FOOD PHOTO ALBUM

Day 1: Lourdes to Asson

Marion
We woke up quite early to the sound of Val´s alarm clock. First thing I did was to look outside to see what the weather was like as last night it was raining. Unfortunately not so good, overcast again. We had hardly started walking when it started raining, which it did on and off most of the day, luckily we were well covered with our wonderful raincoats.
We first stopped at the Grotto and filled our water bottles with Holy water and looked inside The Church and then we were on our way.
After approximately 4 k we had not seen any camino signs so were a bit worried that we were not on the correct road. We stopped someone and asked if we were on the right road and they said to carry on. Eventually we stopped a post lady and she said we were on the wrong roadso we had to go back. On the way back we stopped at a camping site and had coffee and asked the way. The lady said that as it was raining and the ground would be so wet and muddy we should rather take the road than go through the forest path. So off we started again. We did not mind the extra distance as it was all so senic. We walked 31k´s instead of 24.
When we reached our accomodation at Asson they said they were full but we could sleep on stretchers in the school diningroom. At first we were not so sure as the toilets and shower room was quite a distance away. Luckily they allowed us to sleep on stretchers in the foyer of the school entrance. It made a delightful room with our own toilet and a shower upstairs where the pilgrim accomodation was. We had our showers before the other pilgrims arrived - which were two delightful people from France, Marie and Sebastien.

Sil:
If you want to see the most beautiful scenery and charming twin villages in the South of France, walk left out of the Lourdes Sanctuary straight up a very steep hill for at least 4km until you come across the twin villages of Omex and Segus, two charming, almost Swiss looking villages. But alas, they are not on the Le Chemin St Jacques route! We had missed the first of the signs and instead of turning right at the Camping de la Foret onto the D31 we went straight up the flipping hill!
After asking the way we were directed back down the road to the camp site where we had coffee and hot chocolate before deciding on which path to take. After all the rain - and the fact that we had already done 8kms and it was after 10am by now - we decided on the D937 so we crossed over the river, turned left and started walking. The road was fairly busy with very little space on the shoulder so we had to keep our wits about us especially when crossing the road as the traffic comes from the opposite side to traffic at home.

We stopped for morning tea on the side of the road and sat on a park bench on our sitting plastics having chocolate, water, biscuits and fruit. The rain started again and we put on our raincoats but it didn´t last long. Eventually we arrived at Asson. I had emailed the Accuiel St Jacques in March to reserve three beds but as Marion has said, they did not get my email and had let two beds to another two pilgrims. We ended up in the foyer of the small school downstairs on canvas stretchers. I opted instead for a mattress on the floor. We were very comfortable there with two toilets and basins.

The two pilgrims who had been given the beds upstairs arrived, Marie Terese and Sebastien, both French, who had only met each other that day and had decided to walk together, Sebastien was dressed in very colourful clothing and had a red plastic nose on a string around his neck. Í am a clown in children´s hospitals ´hetold us, ´so I´ve decided to do the camino my way.´ Good for him. He tunred out to be a charming young man (about 35 years old) and an excellent cook - which Val will talk more about.

As they were both walking on to Arudy and to Oloron I gave them the contact numbers for the two places we had booked to stay in and Marie phoned to book beds. They were walking on to St Jean Pied de Port where they would part ways, Marie to travel to Irun to walk the Camino Norte and Sebastian to continue on the Camino Frances to Roncesvalles and beyond.

Val - Minister of Nutrition
When the lady told us there was no more room, she showed us a school dining room and I thought I would rather opt for a hotel. But unfortunately there were no hotels and as you have read we opted for the camp beds. We had supper with Marie and Sebastien and he offered to cook. We went to the supermarket bought food and wine (of course!) - we had Saint Jacques vin de table Francais...very appropriate. 2.37 euros...the cork screw cost 2.30 euros! We had pasta with tomatoes, garlic and onions, followed by ratatouille, then a local cows cheese and in the tradition of the French, dessert - a vanilla and chocolate dessert served with Crepes Deutelles...a thin and lacy crepe invented in Quimper in 1888 - Traou Mad..means in the local language..."good things" and is a biscuit maker specialising in high quality Brittany cookies (Alan, my brother lives in Brittany...have you heard of these Alan?) Great served with ice cream, choc mousse etc. and even they say with a cup of champagne....!!!!
We bid goodnight and set off to our camp beds...these look like something from an army surplus store and to be honest are very stained and torn and feel damp. However, we are given a sheet to cover them and we have our silk sleeping bag inners. (not carrying sleeping bags as we are rather expecting it not to be cold and to have blankets available).
Not a good nights sleep - freezing cold - I cannot sleep and rumage through my items for my socks and footless tights - back into bed. No better, cannot stand it anymore, I put on my head lamp and frantically take out every item of clothing I can from my backpack -I wake the girls. I´m freezing - Syl who is on the floor but on a mattress which must help is hot so I pinch all the layers she has discarded - eventually when I cannot fit on another piece of clothing I get back into bed looking like a Telly Tubby - but I sleep at last...for half an hour because the flipping alarm goes off. The next morning it looks as if we were robbed, everything from my backpack is all over the floor - now I have to repack everything!

Day: Minus 1

Val
I log off and close down my computer, proud and satisfied of my empty in box. I unplug it and zip it into its case. But I know just like Houdini, it will escape and upon my return its in box will be full again.
I climb into Charli (my car) and head for the panel beaters where she is going on her annual holidays - sometimes she has two or three holidys a year. Charli has been unlucky, many bumps and scratches and has been stolen, but thankfully recovered with little damage other than having some one invade her person and drive her away. The insurance assessor and I are on first name terms, last year he said "Happy Christmas Val, I hope we dont meet again next year" - "Oh he said, I mean that in the nicest way". But I had a hunch we would and indeed we met several times the following year.
Martin met me at the Panel Beaters he was dropping me off at Syl´s where Finn was to take us the Airport. Halfway to Syl´s, Martin said "where´s your backpack?" "In the boot" I said....."of my car!!!!" Calmy we glide off the next exit - he says phone the garage to have your gear ready for us at the entrance...he says this without any frustration, just kindness and I recognise a hint of resignation, it wasn´t unexpected.
Every trip the blog includes a list of items I have lost, this years would have been easy, just everything including passport, plane tickets and credit cards. I phone Syl "Sorry Syl, as soon as we get to JHB I´ll have a glass of wine and relax into the zone.....we arrive at Syl´s..........

Sil:
Val phoned to say that they had dropped her car off at the garage for a service. On the way to Westville, Martin asked, "where is your backpack?"
"In the car" said Val. "OMG - its in the other car!"
So, they had to turn back to Hillcrest to collect her Charli (her Chellini waist bag) and her backpack.
"You´ll have to get me a glass of wine when we reach the airport" she sighs, "I´m not in the Zone at all!"
Finn carried a patio armchair to the front garden table, I covered it with a lace cloth and we put out two bottles of wine and a little dish of nuts. When they arrived, we said, "Come down here just for a moment. When they saw the wine they just laughed! Martin said goodbye and Val stayed for a glass of chilled white wine.
I made sure she had another at the airport before we flew on 1 Time which arrived on time in Johannesburg. Marion was there to meet us and we had a light supper at the airport before our flight. So, from JHB to Madrid and Madrid to Toulouse, then a bus and a 2 hour train ride to Lourdes.
It was pouring with rain when we got off the train in Lourdes. I remembered that there was a Post Office half way down the hill to the Centre Ville and I posted my parcel to Santiago with no problem. As we walked down the steep hill to the main centre we looked like pregnant hunchbacks in our ALTUS raincoats but at least were were dry!
We had to ask at the Information for directions to our hotel and were soon settled in at the Hotel St Etienne. There are more hotels per population in Lourdes than in any other town in Europe.
The hotel was 250mt from the Sanctuary to we had a chance to visit the grotto and have a look at the Sanctuary complex - and get our first European stamp - at the pilgrim´s info centre.
The main street to Lourdes is a Bernadette and Mary Disney World with souvenir shops cheek by jowl all up and down the streets. You can buy anything with pictures of Mary and Bernadette from dish cloths to ashtrays, key rings to bottle openers.
While the two girls settled in I found an open internet cafe and was able to send an email home. We bought ´torches´- a candle in a little paper lampshade with Catholic Verses on the sides in English. We then gathered outside the Basillica at 9pm with hundreds of others who were waiting to take part in the procession. It is very peaceful and very moving but I also felt as though I was a part of a superstitious rite - candles lit, walking in slow procession chanting verses for Mary and Bernadette. It started to rain really hard - there was even some thunder - so we slipped out of the procession and walked back to the hotel. It had been a long day. We had left home at 11h30 and it was now almost 10pm the next day.
At the hotel we got our walking clothes ready for the next day, Arnica, Vaseline and strapping all ready for the start of our 2009 Pilgrimage!!

Accident and Angels on the way to the Dragon Mountains

Last weekend we went to do some hiking in the foothills of the southern Drakensberg Mountains that stretch for over a thousand kilometers along the interior of South Africa from the Cape in the south, along the entire length of Kwa-Zulu Natal, forming a natural border between Lesotho and South Africa.

Wikipedia: The highest peak is Thabana Ntlenyana, at 3,482 metres (11,420 ft). Other notable peaks include Mafadi at 3,450 m, Makoaneng at 3,416 m, Njesuthi at 3,408 m, Champagne Castle at 3,377 m, Giant's Castle at 3,315 m, and Ben Macdhui at 3,001 m. All of these are in the area bordering on Lesotho; north of Lesotho the range becomes lower and less rugged until entering Mpumalanga where the quartzite mountains of the Transvaal Drakensberg are more broken. The Blyde River Canyon in Mpumalanga is within the Northern reaches of the Drakensberg, though its geology appears different due to the lack of a Basalt cap. South Africa's Drakensberg mountains are home to the world's second-highest waterfall, the Tugela Falls (Thukela Falls), with a total drop of 947 metres.

Camino pilgrim, Tricia from Empangeni, invited a group of us to spend the weekend at her timeshare in the Bushman's Nek Resort. Tricia drove to Durban to collect Lorraine (also a camino pilgrim) and on Friday morning Marion picked me up, then Glynis and Linda and drove us to Val's place in Kloof. We loaded Val's trailer with food, wine and hiking gear and settled into her Pajero with Amy Winehouse crooning on the radio.

When she tried to start the car it made a strange 'trrrrrrrr.... trrrrrrrrr..." sound. After a few phone calls and reading the onscreen message we realised that the battery was flat. Glynis, our girl-guide supreme, helped Val find jumper cables in the garage, Marion brought her car close to the Pajero and after a while the Pajero roared to life! We were off!

Bushman's Nek is about 250k from Durban. I phoned Tricia on her cell phone to tell her that we would be running about an hour later than expected and she told me that they were almost at Underberg - just 35km from Bushman's Nek.

Accident:

We had an easy drive to Underbeg but as we reached the small town I got a call from Tricia - they had skidded off the gravel road on a bend, literally flew over a gulley, crashed into the brush and ploughed through brambles and thorn trees, hitting a log jutting out of a deep donga. When the shocked women came to a halt, Lorraine (a physiotherapist) asked Tricia if she was alright.

"My back..."said Tricia.

"Don't move," said Lorraine, "I'm going to see if I can flag down a car for help."

Lorraine got out of the car and fought her way through the sharp brambles to the road ripping her exposed arms and legs.

We came upon them an hour later - Tricia still shocked, sitting in the passenger seat, Lorraine with blood splashed on her clothes, her legs and arms a mess. The badly damaged car had been pulled out of the donga by a tractor, using a chain belonging to another good Samaritan.

Another motorist who'd stopped was on his way to Bushman's Nek and when he arrived there he told them what had happened and they had sent a vehicle to collect all Lorraine & Tricia's luggage. A paramedic and an ambulance soon arrived.

They strapped Tricia to a spinal stretcher and put her in the ambulance. I went with her and Lorraine back to Underbeg to be checked by the only doctor in town while the other girls continued to Bushman's Nek.

The doctor thoroughly checked both women and found that, besides bruises, whip-lash, lacerations and shock, neither had any serious injuries. (Unlike the little car which appears to be a write-off.) The lodge at Bushman's Nek sent a driver to collect us and we arrived at the lodge just before 7pm.

Angels:
The universe works in mysterious ways. The first car to pass Lorraine was a couple on their way to Bushman's Nek. They offered to drive on, let the lodge know about the accident so that they could contact the paramedics.

The car that stopped next had a chain just the right length to attach to the car and a tractor that was called in to help. The woman in the car said that they had missed their turn and should not have been on that section of the road. "You see, we were meant to be on this road at this time,"
said her husband.

A woman in the second car to arrive said that her mother, who lives 300km away in Port Edward on the South Coast, knew the farmer whose land bordered onto the road where the car had crashed. She called her mother, who phoned the farmer, who was able to radio for help.
Lorraine also contacted her son-in-law who told her that he knew the only paramedic in Underberg, and that he would contact him. The paramedic had not received the message left by the lodge so it was thank's to Lorraine's son-in-law knowing how to reach him that the ambulance and paramedic arrived when they did.
When the ambulance delivered us to the doctor's rooms in Underberg, he told us that for many months there had been no doctor in Underberg. He had only opened his practice a few weeks earlier. So many co-incidences - or, so many Angels sent to help?

Hiking:

Back at the lodge Lorraine had a warm bath to clean the wounds on her legs and arms. She had pretty 'bling' sandals on and we teased her about putting a post on the blog called "Blood and Bling". We shared a veg lasagne that I had made for Friday night and had an early night.

After breakfast in the morning Val, Marion, Linda, Glynis and I set off to hike on the Lesotho side of the border. It was a beautiful morning and after paying R20 each for a permit to cross the

border bewteen South Africa and Lesotho, we followed a path that crossed the river in about 5 places before swinging left up a rocky ridge, high above the riverine valley below. We had missed the path to the Twin Pools and could see people far below us sitting on a rock at the base of the mountain on the other side of the valley. We met up with that group, being led by a guide, when we crossed the river later on.

By the time we got back to the lodge, a nasty wind had sprung up. I stayed with Tricia and

Lorraine - giving them both a neck and shoulders and feet massage - while the others went on a horse-ride - a first for Marion.

By the evening it was a howling gale that grew stronger and stronger during the night, shaking the windows and doors and rocking the lodge on its stilts. Nobody got much sleep and with the wind still howling in the morning we decided not to go hiking but to get an early start home after breakfast.

One of Lorraine's family had friends looking at property in Underberg and they offered to drive her and Tricia back home. We took a lot of their stuff in the trailer. On the way home we stopped at "Puckety Place" - a delightful old house with a farm stall, bottled preserves, cheese, fleece ponchos, hats and scarves, an animal farm and an honest tea garden where you make your own tea, coffee, hot chocolate etc and choose from scones, cakes, or pickles, cheese & bread.

We got back to Val's place and Marion drove us all home.

This was our last country training before we leave in less than 3 weeks time. I had a full dress rehearsal, only taking my camino backpack. Everything worked well but with the 'Berg weather being almost the same as the south of France and the Pyrenees, I decided that we might need a second lightweight fleece and perhaps a scarf and gloves. I also decided to swap one of the shirts I made for an old tried and tested t-shirt.

On Monday, all the clothing I'd used on the weekend was washed and I have now re-packed my backpack - for the 10000th time - and am ready to fly!!