Julio (pictured here next to the Camino sign) just returned from a 165-kilometer jaunt on the Camino, “an average of 20 kms a day, lovely walk,” and says to me, “Seventeen of september i´ll be waiting for you at the airport, following day we could get bus to Pamplona, and from there to Roncesvalles … and from there  ¡ Be ready for the camino … almost 900 kms!”

But, he says, “Gossip is not my business,” so he’s not sure he wants anything to do with all this blog and Facebook stuff.  Still, he says, “i´ll change my mind for a couple of days and we´ll see what happen.”

And then some parting words of advice from the master trekker:

I´ll remind you , secret of the camino is the weight, only the indispensable, boots already used, and good humour.

Julio’s second email neatly tied up the rest of any of the details that added complexity to our trip:  how to get from the airport at Bilbao to the start of the Camino on the French side of the Pyrenees, at Saint Jean Pied de Port (which literally means Saint John at the foot of the mountain).

I just checked Internet and confirm there is several trains from Hendaya to Bayonne, where we can get the small train to Saint Jean Pied de Port.  From Bilbao there are several buses going Hendaya, just the border, at about 200 yards to train station.

So that’s that.  Now, how to train when I don’t like walking, much less for six hours a day?

In general, I’m going to rely on a reasonable amount of fitness to get in more Camino shape as I go.  In other words, the first day on the Camino is great prep for the second and third.  But I have to be able to recover from that first day, which, going over the Pyrenees, is widely regarded as the most difficult of the entire trip . . .

Adam, is there anything on that sign Julio is standing next to that’s of interest?

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