[Gocamino] Trip summary - Oloron-Sainte-Marie to Logroño

[Ralph Alcorn]

This year's final segment on the Arles route was stunningly beautiful. The
weather gave wonderful lighting to what is already a scenic route. The deep
alpine canyons on the French side were damp but the filtered sunlight
through the green leaves and onto the spring moss and ferns was something to
behold. The black slug count per meter must have been a record. What are
those brilliant green lizards? The red poppies were out in force all along
the trail. On the Spanish side, the cultivated fields were all sorts of
shades of green and yellow. We only had one day where it was rain all day.
Most days alternated from moments of sunshine to moments of rain and
thunderclouds. We've usually hiked in Sept-Oct, but I'm starting to think
spring is better, rain or not.

Practical matters:

For this segment of the Arles route, the Miam Miam Dodo doesn't always have
all the accommodations. We also carried the Confraternity of St. James guide
and sometimes found its accommodations a little more informative. Just
before Sarrance, Fontaines dÉscot is a chateau with pilgrim rooms that is
not listed in either guide. You can google for it.

We stayed two days in Jaca and went to San Juan de la Pena by taxi - they
wait for an hour and take you back. You can hike up from Hotel Aragon at the
junction, but it is a stiff hike, and you would arrive when the monastery is
full of visitors. By taxi you can arrive at 10am and have the place to
yourself.

At Puente la Reina de Jaca the apartment/hotel del Carmen has a washing
machine in the room.

Shortly after Puente la Reina de Jaca, the GR653 continues on the dirt road
while an alternate route goes through Arre. Take the alternate. The views
are spectacular.

We had a desired day length of 20 km, and if over 23, we would find a
shorter choice. In one case this caused us to take an alternate route
described in the CFSJ guide starting at Sanguesa. The alternate route goes
through the Foz de Lumbier to Lumbier and then back to the GR 653. This was
fine as far as the accommodations at Lumbier, but the route back to the
gr653 goes thru and area with much new highway construction, and the CFSJ
instructions no longer work. Just walk the road from Nardues back to Isco.
You are fenced into the road so cannot get off to follow the CFSJ route.

Once we rejoined the Camino Frances at Obanos, we were retracing our steps
of 2001. Very little was familiar. The trail in that section has changed
greatly since our first time. Now it appears oriented towards bicycles. Hard
packed gravel, sometimes stones set in mortar, and 8 to 10 feet wide in many
places. In one spot we saw a police car driving along it. Fine for bikes,
but hard on our feet.

First time we had ever been on the trail during stork season. That was
pretty cool.

I also did a slightly different trip report on my
blog<http://timecheck00.blogspot.com/2010/06/trip-report-oloron-sainte-marie-france.html>
and
put out a YouTube video
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBt4kWbc86Q&hd=1>which you already
know about.

Ralph Alcorn
http://www.backpack45.com/camino2.html
http://timecheck00.blogspot.com