Media (13)
Orisson, the right choice at the right moment.
From Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Orisson, about 8 km.
My Achilles tendon was still hurting, so I chose a cautious approach: stopping at Orisson instead of forcing the full climb to Roncesvalles in a single day.
The first concrete thing I did was buy Voltaren and start applying it three times a day. From there, I set a simple but necessary routine: fewer kilometers, more attention to recovery, a steady pace, and no desire to overdo it.
The day was gloomy, with muddy ground, a steep climb, and dense fog higher up. Along the way I met many Americans, and that was one of the first surprises of the trip: I had not expected at all that the Camino would be so well known in the United States.
When I arrived at the Orisson refuge, I found dinner arranged in a large common room, with two or three long tables where everyone ended up eating together. The atmosphere was immediately convivial, almost like a small improvised community. There I met Pamela, Andrius, Mark, Carla, Danielle, and Isabel.
Among the faces that evening there was also the blonde girl from Quebec, whom I had met the night before at the albergue in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. Sitting across from her was a Belgian girl named Catherine, with whom I had not interacted yet, but whom I would get to know in the following days and who, without my being able to imagine it then, would become an important part of my Camino all the way to Santiago.
Later, in the upstairs dormitory, Mark helped me in a very practical way: he gave me some pills and a small ball to stretch my foot and tendon. Even that simple gesture helped confirm that I had made the right decision.
That stage taught me that slowing down does not mean losing time: sometimes it is exactly the choice that allows you to keep going well. And very often it is precisely when you slow down that the encounters that stay with you begin.
In the afternoon and evening I rested completely. Breaking up the climb with a stop in Orisson was an excellent strategic choice, both for managing the pain and for facing the rest of the route better.
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Day notes