Thursday 30 May 2013

Day 1: Lourdes - Bétharram

Alex's small dog jumped on me at 7.40 this morning - the cup of coffee that followed a few minutes later was a lot more welcome. We'd arrived at his place late last night, so I hadn't had a chance to see quite what an Apple Mac fanatic his is - all his computers were neatly stacked up (dating back to the trusty Apple Mac Classic that I first got to grips with back at school in the early 1990s, with its screen somewhat smaller than an iPad today). He's also just bought a vintage arcade machine - although quite what his girlfriend makes of it all I dared not ask.



Alex and his Apple Mac museum
Once in the town centre the day kicked off in time honoured fashion with coffee at the Italian Cafe, which is located at the foot of the hill of the hotel where I normally stay when I'm in Lourdes. Alex and I were joined by the others from Photo LaCaze, and we then joined up with the Birmingham pilgrimage. It is absolutely pointless trying to resist the whole religion business when in Lourdes, so I asked for one of the priests to say some prayers for my walk to Santiago. He promised to come back in five minutes to do it, but by the time he returned one of the helpful Birmingham pilgrims had collared another priest. The net result was that I got a double blessing, and after a final cup of coffee for the road I bade farewell to Alex and my other friends.

Overlooking the Grotto
First stop was the Grotto, where I filled my water bottle from the source that Bernadette uncovered in 1858 during the course of a series of apparitions from the Virgin Mary. I lit a candle, and then set off down the south bank of the River Pau towards Bétharram - my first stop for the night. 


My candle is at the front, hanging out with all the big candles...
I'd love to say I had adventures galore today, but to be honest it was five hours of trudging along in the driving rain and listening to podcasts. It was also rather cold - I had every layer I'd brought with me piled on under my goretex jacket, and wringing out my gloves every so often. The weather was so grim that by the time I'd reached the famous Bétharram Grottos I really didn't feel like hanging around in the cafe for 30 minutes for the next tour to start - I needed to keep walking to keep warm, and I have a sneaking suspicion that I've already seen the caves as a child when we came here on holiday a few decades ago. I did pass a rather impressive salmon run on the river's hydroelectric dam. 


The track is well marked, and I've been following the river for most of the day, so haven't had to look at the map. It was a slightly strange moment seeing my first Camino de Santiago route marker, but for the moment I'm following the French Hiking Association's red and white dashes of paint that turn up reassuringly often. The photo below is the first one I came across, just after I left the Lourdes Sanctuary. 


Bétharram is lovely - I'm staying in the monastery tonight, which dates back to the early 17th century, and has a spectacular bridge over the river that was built in 1687.


The pilgrims' accommodation is simple but very nice -  bunk beds and wifi! I did my first batch of washing in the bathroom sink - the water went brown as I'd spent the day splashing through puddles, but the showers were lovely with lots of hot water, and the monks were excellent company, particularly once they found out that I'm a New Zealander - Les Bleus are playing the All Blacks next week and we had some entertaining discussions in my pidgin French about the one point victory margin at the last World Cup final. 

Finally - thank you to everyone who has sponsored me. It is hugely appreciated, and very encouraging when I'm walking along in the pouring rain to know that this is entertaining those of you staying at home, stuck behind desks, etc. and hopefully helping Motability and CPRE. If you're interested in making a donation just click on the link to the side or the bottom of the page. Thank you!

London - Lourdes

Starting out at 7am the morning after my end of year geography ball was a somewhat brutal way to kick things off, particularly given that RyanAir's website didn't feel like letting me print my boarding pass until the moment I absolutely had to leave, but ultimately I made it to France without any drama. Indeed being Lourdes-bound at Stansted and not having to keep my eye on disabled people made the whole business feel a little weird - I've been going there with my family regularly in the past few years and the departure lounge under these circumstances is usually mayhem.

As I passed through the terminal at Biarritz I began to spot a number of other people with backpacks, and once on the bus to Bayonne we established that we were all heading for the Camino de Santiago. I'm starting from Lourdes (a two hour train ride from Bayonne) but the others were heading to St. Jean-Pied-de-Port, the last French town before you hit the Pyrenees proper and enter Spain. As the gruff Yorkshireman pointed out 'you can't go round saying you're walking the Camimo Frances if you haven't bloody started in France'. He had a point.

Stansted airport
I arrived in Lourdes at 7pm, and headed to the Casa Italia, the best pizzeria in Lourdes, where I had what I felt might be my last decent supper for a while. Casa Italia is just opposite the Italian pilgrims hospital, which is very well equipped - largely on the back of mafia donations, or so the story goes. Food was followed by the candlelight profession, which I always seem to end up calling the Torchlight Parade when discussing it with the family. Lourdes does seem to have a lot of paradesque events: banners, uniforms, the works. Then finally a drink with my friends Alex and Laurent, two of the town's commercial pilgrimage photographers who I've got to know over the years. I'm staying with Alex tonight - the rain is bucketing down, and apparently is set to continue for the next few days. Oh well: the weather has to brighten up at some point in the next six weeks, but I'm glad to have the extra jumper I packed by mistake!

Rosary Basilica, Lourdes