Well I certainly wasn't at all let down by the hospitality of the kind couple in Ordiarp. A superb evening meal of entrecote (cooked especailly), a great night's sleep and all the breakfast one could want contributed to an excellent departure.
I took the advice offered and walked along the road to St Just-Ibarre, rather than take the GR653. There certainly wasn't anything to be seen by walking in the woods and an additional 4km, which equates to roughly one hour of the day. What also convinced me to take this particular route (as someone who wanted to have followed every single part of the chemin de St Jacques) was to have learned last night over dinner that in most places the GR's 653, 78 and 65 - which are those I have and will be following - are routed, due to laws in France that give a right to private individuals to refuse access - onto common ground. This is why in many places one finds oneself walking along the edges of the commnunity hunting reserves - because the footpaths are common access. So to discover that by following the GR so rigidly was not, in fact, to be walking on hallowed ground at all but was more accurately the case that the camino is becoming something of a commercial affair. Taking the asphalt today was probably closer to a route that would have been walked in the middle ages. At the end of a day - and it might be a particularly tiring one - an hour saved is well justified. Anyway, I was at the beginning of this particular day and within 40 minutes of leaving Ordiarp I encountered my first 'official' climb - the Col d'Osquich.
Writing this with hindsight (which I am) I wasn't aware then of how rather insignificant this climb to a mere 495 metres would come to seem. But, in my inexperience, I set off at a solid pace and found the smoother gradients of the road much easier to climb than the often erratic footpaths between boulders and tree roots. As I started to climb I gained a view back over Ordiarp and the surrounding countryside as the first sunlight broke:
A little higher, and I began to see the surrounding countryside for the first time:
Several hours later and I was coming down the other side. It was basically 6km up and 7km down.
Almost as soon as I arrived at the far side, having chatted briefly with a French cyclist who was pushing his bike up the Col, of the col I saw the signs for St Just. A different church - a style I was to see more of later.
So, just 20km left for today, and another ascent (that I had been advised about): the Col de Gamia. A 500+ metres ascent but like the earlier one, one starts from a certain elevation - in this case somewhere around 130metres, so I wasn't expecting too much hard work.
Of course I was wrong... the camino throws up surprises constantly, and this hill was one of them. I turned off the asphalt to the right and was confronted with an immediate steep climb of a couple of hundred metres.
After that it softened slightly, but I still spent the next hour or more working my way uphill. Mind you, apart from the positive effects of exercise, the views it gave me were superb. This was the first time I had really 'climbed' (I use the word guardedly) out into the hills, and the views it gave of the surrounding landscape were graceful and inspiring. I also saw my first vultures, but I'm not sure if they're particularly visible in this photo:
Here are some shots of the landscape. It was about this time that I started making short videos, which might better convey a sense of the land, so videos are something that I have come to take more and more of as my walk progresses, although I'm not currently planning to upload any here. Anyway, here are the photos:
After I came down off the hill (it's certainly no mountain) there were about 6km left to St Jean Pied de Port. The last kilometres sometimes feel like the hardest - for obvious reasons - and today was one of those days.
A couple more sights that were mentioned in the page of printed literature I'd been given. First was an old chateau close to St Jean le Vieux, called the chateau d'Apat
Just outside of Saint Jean Pied de Port is the small village of St Jean le Vieux, with (you've guessed it) it's 12th century portal. I recognised the style from the church at Ordiarp but unlike that one, which was completely untouched, this one appears to have been 'restored' in the 17th century:
I approached Saint Jean Pied de Port but what didn't help AT ALL!!! was that having successfully followed the markers for days on end, I found that just 2km from St Jean they disappeared completely! So, following my nose still managed to take me 1km or so out of my way and thus when I arrived, tired and satisfied, in St Jean, I didn't pass through the "Porte St Jacques" as every pilgrim appears to have done for the past 1000 years or more, instead I came in via the main road and the supermarkets.
But it was no problem (apart from missing a landmark) because St Jean is quite a small place really, despite it being a Mecca for walkers.
I found St Jean quite curious actually. At once another historic and attractive French town, and at the same time a bit like Disneyland for pilgrims. There are fundamentally two main streets, either side of the church, and they are chock full of gites and suppliers of all things pilgrimage: footwear, walking sticks, backpacks, rainwear, footcare products. But there is also a large building given exclusively for the "accueil des pelerins" which, rather sensibly, is a central point from which volunteer staff will phone out to locate a gite for the weary pilgrim according to their stated needs. So I was happy when I found that their recommendation - just 50 metres down the same street - took me to a lovely, ancient building with slate floors and clean, roomy dormitories. Danielle the owner was friendly and efficient and I was soon happily installed as the sole occupant of a small dormitory.
I went walkabout in a limited manner and found that suddenly the streets were quieter. As the sun got lower it made for some nice light for photographs:
It was now time to eat. I found a great inexpensive restaurant nearby that served a fixed price menu that included the "plat du jour" which just happened to be shoulder of lamb and fries. I wandered back to the gite fed but rather exhausted - my 34km that included two climbs had been testing.
It was while I was attempting to bring my blog up to date via the in-house wifi that I got chatting to the lovely Laura. A most enjoyable way to pass the time, but of course as one sees - I didn't get very much done in the way of updates! Oh well - I was happy :0) As you can see, I'm now starting to catch up on the past week's travels.
I took the advice offered and walked along the road to St Just-Ibarre, rather than take the GR653. There certainly wasn't anything to be seen by walking in the woods and an additional 4km, which equates to roughly one hour of the day. What also convinced me to take this particular route (as someone who wanted to have followed every single part of the chemin de St Jacques) was to have learned last night over dinner that in most places the GR's 653, 78 and 65 - which are those I have and will be following - are routed, due to laws in France that give a right to private individuals to refuse access - onto common ground. This is why in many places one finds oneself walking along the edges of the commnunity hunting reserves - because the footpaths are common access. So to discover that by following the GR so rigidly was not, in fact, to be walking on hallowed ground at all but was more accurately the case that the camino is becoming something of a commercial affair. Taking the asphalt today was probably closer to a route that would have been walked in the middle ages. At the end of a day - and it might be a particularly tiring one - an hour saved is well justified. Anyway, I was at the beginning of this particular day and within 40 minutes of leaving Ordiarp I encountered my first 'official' climb - the Col d'Osquich.
Writing this with hindsight (which I am) I wasn't aware then of how rather insignificant this climb to a mere 495 metres would come to seem. But, in my inexperience, I set off at a solid pace and found the smoother gradients of the road much easier to climb than the often erratic footpaths between boulders and tree roots. As I started to climb I gained a view back over Ordiarp and the surrounding countryside as the first sunlight broke:
A little higher, and I began to see the surrounding countryside for the first time:
Several hours later and I was coming down the other side. It was basically 6km up and 7km down.
Almost as soon as I arrived at the far side, having chatted briefly with a French cyclist who was pushing his bike up the Col, of the col I saw the signs for St Just. A different church - a style I was to see more of later.
So, just 20km left for today, and another ascent (that I had been advised about): the Col de Gamia. A 500+ metres ascent but like the earlier one, one starts from a certain elevation - in this case somewhere around 130metres, so I wasn't expecting too much hard work.
Of course I was wrong... the camino throws up surprises constantly, and this hill was one of them. I turned off the asphalt to the right and was confronted with an immediate steep climb of a couple of hundred metres.
After that it softened slightly, but I still spent the next hour or more working my way uphill. Mind you, apart from the positive effects of exercise, the views it gave me were superb. This was the first time I had really 'climbed' (I use the word guardedly) out into the hills, and the views it gave of the surrounding landscape were graceful and inspiring. I also saw my first vultures, but I'm not sure if they're particularly visible in this photo:
Here are some shots of the landscape. It was about this time that I started making short videos, which might better convey a sense of the land, so videos are something that I have come to take more and more of as my walk progresses, although I'm not currently planning to upload any here. Anyway, here are the photos:
After I came down off the hill (it's certainly no mountain) there were about 6km left to St Jean Pied de Port. The last kilometres sometimes feel like the hardest - for obvious reasons - and today was one of those days.
A couple more sights that were mentioned in the page of printed literature I'd been given. First was an old chateau close to St Jean le Vieux, called the chateau d'Apat
Just outside of Saint Jean Pied de Port is the small village of St Jean le Vieux, with (you've guessed it) it's 12th century portal. I recognised the style from the church at Ordiarp but unlike that one, which was completely untouched, this one appears to have been 'restored' in the 17th century:
I approached Saint Jean Pied de Port but what didn't help AT ALL!!! was that having successfully followed the markers for days on end, I found that just 2km from St Jean they disappeared completely! So, following my nose still managed to take me 1km or so out of my way and thus when I arrived, tired and satisfied, in St Jean, I didn't pass through the "Porte St Jacques" as every pilgrim appears to have done for the past 1000 years or more, instead I came in via the main road and the supermarkets.
But it was no problem (apart from missing a landmark) because St Jean is quite a small place really, despite it being a Mecca for walkers.
I found St Jean quite curious actually. At once another historic and attractive French town, and at the same time a bit like Disneyland for pilgrims. There are fundamentally two main streets, either side of the church, and they are chock full of gites and suppliers of all things pilgrimage: footwear, walking sticks, backpacks, rainwear, footcare products. But there is also a large building given exclusively for the "accueil des pelerins" which, rather sensibly, is a central point from which volunteer staff will phone out to locate a gite for the weary pilgrim according to their stated needs. So I was happy when I found that their recommendation - just 50 metres down the same street - took me to a lovely, ancient building with slate floors and clean, roomy dormitories. Danielle the owner was friendly and efficient and I was soon happily installed as the sole occupant of a small dormitory.
I went walkabout in a limited manner and found that suddenly the streets were quieter. As the sun got lower it made for some nice light for photographs:
It was now time to eat. I found a great inexpensive restaurant nearby that served a fixed price menu that included the "plat du jour" which just happened to be shoulder of lamb and fries. I wandered back to the gite fed but rather exhausted - my 34km that included two climbs had been testing.
It was while I was attempting to bring my blog up to date via the in-house wifi that I got chatting to the lovely Laura. A most enjoyable way to pass the time, but of course as one sees - I didn't get very much done in the way of updates! Oh well - I was happy :0) As you can see, I'm now starting to catch up on the past week's travels.
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