how exciting!

[Kiwi-family]

Our first map has just arrived. It's a French one covering the Baztan from Bayonne to as far south as Elizondo. Two Spanish ones are en route to get us down to Pamplona! Seeing Saint Jean down on the bottom right-hand corner made me wonder why we are thinking of taking the train there instead of just walking from Bayonne! I think it's something to do with only having time to cover 1,000km this trip! Maybe we can use the map again another time;-)

 

[peregrina2000]

Hi, kiwi-mama,
There aren't too many people on the planet who would understand your excitement at receiving a few maps in the mail. Luckily, many of them are on this forum!

I'm having trouble keeping up with your camino plans. I know the Baztan, the Salvador, and the Primitivo are all part of the journey, but how does a "backwards Baztan" fit into all of this?

Buen camino, Laurie

 

[Kiwi-family]

Fly to Barcelona.
Take train or bus to Pamplona.
Walk the Baztan up to Bayonne.
Take the train to Saint Jean Pied de Port.
Walk the Frances to Leon.
Salvador.
Primitivo.
Frances from Melide to Santiago.

Then depending on how far we have walked each day, we may ahve time left over in which case we could go out to FInisterre/Muxia or zip back to Barcelona early and do the touristy thing plus spend a couple of days at Montserrat or or or - totally open-ended.

Make sense?

 

[Canuck]

Why not simply walk Bayonne to SJPdP on the Way of the Nive? It's about the same distance as Bayonne-Pamplona and both camino share part of the way.

 

[peregrina2000]

Hi, kiwis,

I think I remember that your interest in walking the Baztan (backwards!) had to do with not wanting to start and stop the flow. So this bus from Bayonne to St. Jean will do that, right?

But Canuck says there is a trail from Bayonne to SJPP and it looks like the "backwards Baztan" would intersect with that right around Larressore. He calls it the Way of the Nive, but I think I've heard about it with the GR10 label (and there's tons of info on that). Could you at that point turn "south" towards St. Jean instead of north to Bayonne and make your trip Pamplona - Larressore - St. Jean - Camino Frances, etc.? It looks like Larressore to Bayonne is shorter than Larressore to SJPP, so this would add kms to your carefully planned 1000 kms. But it would remove that pesky bus from your schedule!

I'm not trying to mess things up, especially since I have a vested interest in your walking the Baztan and then helping to update the guide I translated and put on the forum! Buen camino, Laurie

 

[Kiwi-family]

You're right Laurie, the way we have planned it makes 1,000km.
Doing the Baztan backwards cuts out ONE bus trip - if we went the "right" way, we'd need a bus up to Bayonne and then another from Pamplona to Saint Jean - this way saves one of those trips! It saves some zigzagging too and makes for a loop instead.
Canuck, your suggestion makes perfect sense - in fact it is originally what I was planning on. The one deciding factor for me was lack of accommodation, especially when FatmaG posted information about readily available cheap albergues along the Baztan way.

But as I say, when I looked at the map, I wondered why we were taking a bus to SJPdP and am now even contemplating "just making sure" I couldn't find cheap enough accommodation along the Nive!

Don't fear Laurie, I've spent so many hours poring over googlemaps and your translation that I HAVE to walk it now!
Even if we did leave it at Larressore, that last stretch into Bayonne seems to be all along the riverpath so I'm sure I could add nothing to your instructions!
Maybe our 1,000km could just end at Melide!

 

[Kiwi-family]

You rascals!

I'm thinking we walk from Pamplona to Bayonne.
Then take a taxi early in the morning back to Larressore seeing as we will have already walked that portion, and we'd walk on to Helette that day (21.4km)
Following day to SJPdP, 28km. Initially I had not wanted to do that stretch because we were contemplating having the little girls with us, but we have now decided it will just be me and the two boys at that stage and I know they could manage it. (actually the girls might manage it - we did 21km the other day and one of them was running at the end!!!!)
It only adds one day - but a whole lot more adventure;-)

 

[peregrina2000]

Ok, in my next life I want you to be my mama!

 

[Canuck]

Kiwi-Mama,

Here are two interesting references, that you may not have seen, giving you details of the Way of the Nive and the Baztan. The one on the Baztan gives you the details of each stages on the actual map, which fits nicely with your plan of walking it in reverse.

http://vppyr.free.fr/pages_transversale ... tp=accueil

http://vppyr.free.fr/pages_transversale ... baztan.htm

Best of luck.
Jean-Marc
P-S. I walked the Baztan last month and some of the stages are a bit of a challenge, especially if it's been or is raining .

 

[Kiwi-family]

Thanks Jean-Marc

I had seen the Voie de la Nive pages, but not the Baztan - they will certainly be useful as I map it out.
Appreciate your assistance.