[Gocamino] [saintjames] Re: Roncesvalles to SJPP

[Cece Simon]

We actually had great weather from Oloron almost to Urdos.  It started raining pretty hard right before Urdos.  We had a really violent storm that night and woke up to the entire town being without electricity!  We were staying in a hotel across from the cafe and could see some light over there, so got dressed by flashlight and went over.  The owner of the cafe had candles everywhere and somehow managed to fix breakfast for all of us pilgrims - it was wonderful!  Right after breakfast,  we got to watch while a group of people guided a very large herd of sheep through town - quite a sight and the sheep enjoyed munching on the potted plants along the way!
 
Later that morning, we noticed a large group of people near a large barn in the country - they had tables set out and were snacking and drinking coffee.  One of the gentlemen ran over to us and invited us over. So we stopped and found out that they were French Pilgrims waiting for a couple busloads of Spanish Pilgrims!  Every year they meet and attend mass at St. Christina church up on a mountain somewhere around there, then they all go up to Somport to the statue of St. James and have a service.  They seemed really pleased to have us American Pilgrims join them, I guess they'd never had that happen before.  It was quite a treat - they invited us to go on the bus with them, but we continued walking - got to say hello to them once again as they were just finishing their service at Somport when we arrived.  We have met some really wonderful people every time we've been on the Camino.  Some day we'll go back......
 
Cece Simon > From: rspenger at earthlink.net> To: gocamino at oakapple.net; saintjames at yahoogroups.com> Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 13:26:23 -0800> Subject: Re: [Gocamino] [saintjames] Re: Roncesvalles to SJPP> > I heartily agree. I did the Arles route first and thoroughly enjoyed > the Somport crossing. I did the Route Napoleon a couple of years later > and was very disappointed by the crossing. After reading so many > glowing reports, I didn't expect it to be just rolling pasture lands > with a few beech groves. On the Somport crossing it helps to have a > little bit of luck. I was fortunate to have clear weather and the > nearby snow-covered peaks sparkled in the bright sunlight on the day > that I crossed. The two previous days (Oloron to Sarrance and Sarrance > to Urdos) had been cloudy, but it was still beautiful with occasional > views of the river and, through the mists, seeing the sheep grazing in > the deep valleys. It is a much more rugged area than the Pyrenees > further west.> > Bob S.> > > On Feb 15, 2008, at 11:03 AM, Cece Simon wrote:> Have walked both SJPP to Roncesvalles and Somport Pass. The most > beautiful part of either walk I think was starting from Oloron St. > Marie south of Toulouse and through Somport Pass - awesome!> Cece Simon> _______________________________________________> Gocamino mailing list> Gocamino at oakapple.net> http://mailman.oakapple.net/mailman/listinfo/gocamino