12.09-15.09.2013
When
I got on a bus to Gavarnie, a small town from where my mountain trail
began, I did not know exactly was was going to happen during the next
four days. I did have an idea of a plan, had the maps with me and
created in my mind a path that I would like to follow, but I did not
know if I was going to be able to make it. In the end I did. At one
point I realised how my life will look like for some time to come. I
sat down somewhere on the way for a break and to eat something.
People were passing me by, some of them smiling, some simply walking.
Total freedom, not knowing where and in what conditions I will sleep
each night, not having to plan everything a month in advance. The
four days I spent in the Pyrenees were extraordinary. The first thing
about the mountains, they are much more wild than any mountains I
have ever been to before. I am aware that the mountains 'visited' by
one of the people I have met in a mountain shelter must have been
nothing in comparison with the Pyrenees. He had been to the mountains
in Central Asia, for instance. But from my perspective, the Pyrenees
still had a wild element clearly visible on the outside. The culture
of mountain shelters is worth mentioning. When you entered, you were
supposed to leave your hiking boots on a specially prepared shelf or
a piece of furniture. In some, you could not bring your backpack with
you inside so you also were leaving it in a specially prepared room.
And the people: open, friendly, no one complaining even if we had
just hiked for 8, 10 or more hours. To listen to a group of French
people singing traditional mountain songs at 2650 metres above the
sea level – it is hard to describe or forget the impression it
leaves on you. My path, chosen by me and by the mountains at the same
time, started in Gavarnie and continued through Refuge Bayssellance,
Refuge Wallon-Marcadau and Refuge de Larribet back to Lourdes. Four
days of hiking, more than 8 hours walking with the backpack each day
(except the last day which was much shorter). [The original idea for
the trail I would follow differed significantly, however, after the
cancellation of my flight I needed to re-organise it since I had one
day less now]
When thinking about the project, I started to
differentiate between the types of my Camino, my pilgrimage. Since I
was on three different pilgrimages and simultaneously on one longer
pilgrimage, I started referring to the part before arriving in
Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port and everything that followed after as my
Camino (Camino means the Way, from Spanish). My Camino de Santiago
was only what I have lived through after I left
Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. It might seem like a curiosity or an
unnecessary comment, however, for me the distinction was important.
One final story before I leave the Pyrenees and Lourdes. On the next
to last day in the mountains, when I was at around 2 400 metres above
the sea level, I got lost. I was following the map, and it was a map
with a scale of 1:25 000 so a very detailed one, and at one point I
simply got lost. The worst part was that I did not know when nor I
could understand why I left the trail. I was wandering around like
this, there were only rocks around me and I could see the path some
500 metres below (with no easy way of getting there), for something
around an hour. Still without any idea as to what went wrong. I was
running out of options and I was on the verge of starting hiking more
or less directly down those 500 metres. The hill I have chosen for
that, and it was the most 'friendly' looking one, was very steep. So
steep that I am really glad I changed my mind at the last moment.
Otherwise, I might have not come back, or at least not in the same
health, as I did. After that, for some reason, I decided to check the
other map I had, twice less detailed that the first one, and somehow
it had an answer on it. It showed me that at one turn there was an
old trail indicated which disappeared after some 100 metres. I
realised that I had followed that path, not the one I intended to so
I climbed up there and found my way back. Fortunately. With those
experiences and adventures, I arrived again in Lourdes only to buy a
train ticket for Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port and start my Camino de
Santiago.
Photos: The view from the Refuge Baysellance; A lake in the Pyrenees
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