Friday night, April 23… taxi to AD airport.

Saturday, April 24.. Flight from AD to Casablanca, Morocco. The landing was aborted just before we touched down!!! I laughed my ass off, which is what I do when I think I´m going to die! We had to circle because there was ground fog and they couldn´t see anything (this is what the pilot told us… LOL). Anyway, finally landed around 930 a.m. local time. Train to Tanger 6 long hours! We stayed the night in an Ibis Hotel and had a traditional teagine dinner… bed early… exhausted. Travel Day 1 is done.

Sunday, April 25… HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BIG GIRL CELESTE ALENA THE BALLERINA!!! Took the ferry from Tanger, Morocco to Algecerias, Spain… 35 minutes, but time difference is 2 hours! Talk about being confused! Taxi to Malaga, Spain and we can´t get a train, bus is out because I´ll puke, so we go to the airport and rent a car. a cute little Peugeot. Stop at 10 pm in La Guardia, Spain, about an hour south of Madrid. It´s a truck stop-hotel. Bacon & Cheese sandwiches for dinner & breakfast the next morning… I´m a happy hiker 🙂 Day 2 of travel done and over…

Monday, April 26.. taking us FOREVER to get to SJPdP!!! On road by 900 am. Spanish countryside is amazing! Arrive at Pamplona airport to drop off the rental at 400 pm, taxi to St Jean Pied de Port 1.5 hours… We´re FINALLY at the start of our walk… 6 days behind, but here! Went wrong way up the steep road and ended up at a wonderful hostel, hosted by Jaques & Francois. I THOUGHT they said dinner was bread pudding, and it was delicious. Lucy informed me after the fact that it was traditional Basque BLOOD PUDDING. LOL!!! Good thing thing I didn´t know in advance. Met some really wonderful people at the hostel, John, a journalist from Argentina and Henri, an Irish/Spanish bloke for Madrid who has taken a year off to travel and the loudest snorer in the world, Pierre, who has horrible sleep apnea, but a lovely smile. Can´t wait to get started in the morning.

Tuesday, April 27… after drinking cafe latte from a bowl for brekkies, Lucy and I laced up our boots, grabbed our walking sticks, strapped our backpacks to our backs and set off with Henri & John. After half hour of climbing up, up, up John & Henri went ahead and Lucy and I continued on the hardest walk of my life! 9 kms, mostly at an incline, climbing to 1000 meters. It took me 5 hours to do it, but I DID IT! At times I would take 70-100 steps and rest for a minute, then do it again. Lucy was amazingly patient, I am so grateful for her. I mostly listened to the soundtrack from G I Jane… quitting IS NOT an option 🙂 Just when I honestly thought I couldn´t go another step, Orrison appeared around the bend, al humdilalah! This is our stop for the night and I am so happy! No inside beds, we are in a tent tonite, and Lucy has invited a lovely Japanese girl, Mika, to stay in our tent, since there was nothing available for her… the more the warmer, is what I say!!! More tomorrow!