13th April - Last day in SJPdP

The sounds of the river soothed us to sleep last night after watching the lights on the falls outside from the balcony.

There are no coffee or tea facilities in the room so Steve headed downstairs to see if he could get a couple of coffees and ended up with a beautiful tray from the woman downstairs with a jug of hot milk and a jug of black coffee (enough for 2 cups each).  The coffee was lovely and, with this view, a brilliant start to the day.

It is going to be hot today so we did our washing and hung them out to dry on our backpacking clotheslines which work incredibly well. They will dry off very quickly I think.

Steve had an online meeting for an hour and we headed off after that to the Post Office, a few streets away. Steve had to get a new backpack as his was heavy – and built for Aussie bush-bashing and he gained almost 1.5kg by swapping them over.  People who know this difference will appreciate how something that doesn’t sound much actually is when carried up steep terrain or for a long time.

There are a lot of roadworks so we had to swap sides of the roads quite a few times before getting there.  The woman was helpful but didn’t have a package big enough for his backpack so we had a decision to make….to ship it forward to the next stop would be €8 and we would need to do that three times before we had more time (in Pamplona) or go back to Rue de la Citadelle and try to find a box big enough at one of the pilgrim stores.  We were told that, even though they closed at 12 we would need to make sure we were back at least 15 minutes before closing time.

Back to the Pilgrims’ shop we headed and they were very helpful – finding a box and packaging it up for us so we only needed to take it back to the Post Office. We got there with 30 minutes to spare and were pleased it was going to cost less to send it to Santiago than shipping it daily until Pamplona.

We stopped for breakfast at a small patisserie near the Post Office – the same one I had discovered during my research before my last Camino.  It was the best place to buy Chamontais – a regional specialty (very light and delicious almond and meringue cake filled with a praline crème patisserie.  So tasty and we also ended up with apple “turnovers” to go with our black coffees.

We were privileged to wave and say “Bonjour” to what looked like the residents of a nursing home who were sitting out in the garden.  We had a lot of people smiling at us and waving.  What a beautiful place to live your life.

It was a day of topping up supplies for the walk and getting items for our room picnic – ended up with baguette, some local cheese (came with black cherry jam), ham, locally grown sweet tomatoes, some grated carrot and a glass of rose!  Quite lovely watching the water.

The afternoon went by with computer work and a walk back to Express Bouricort to see why I hadn’t received an email advising that the booking for the backpacks to Orisson tomorrow was confirmed (I just got a “booking confirmed” on the screen.  They opened again at 1600H and there was quite a line there by the time we arrived but eventually it was sorted out. 

As before, you pay your money (now €8 per bag not €5) and leave them at the reception of your hotel but now you must be there to receive the bags at the destination.  We need to be in Orisson by 1430H tomorrow and that is fine as we plan on leaving early and taking our time (and lots of photos and maybe some drone footage). 

We decided to go to the prison in Rue de la Citadelle and it was quite a fascinating place.  In addition to the prison there was an amazing display of the Trichet sport and all its variations within this area.  There was also a really interesting historic video showing where people from this area have migrated to (including to the cane fields in Queensland) and lots of old people who were talking about their children leaving but they chose to stay as the area just means so much to them.

It has been a very warm day and we ended up back at the small bar we were at yesterday and had only been there a short time when Daniel, Françoise and their friend (cannot for the life of me remember his name).  We ended up all having a lovely chat about life and how important it is to enjoy what you have. Daniel’s friend ended up being a life-time motorbike rider so he and Steve had a lovely chat.

I had a great time patting Niah, one of the two mountain dogs that Daniel and Françoise have as companions. Turns out that they are tenting in the municipal camp ground very close by while the friend’s wife is walking the Camino again – apparently she is close to Leon at the moment.

We said our goodbyes and we all were a bit teary – lovely people living through unbelievably bad circumstances and doing it as best they can. It puts life into perspective.

Back to the room to sort out our goods as we are shipping our backpacks. We had originally thought about shipping them straight to Roncesvalles but the weather is going to change and become wet so we will need our wet weather gear and our day packs are just not big enough. 

Now that is done and coffee/croissant organised for 0730H it is just the final things like updating the blog etc, enjoying the sunset from the window and listening to the water below our balcony.  St Jean Pied de Port is a very special place and hopefully we will be back again some time.