Welcome to Camino 2024. Let’s call it a reconnaissance mission for next year – who knows how far I’ll get with the foot troubles I have had. For now – I am in peak condition! (Apparently.)

I can’t believe it’s been 6 years since I walked the Camino Frances with my beloved for the second time. Now he sits at home recovering from foot surgery. Something we both seem to have a penchant for. In an ever changing world I have a window of opportunity and have recovered from my foot surgery in 2020 (I hope!) So off I go.

After a 36.5 hour transit from home to Paris the body clock was a shambles and it was time to rest in Paris. Rest meant not carrying a backpack and stupidly wearing new hiking sandals instead of wearing hiking shoes on day 1. It was hot and I wasn’t going far (apparently).

But no it wasn’t just a short walk. Paris is a big city. We had caught the tourist bus and boat when we visited once before. I thought a little walk (or two) was in order (probably 20 kms just meandering through the metro stations). Then, quietly and unknown to me,a goddamn Parisian blister presented itself with a sly smile on my little toe. Just begging to be irritated! I’ll teach you little blister! Day 2 of resting in Paris required the big guns! Yes thats right – hiking boots, injinji socks, and fiximol! There you go blister – on your way buddy!

So now let’s call this day the beginning. I sit in the fast train from Paris to Bayonne where I change trains to Saint Jean Pied de Port (SJPP). I can’t see the speedometer however I believe it gets up toward 400km an hour. Maybe I’m exaggerating – I don’t know, we will need to google it later wont we?!

Meanwhile I see Orleans on the map on the tiny tv screen at the end of the carriage. So have we all learnt something today? Old Orleans is not far out of Paris. It never occurred to me that New Orleans had an old version however it of course makes sense because new anything suggests there was an old something. But I digress.

Wind turbines as far as the eye can see – everywhere and then not. A grain silo, small villages scattered amongst cropping land, with houses hidden by trees and mist. The sun is finally creeping out red and orange burning the clouds away on the horizon.

The train conductors finally check my ticket and scan the bar code on my phone. A far cry from yesteryear when the paper ticket deteriorated in my pocket and I rode the sleeper train from Biarritz to Paris. It was Bastille day in 1989. It was a special day and the bicentenary of the storming of the Bastille. French people singing and drinking and celebrating for probably 12 hours or more! On the train! There was no sleep as I tossed and turned in the top bunk. I begged under my breath for quiet.

Today I will arrive in Bayonne in three and a half hours after sitting drinking coffee, typing away on my fold up keyboard, eating yoghurt with cacao muesli and pondering that damn Parisian blister. Be gone foul bump!

Excited, filled with trepidation, happy to have the opportunity again – but will my feet go the distance? Thrilled to be catching up with my good friend Michelle who is travelling from Finisterre to walk one of my favourite parts of the camino over the Pyrenees and then on to Pamplona with me. Let’s hope the weather is kind in them there mountains.

So stay tuned – this is going to be an unpredictable ride! Let’s hope my first ever ambulance trip on Camino Frances 2018 remains my only ambulance trip on the camino and the journey is filled with more great memories even if intertwined with a few aches and pains.