I may have exciting news – the news is exciting, however in this age of Covid, will it happen? Oh, I do hope so!
I am to be a volunteer-hospitalaria in an albergue on the Camino. This means I get to be a host at a pilgrims’ hostel on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela for the last two weeks of April. My hostel is not on the main Camino Francés, but a trail that joins the main path from southern France. This Camino is called the Camino Aragonés. It starts in Arles in France, and then through the city of Toulouse and crosses into Spain over the Pyrenes at the Somport pass.
Soon after reaching Spain, this path goes due west and joins the Camino Francés at Puente la Reina, a one-day hike beyond Pamplona. When I did the Camino Francés I did a small detour to visit the church of Ermita de Nuestra Senora de Eunante. It is a wonderful octagonal building nestled in a valley, surrounded by fields. It is thought to be a church of the Knights Templars. The Camino Arlès passes by Eunante. When I was there I stood and gazed back up that Camino path. I found it so romantic and longed to explore that way. And now I can!
The Albergue is in the village of Can-Franc, a day’s hike into Spain. An important feature in Can-Franc is the railway station. It was built as an ambitious and grandiose project to cross the pyrenes by train linking France and Spain with a tunnel under the Somport pass. It had a difficult history through the Spanish Civil War and WW and fell mostly into disuse. There are only has a few trains daily from the Spanish side, but there are plans and money to bring it back to life and its former glory as an international station. The Albergue is in the village about seven kilometres from the station.
Several years ago I did a training weekend in Victoria with the Canadian Company of Pilgrims to be a hostel volunteer but I had not actually got around to volunteering. This past September, before Omicron, I got an email from the CCofP saying they were aiming to have a Canadian volunteer presence at three hostels. I said yes. Can-Franc was one of the hostels, and remembering my thoughts at the Euante church it seemed a perfect fit.
So here I am, booked in and all excited. However….there are questions, such as transport. There is snow on the Somport Pass that still lingers in April, so I will come in from the Spanish side. I could walk from Pamplona and turn at Puente la Reina, and walk the ‘wrong’ way, or back along the Camino. Or, I see there are trains you can take from Madrid to Can-Franc station. So transportation and getting there should not be a problem. But what about the elephant in the room – Covid and its nasty offspring Omicron? At this time, Spain, along with most of the world has rising cases. I have been onto the Spanish health ministry website SpTH, which all sounds very breezy about getting your QR code for Spain, and all will be simple unless you are travelling from a high-risk country. When I checked out which were the high-risk countries, it was the whole world except Chile and part of the Persian Gulf. So what’s going on there?
So much can change by April, I am just sitting tight. This coming Sunday there is a Zoom information meeting for volunteers. I hoping for some insight and advice. I am also following the Ivar chat group for the Camino that has daily topics and concerns.
So it is buen Camino for getting it all sorted out.