Day 1: The cloud waterfall

Dear traveler,

We're on the road again!

The rain had stopped and in the air you can feel that beautiful smell after a summer rain. 

I am very happy about this new adventure and I can tell that my parents are too. 

We cross this nice little town and we climb on some small paved paths, that are slowly winding out from it. I am very curious and my eyes are wide open after any animal, flower or interesting thing I might find on the road. It doesn't take much time until we start ascending steeper and steeper. My parents tell me that we are about to cross some mountains, more precisely the Pyrenees and that we'll be crossing from France to Spain soon.

Really? I've never crossed from a country to the other by foot. Wait a minute..this is how much we'll walk?

-"No, marmot. It's just that we're very close to the border", Mamarmot calms me down.

Ah, what a relief. I was just thinking about how much is it to cross from a country to the other, but apparently, it's not necessary to walk that much.

The shell sign can be seen quite often so there's no chance of getting lost. We even have company, some sheep are walking with us for a while. Besides them, we are quite alone.

A water break, a sandwich break and we get to the first village. When I get tired, my folks take turns in carrying me on their shoulders. I think this is why we take so many breaks, as they are carrying the backpacks, but also they carry me when I want to sit for a while.

My parent's backpacks look like monsters. They are so swollen that you won't have room for a needle and they also have stuff hanging on the outside. Among these, it's the tent. I'm curious if we'll be sleeping in it tonight. I would be glad as I've never slept in a tent in the mountains.

We get to a small village my folks say to be the last place we can eat so it's better to stop for a while. I'm looking at them through a cold, fogged up water bottle and I can see they are tired.

They're thinking whether we could stay here for the night. We walked quite a small distance and we have at least twice to go and apparently time is not on our side. But it seems that we can't stay here as the place is fully booked and we can't camp here. Such a pity, as this place is quite special, with a beautiful view to the mountains.

So, we need to hit the road as it's already late. We walk in the same pace for a long time. With small steps and I move from one pair of shoulders to the other as this climb is quite difficult. Sitting on the backpack, I can see the ridges of the Pyrenees that are starting to get a greyer shade. 

From place to place, we find small piles of stuff left by other pilgrims. It seems that they were weighing too much on their backpack or they simply left them here for other pilgrims. A book, a lantern, batteries, chewing gum, I would dig up a little but I ain't coming down from this pair of shoulders now.

We reach a place where nothing can be seen anymore. My folks tell me that we are in a cloud. Really? but it's not as fluffy as I expected. How cool! I've never been in a cloud before. I stick my tongue out so I can taste a piece of cloud. Hmm, it's tasteless.

I think it's the first time I see Mamarmot worried. She says that maybe we could stop for the night in this small cottage that looks like a refuge. But apparently it's not the best idea so we gather our strengths to move forward. It looks like the climb is a bit more even than before so I will be walking a bit as well.

At some point, we get out of the cloud and we reunite with the sun that seems to be close to setting. 

Look, a pilgrim! His name is John and he is from Canada. He is very happy to see someone else so late on the road. We walk together for some time and talk a bit. Well, mostly my folks, as I don't know that much English.

A steeper descent takes us by surprise. Wait, let me climb down, as it's a piece of cake for me to walk here. We pass one ridge and before our eyes a beautiful sight unfolds. On a distant ridge, some clouds flow like a waterfall and they flood the valley. This is something new for me.

The sun starts to turn more and more orange so we leave that sight behind and hurry our steps. The descent is quite easy, at least for me. 

We soon enter a forest immersed in darkness and we hurry even more. My folks seem a bit worried. I ask them to give me the headlamp so I can help them. We are good, but what about poor John that stayed behind us?!

We start hearing voices and see a little bit of light through the trees and we finally manage to get out of the woods. But outside it's still dark. Oops. We reach a big stone monastery. We are sleeping here! 

We go inside and I take the passports to hand them over to the lady that greets us. My second stamp from the road!

We are taken to our beds, in a room with dozens of beds, tired pilgrims and big stone walls. 

I sleep with Mamarmot, it feels so good to be in this small bed. But first, let's eat something. We leave the room on our tiptoes as people are already sleeping. The kitchen is closed so we find a place to sit on the hallway. We have some bread, pate and a cucumber. Yuuuum!

When I reach out for a bite, the lights go off. Aaa, okay. I think I can eat at the light of my headlamp. 

Hopefully, we'll be able to find our bed.

On a full belly, I tuck in my sleeping bag. I am so tired, I don't even want to argue with dad about the top bunk bed. My feet hurt a bit, but whose feet doesn't? What an interesting day! And so many new things I've seen. I'm so happy to be here!

Thinking about the cloud waterfall, I get carried away on the wings of sleep.