14-05-2018
Walked 31.8 km, 7 hours 34 minutes
Ascent: 846
Decrease: 906
Kilometers to be traveled: 865.5
I wake up early, but not the only one who wakes up early. We are awake more or less simultaneously and start the morning process. Let’s see if my laundry is dry after putting on some clothes. Yes it all feels dry. So we can pack everything and prepare it for breakfast. Pierre calls us, it’s time to set the table and eat. Nice French farmer breakfast, no croissants but just bread, toasted with marmalade and coffee. Is there a supermarket nearby? Oh yes, it is signed on the provisional route map that I received yesterday for the route to Sarrance. There we can buy supplies for today and possibly tomorrow.
At 8 o’clock we say goodbye to Pierre and Jean. Pierre has a morning mass in another village and Jean goes to Oloron. Me and Valeria are going to Sarrance. I take the description and start walking the route. Unfortunately, 1 piece is closed and we have to walk around a bit, but the supermarket comes into view, so we know where to go. Unfortunately the supermarket is not open yet, only at 9 a.m. We have to wait.
Walking further is not an option because on the way to Sarrance we do not come across many villages or locations where you can eat something. And yes, I forgot to mention it again, it is raining again. 9 o’clock, the supermarket opens and we can go inside. We buy some supplies for today and then we can finally continue. The map and description are now easy to follow. We must continue to follow the road we are now on, D918, for quite a long time, in the rain, unfortunately.
It first goes downhill for a short time, but then it goes up very steadily, not steeply, but continuously upwards. There is not much traffic on this road, so we can walk safely along the side. And it keeps raining. It doesn’t stop raining, we can only open the raincoat but not take it off. And the road is still going up steadily. Still through a wooded area. It smells delicious, no industry, only nature. The road winds along various curves, you can’t look far ahead, that makes it exciting and fun.
We arrive at a 3 jump where a tree stands on a sort of roundabout. There are cards and other things in the tree. Our way goes down from here, but before we continue we make time for lunch. And it is still raining … .. But we have to continue, now slowly downhill. We are still following the route description. It is also true, emotionally. There are few recognition points, but it is true somehow.
If you have fallen, you will also have to rise again, because we are heading towards the mountains. We walk past meadows with cows and sheep and through sparsely populated places. We must arrive at every moment in a place where we cross the road from Oloron to Sarrance, which we must pick up there and follow in the direction of Sarrance. We see a directional sign with various place names, including Oloron and Somport. There is also something about this in the description, we must again encounter white / red characters from the GR653.
Yes there the first one comes in sight and also a sign with the names of places on it, even Sarrance is indicated in kilometers and duration. Yes, we can estimate how long we still have to walk, luckily the weather is a bit dry. We follow the path to the south. They are paths that we walk on, which also lead past fields and meadows and occasionally through a village. Sarrance is slowly getting closer. And yes, it starts raining again and the paths are getting wetter and muddy. And the shoes are starting to get a bit damp on the wrong side. The paths are getting soggy.
At a small bridge, which we must leave on the right, a man is doing his clothes well. We chat, he is also a pilgrim on his way to Sarrance. Nice, then we will see you later in the monastery? We walk further, but 500 meters further on, a small stream of water has grown into a decent ditch of almost 3 meters wide. How can we cross it without the water running into our shoes? It is almost as deep everywhere, no place where it is only a few centimeters deep, to step over just as quickly. There are also no big tasks or other tools to build something.
The Swiss arrives after 10 minutes of thinking / staring / solutions. He takes a good look at the situation, walks back a few meters, looks around, bends over and picks up a fairly large rock. Walks back to the water and throws it in about half the current in the water. Look, a possibility to place 1 foot and possibly having to walk further with a not soaked shoe / foot. He is the first to cross and it works. The stone remains lying and it does not slip. And if there is 1 goat over the fence, more sheep follow. We also manage to pass this obstacle. We then walk on, a Swiss, Korean and a Dutchman. No, I’m not going to tell a joke, but it looks like it.
I haven’t used the route description for a while, because the GR is easy to follow. The name of the Swiss is Jean-Paul, he comes from a western part of Switzerland. It is not his first pilgrimage, unfortunately I have forgotten how much he has already walked. Walking is his hobby. He has also been on the road for a few weeks, leaving home. He runs this route and then the Aragonese until it merges with the Frances. Here in France the paths of the camino are not maintained, it is different in Spain, he tells us. Hence also the flow of water that we have passed before. In Spain they would have made something out of it (Steppingstones or a bridge).
We arrive at a busy road, really a busy road, with a river on one side with a bridge over it. At the bridge there is a sign with information about the route. You can walk the route via the path, cross the bridge and then left, walk one and a half kilometers and over paths with stones, or you follow the busy road to Sarrance. Jean-Paul follows the path, we take the road. It is still raining and we want to be dry and warm quickly.
We walk on the safe side of the road, but many trucks are passing by, so stop regularly and stand a little further on the roadside if possible. Sometimes there is a sidewalk, but usually just down the road. Then the place name sign appears, not far away. First take another photo, in the rain and then on to the monastery. It is a village with almost no facilities. There is a butcher and not much more. We find the monastery and enter. We arrive in a courtyard with walkways around it. The water enters the courtyard through the rain pipes.
We knock on a door and go inside, nobody, a little further on is a bell we press on and then someone comes to help us. She takes us to another area where we have to leave our backpack. It is an old monastery with wooden floors. They don’t want bugs in, so all pilgrims have to leave their backpacks out and put their necessary things in a large plastic basket to take to the room. The shoes and clothes can dry in the boiler room, where the CV is.
We arrive in a large dining room, she shows us the toilets and showers and brings us to the sleeping quarters. We can choose from the right room, where a few beds are still available, or the left room, where all 6 beds are still empty. We choose the left room, because here all beds downstairs are still free, in the other room we should sleep upstairs. Whether we also want to have dinner and breakfast in the monastery? Yes please, that saves searching for a place to eat. I send another message home that I have finished walking today and have a place to sleep. Then re-arrange the sleeping place and rest for a while and eat something. Then hang the damp clothes and shower. So we are not the only pilgrims here.
In the downstairs room some pilgrims are busy with the stage of tomorrow, the weather for the coming days or with the contact to the home front. Yes, the weather, you are very dependent on it as a walker. The forecast is and remains poor, a minimum of 1 week of rain in France and it just seems to rain harder / more. 1 Of the volunteers says that there is an evening mass in the chapel. The food follows mass afterwards. Well experience a first pilgrim mass “en route”.
There is still time before the mass starts, so carry out an inspection round. There is only 1 toilet upstairs for the night pit stop. There is even a single room. When I walk into the right room, the heat comes up against you, so a room with heating, which my room doesn’t have. Now I know why no one had chosen the left room. The bell rings, so it’s almost time for mass.
Through the courtyard you come to the chapel. There are a few people present, of which about 4 are pilgrims, others are volunteers who work in the monastery. There is only 1 monk in the monastery and this one leads in the holy mass. It is a normal evening mass with the blessing for the pilgrims present at the end. After dinner we go to the dining room. Left side is dining room, right side is kitchen. There are 2 long tables, one of which is covered and the other is designed as a reading table.
After the prayer the soup is served, they have 2 soups and they both taste great. The main course consisted of a goulash with green beans and red rice. There was enough for everyone and everything cooked by the volunteers who use their vacation to maintain the monastery. The dessert again consists of tasty cheese and coffee or tea. A lot of things are discussed and especially the weather and the route to Somport. The rainfall of the last few weeks has considerably worsened the footpath, in some places the water would even only go down high.
I still have 2 stages to the top of the Somport, first to Borce and then the ascent to the top. But here some are told, and explicitly pointed out, that it is better to go to Canfranc Estation by bus than to walk further. It is cold, lots of rain and snow at the top. If you are a trained hiker with good shoes and clothes, you could still try, but otherwise not, take the bus.
I don’t know what I want to do, I could walk one more day to Borce and then take the bus from there. Then I can see for myself if it is better not to walk further, after all I want to cross the Pyrenees myself. That will be my high (s) point of this camino. Fortunately I can sleep on it for another night. Jean-Paul, actually his name is Hans-Peter, but that is harder for the French to pronounce, he has already finished his plan, he will take the bus tomorrow. He already has the bus timetable. It is time to have the passport stamped and to register as a pilgrim. This monastery also runs on donativos.
After washing up, it is slowly time to go to the room. Breakfast is tomorrow at half past seven, for those who want to be able to participate early in the morning prayer at 7 in the chapel. Then the joint breakfast. Ooh yes, it is still raining and not so much.
One to rest all.
Accommodation: Monastaire Notre Dame, 64490 Sarrance Photos / Video
