On Good Friday and Holy Saturday I hung around the gîte, as my feet wouldn´t allow me to go very far. The proprietors (Jacques and Monique) were nice and let me stay two extra nights (one night is the rule), but I think that I was getting the nickname "Lazarus" around the hostal: the one who was in the tomb three days. We´ll leave the smell out of it.
I kept seeing pilgrims come and go. They were leaving to cross the Pyrenees and there I was staying. It was tough.
Here's a photo of me entering St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port at the Pilgrims' Gate.
Maybe all of this was providential, as on Holy Saturday night I concelebrated the Easter Vigil at the local parish in St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port. It was a very nice bilingual celebration (French and Euskera -- the name of the Basque language).
On Easter Sunday morning I knew that had to make the crossing, as cabin fever was taking over. I awoke at 6:00 am and my feet felt really good. I packed up my stuff and ate breakfast with all the other pilgrims at 7 o´clock. Then it was off for the Pyrenees.
To say that the day was full of climbing is an understatement. It was the most climbing that I´ve done in one day (including the French part of the Camino. However, God had prepared me for this day by all the climbs (that I complained about) in the Massif Central of France in the early going of this pilgrimage back in March. If I hadn´t had that, I would have quit today, gone back to St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port and taken a train back to Paris and called it quits.
So today was difficult, but it wasn´t hellish. I basically climbed from 600 feet above sea level to almost a mile above sea level. It was a 16.8 mile hike, Crossing the Pyrenees on the same route as did Charlemagne in the 8th century, Napoleon in the 19th century, and many other notables (quite possibly St. James the Apostle).
At first the weather cooperated very well, and the sun even came out. But then the clouds came and things changed.
It got much colder without the sun, but that could have been because of the wind and the higher altitude. Soon it was raining fairly hard. Fortunately I bought some good rain gear in St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port.
There weren't that many directional signs in the Pyrenees, probably to avoid depressing the pilgrims with how far they still had to travel.
Here's yours truly at a fancy directional sign in the Pyrenees.
It is said that crossing the Pyrenees is the hardest of all the stages on the Camino de Santiago in Spain. Well "Alleluia" for that! After all of today's climbs, everything else in Spain must be downhill!
I thank God for all of this, especially my feet feeling well again. I couldn never do it without His grace. This whole pilgrimage is one big miracle playing out.
I haven´t yet plotted out tomorrow´s hike, but will do that this evening. It will have to be easier than today's!
