June 1: At home

We arrived in Pamplona today. I woke up yesterday morning covered in bites. Maybe bedbugs. I heard no mosquitos. Anyhow, it’s become a part of the journey. I don’t think I’ve done a camino without being supper for a large brood of arachnids once along the way (or, the Way). In France, following the bed bug crisis of 2024, they have protocols in place – at almost all the gites we were not permitted to bring in our packs or our bags. You filled a plastic bin with the specific things you wanted for the night and only these come inside.

But, in Spain, you can bring your bags inside and they will serve you coffee (or beer) between 2 and 5pm and it costs you a Euro 50 less than on the other side of the mountains.

Last night, we stayed, again, in Akarreta. It’s something of a ritual. Carey told me he first heard of the camino, sitting in Tammy’s home in Georgia, shortly after his divorce. The Way was on her TV and he remembers thinking that one day he would like to walk it. I hadn’t heard that story until yesterday. For me, it was a Swiss friend in Bulgaria, who walked it at the end of his first year in seminary and chose instead a career in not-for-profit than the priesthood.

In Akarreta, we had a wonderful evening. Our fellow guests/pilgrims were a British couple (he, a newly retired CFO/CEO, she his wife, playing very much the same role for him as Carey plays for me). I felt tremendous empathy with him. I am four years “ahead” of him but still so new at all this. We had a wonderful conversation. I think I had a lot of pent-up talking to do!

We arranged to meet some friends we walked with on the Le Puy Way who also decided to climb the Pyrenees and are leaving from Pamplona tomorrow. We had a really fun couple of hours, sitting in one of the city’s many squares, us with a beer, them with a suitably stiff G&T made with Nordés, Galician gin. It is bittersweet to have met so many wonderful people on this trip, from places so far away. But, God is good and life is long and the road is never over until it is over.

Today was short, around 15km. We had plenty of time to enjoy the blues and purples that grow on the chalky mountains: vibrant blue-pink clovers, bell flowers and blue butterflies. There was much water today, still and coursing over rapids. And peaks on all sides, from which we walked away through woodland and around fields of baled hay and summer wheat.

We’ve had glimpses of memories throughout these last 3 days. There is no boredom in the sparks of familiarity. We have forgotten so much and there is no replicating the combination of a prior day. They serve, instead, to affirm we are at home and love it here.

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Inspired by our 2024 Camino Francais, Karen has a periodic podcast called "I sent you a bloody boat", personal thoughts on faith by a person who believes in thinking. Also, known as "The Reluctant Christian". You can listen to it on Spotify and on Apple Podcasts at: