jean Pied de Port

Not far out of St Jean Pied de Port the rain stopped long enough to take our ponchos off for all of 10 minutes

 

Look Girls - a Pappy house. It's deserted with no lawns but Pappy will have a good view

The sheep look as bedraggled as we felt

Pappy looking his best in his new poncho

We loved the houses we passed on our way up

Refuge Auberge Orisson

This was a most welcome bowl of soup, so warming and nourishing after our steep wet climb

We had just finished our first pilgrim meal

The view from my top bunk

All was quiet - the rest of the world was lost in the clouds