Whew what a day. I slept well, noticed the sun was out and slightly freaked in that I was supposed to meet J and M out in front of my auberge at 8:15, the sun rises after 8 do I felt I had missed them but had comfort we'd meet up in route over coffee or something. I got up and did the quick dance to the bathroom, I always pick the top bunk as I feel it is more ventilated but because of this I hold my pee all night as to not wake up everyone. That might be way more information than anyone wants to hear BUT talking of pee, blisters, stench and gas is common talk out here...I guess you take away all of our luxuries equip us with just the stuff to survive and work your body hard that is what it all boils down to. When I got out of the bathroom someone shared I had a note on my bed, ends up M and J left it for me when I was asleep and it said "we know you need your sleep from your long walk yesterday so we'll see you on the way ". Lucky for me they decided to stop and get coffee and a breakfast and then they swung by again. They waited for me to pack and for me to run get a coffee and then we were off...I love these two.
The landscapes were stunning, my group would stop and smell the roses, talk to the dogs and cats and I was in the company I needed to be in. While I have loved these two since early in my travels I never really knew them and was so glad to finally get to know them. We spoke of our children and it was so nice to get this opportunity as you don't get it often here for some reason. J and her hubby have raised the most marvelous son in M, he is 19 and an old soul they have the most dynamic relationship and J is such an inspiration to me as a mom, the mutual respect these two give to each other is beautiful. Amazingly they had watch the movie THE WAY and said,"let's do it" and in two weeks were feet on the ground in St. Jean. They have my original fly out date of the sixteenth and we chatted how if we picked up the pace a bit and alleviated a full stage or so and got to Santiago on the tenth we would have enough time to get to the coast via walking...we got on it and we're off with this mission.
At about six thirty or so it appeared it might start to sprinkle, we had no definite end point in site but I had marked a nice auberge off in my book so that was our tentative plan. When it appeared it was about to rain and we saw a very nice looking auberge we stopped hoping to get a room...many people were relaxed and drinking and it ended up the place was "complete", which means full. We donned rain gear and headed off...about an hour later we found another auberge that was full as well but when we showed her the book with my original spot on it the owner was kind enough to call them...they had rooms and urged us to come on now, we figured we were ninety minutes away. We think they said get there by nine. We had to walk in the dark thru dome woods on rocky trails, M and I were proud to sport our headlamps as it justified their purchase and more importantly carrying around their weight for all of these days. We pulled up to this gorgeous auberge that looked like an old stone building that a skilled architect had added to and made it a haven to stay at. Lights were on in the courtyard, not a soul in the bar...we looked in the windows and not a person appeared to be staying there. It was 9:02...we had no idea what to do. We knocked on the windows and doors to no avail, a frog presented himself and went under the door to the inside. I was pretty certain we were going to be sleeping outside and was already picking out the three spots that would supply us a bed when the door opened and a pilgrim staying the night on the top floor let us in, we picked three wonderful beds in a room in a far off corner with huge stone walls and felt like the luckiest people in the world. As I crawled into bed there near the door beside my bed (a door made into a window) was Mr. Frog,M got a chuckle as I said without noticing I did do , "hey handsome " to the frog. We all slept great.
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