El Camino Vuelva a llama: Más Pasos Planeados

It's been two and a half years since my last camino...

And since returning from that adventure on the Camino Mozárabe in June 2023

one path in the network of pilgrim routes that traverse southwestern Europe 

has exerted an increasingly insistent call on the imagination, le chemin du Piémont Pryénéen.

This Pyrenean Piedmont Way (or less poetically - GR78) begins at Narbonne, on the French Mediterranean coast, and meanders inland to the city of Carcassone (with its UNESCO World Heritage listed walled citadel) in the region of Occitania.

    

    This is where we plan to start our walk in late August. 

From Carcassone, the path snakes westwards over the foothills of the Pyrenees to Lourdes, 

famous for its Marian shrine, and then to St Jean Pied-de-Port where it joins the Camino Frances, staging point of our first walk in 2013.

  From St Jean, we hope to link into the GR10 hiking trail in the high Pyrenees and continue in a westerly direction to San Sebastián in the northeastern corner of Spain. 

At this point, Sarah sadly, must begin her long journey home. I, on the other hand (or foot!!), hope to continue walking along the Camino del Norte to Santiago de Compostela. 

The whole route is marked in green on the map below. 

 

The distance from Carcassone to San Sebastián is approximately 620 kilometres and we anticipate it will take twenty-six days to complete.

The path from San Sebastián to Santiago de Compostela is approximately 800 kilometres long and barring mishap I anticipate it will take thirty one days to walk.

Along the way, the Camino del Norte passes through four seperate Spanish principalities - Navarre (Basque country), Cantabria, Asturias and Galicia - each with its own cultural heritage and flavour. The climate on this coastal strip is generally temperate due to the presence of the Mar Cantábrico (part of the North Atlantic Ocean) and the prevalence of moist onshore winds. In the Cantabrian mountains (the slightly darker shaded area in the map above) the average annual precipitation is 1200 mm. 

The seaboard doesn't get as much rain as these mountains but is still referred to as Green Spain!! From the accounts of others who've walked this route, I need to be prepared physically and emotionally for the challenges of wet weather walking - wet boots, damp gear, muddy tracks, raised river crossings... 

During the first half of the walk the soaring Pyrenees will be an imposing earthy presence to the south. From San Sebastián onwards, the Mar Cantábrico, a 'whispering expanse of sapphire and jade', will be a constant watery presence to the north, with the Cantábrian Range flanking the southern side of the path. How will it be to walk in the presence of such grand companions?

 

Time will tell, but we are definitely curious and excited to find out.

PS. We're hoping to share the experience through daily posts on this blog and would be honoured to have your company and comments if you'd like to follow along.