Getting Ready to Start

It's that time of year again.  Last minute rushing to finish grading my exams, get up to Chicago to see one half of the family, go to graduation, then finally get on the plane!  I'm leaving on Monday, May 15, for camino number 17 (yes, this is embarrassing, but not all of them were "full" caminos).

This year I will be returning to the Camino del Norte, which I walked with my dear pal Dana (known to pilgrims as Danagrina).  It was 10 years ago, hard to believe. That's Dana on the beach, me in the fog.

I don't exactly know why I decided to go back to the Norte, and in fact I have been having some doubts, wondering if I should have gone to the remote Ruta de la Lana from Alicante.  That is more my style these days -- walking alone, no mobs of pilgrims, few facilities, but lots of time for just being there.  Last year, though, I had a lot of fun ending my Camino del Ebro/Castellano-Aragonés on the Primitivo with a very wonderful "gang of 15."

So I thought I would give another heavily traveled Camino a try.  The Norte hugs the coast from the border with France until about 100 km outside Santiago, when it turns inland.  When we walked in 2007, there were very few people, very few albergues, but all of that has changed I fear. The Spaniards have a word for these overtraveled and overcrowded Caminos -- they call them "massified." I am assuming it will be nothing like the Francés, which is bursting at the seams even this early in the season, but you never know.

Here are a few pics from last time to show you why I am drawn back to the Norte.

But my first stop is Bayonne, France.  On Tuesday, May 17, I will meet up with four other peregrinas (only one of whom I have ever met personally, but all of whom I have had contact with in one way or the other -- the Camino addicts club is a fairly tight group).  We are going to walk 5 days through Basque Country to Pamplona. This is called the Camino de Baztán. The Basque Country is absolutely beautiful, as anyone who has walked the Camino Francés already knows.  This is an untraveled route, through forests, up some big hills. This part of the Basque Country has become very well known in Spain and Western Europe these days because of a best selling mystery series by Dolores Redondo (a Spanish prosecutor). I have read two of them, even though mysteries are not my favorite, and they have just increased my desire to go plodding through the forest in search of the Spanish equivalent of Bigfoot.  After five days walking at a leisurely pace, we will arrive in Pamplona.  From there I'll head up to Irún to begin the Norte by myself.

So excited, as always.  And no matter how many times I do this, the nerves and jitters are there.  But when I get on the plane and sit down, everything calms down and there is nothing else to do but go with the flow.  Can't wait for Monday!