A rebel without a clue.

Once I thought 'it's always up over and then down into another river/stream/watering hole for bed' and that's all it is really, or like the New Zealander said the longest pub crawl on Earth. Today was short, and I was weary until I discovered Riesling, Semillon and Garnatxa Blanco. Now I ate prawns and mushrooms on a stick. Why did I do three days over two? I am stupid. It all feels surreal. Food, food then bed 

People are stiring and I feel mentally fatigued. I couldn't locate my teeth just now... but then I recall I left them where I always do! Then I cracked a joke, but in usual way I cleared the room! Toulouse? No to win! (perdre? non pour gagner!) As I am a day ahead of the pilgrims I set off with, from Saint Jean, I was forced to insinuate myself amongst the throng outside a bar, which I did, but I felt bad for leaving lose I left with behind. They will mostly be leaving Pamplona this morning? Enjoyed a pilgrim supper with Irish, New Zealanders, Deesider and Dutch. €23 for a vast amount of food - Bar Aloa. Puente is famous for its rojo pimento of which I ate a mountain of, on top of a bunch of garnaxa grapes... and I am strangely weepy. I apologised for snapping at the young lady who was concerned I may drink bad water ... I was being judgemental yesterday!

The joy of ripe rosehips. Where today? Heaven not hell Manufacturing in the valley Sore mill no excuse As an arrow, young, points ahead I ask if I don't move will it cease? Or walk-on not knowing And non-stop Pushed and pulled; apart Argued, not agreed Divided inside and outside When there is only within. *** Day three begins in earnest, after a proper scrambled egg, ham, cheese, yogurt, croissant, OJ and coffee(€6) with one bottle Vichy Catalan(€2): bliss! Leaving Pamplona which I don't recall from 2013 at all. But what day is it? It's now. But could also be considered Friday in Pamplona - which should be avoided as though the plague is sweeping the land and the four horsemen have full saddlebags. Nearing Puente La Reina and I recall nothing of passing here in 2013 and I probably wasn't here although my body, and a very heavy sack, was. Where my mind was is anyone's guess. A wee lassie from England said I would drink that water as I scooped to try a trickle from a ...

Another early awake for me. But there is nowhere to go ... and I don't know where next. I didn't yesterday after arriving either! It feels like a little piece of a jigsaw puzzle, so long looked for, has finally been rediscovered as the section of the Camino Frances between Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port and Roncesvalles is now in my memory as being accomplished. Previously I was forced, during winter, to use the other route when I was coming back from Pamplona to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to complete that section of the Camino. I could leave all these newbies, or I could carry on to be around them as some of their conceits vanish and are replaced with another... it is a rites of passage for anyone the first time. In the night some persons definitely threw up. Either their supper, the beer, the wine or all. I hope it wasn't Song, the lad from Seoul I spent the an excellent supper with in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port and who seems to look up to me ... it's quite nice to be the village ...

Awake at 5. Nice afternoon/evening. Free flip-flops. And a nice supper with a young Korean gentleman on his first expedition in to Caminoland. Sunrise isn't until 8 am so ideally another hour of Lalaland ... At 6 I am going to the bakery after meeting a Spaniards from Valencia, two Argentines(both Amigos), one Hong Kong lady and many Korean individuals and drinking coffee and eating ferme yogurt. Two plus hours with an American ultra-marathon 36 year old. Who I let disappear into the most as we approached the physics student from London Ontario... nuff said. Solace. Just passed Orisson and they're at the bar. I will leave them there?  They went for the sunrise, but of course the pass is filled with low clouds... oh dear? Forgiveness is a patch to help the healing over what never seems capable of forgetting. Eating and drinking my fill at the Hostal, where I am tempted to sleep - even though the refugio is €14 as I am frightened of the two North America guys... I lost them then ...

Outside Le Gare De Bayonne a crowd gathers for the bus to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. To be surrounded by so many people and voices is so unusual. An experience I haven't had since 2013. Does it fill me with fear or with love. *** Depends on the conversations. I was wedged between two American grad students and one, almost American, Canadian grad student at the back of the bus. Some kind of rock and a hard place. After the initial helloes, which brought our Canadian cousin to my left front into the midst, I wanted off the bus to mind my own thoughts: nowt like a physics student reducing me to a Turing Machine to make me wonder. I kept quiet quite long enough until he used the term computer to define me! But then he wasn't having a real experience at all? As he conjured up his sex life with these two sisters from DC as a programmed happening ... It's just not me! But I am in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. That was insane. I've not stopped, but now I relax by the stream climbing d...

Well I am straight into the cluster of folks around the breakfast table, but I am absolutely shattered from yesterday. It's wonderful to hear them all speak their French tones, four are from Quebec, and to be glowered at as I arrived after 1 am, because they weren't operating  the Tramline after 21:30 due to scheduled works - and I was on the slow bus stopping at each and every blasted stop along the same route - but the challenge of the endurance and not falling into drunken slumber (because that was impossible). The sounds of the Camino... now I know I physically cannot begin on 6 broken hours sleep, on the back of yesterday's mammoth day back from Wetherby, mum and Lola. Where to this morning? Dax or Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port... the train departs at 10:19 so I will stop enroute at Marche des Capuchin where memories flood back. Flipping a coin I decided to head to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, €42 - which was most of yesterday's allowance - so I will start from Saint-Jean-Pi...