Terry and I started our Camino today. Around 8 o'clock last night we arrived in Roncesvalles, a tiny village in the Pyrenees on the Spanish side of the border with France, tucked into the mountains and surrounded by rolling wooded hills. We had left Pamplona by bus about an hour and a half earlier and slowly made our way up along twisting roads into the mountains. When we arrived in Roncesvalles it was veiled in evening mist and abuzz with pilgrims, those who had walked the treacherous 22 kilometer route from St. Jean Pied a Port, some who had walked from other parts of France and Europe, and others, like us, who were planning to start their Camino the next day. It felt magical.

The town’s ancient buildings have been repurposed for the modern Camino. The albergue is in a converted Medieval monastery and our hotel was in a beautifully modified 17th century hospital. The imposing three-story structure had thick stone exterior walls and a lobby floor made of small stones inlaid in graceful floral patterns. Massive new wooden structural beams jutted through our top floor room, and Terry had to duck her head when walking to the bathroom from her side of the bed.

We had a restless night, awakened repeatedly by the pounding of torrential rain against the roof. The temps were only a few degrees above freezing and we were dreading walking 3 or 4 hours in such awful weather the next day. When daylight arrived, it was still raining steadily and over breakfast we decided to try to wait it out. Around 11 AM there was a break in the weather, and though the clouds were still heavy and dark we set out, hesitantly.

What followed was classic mountain weather, changing every few minutes. As we walked past farms and lumber-yards, through woods and fields, and through several charming centuries-old mountain villages, the sun broke through and disappeared, it drizzled and rained to varying degrees, and the wind was brisk and insistent.

We walked about 8 miles and now we're in a pension in a tiny village called Viscarret-Guerendiain. It’s raining steadily again, the heat’s just coming on, and we’re too chilled to go out and get some food even though we’re ravenous. I’m sure once we shower and warm up we’ll be game.

Our plan is to walk together for the first five days of the Camino and then Terry will head back to the States via Burgos and Madrid. I’ll accompany her to Burgos where we’ll spend a day together, after which I’ll return to where we stopped and continue walking. I hope to cover the entire length of the Camino Frances, about 500 miles or so, and arrive in Santiago in early July.

My emotions are swirling about. I’m excited, terrified, determined and thrilled to have the opportunity to do this. Since I retired earlier this year, walking the Camino has become my focus and I’ve been preparing for it all winter and spring. After lots of training walks and testing myself on local hills, I think I’m ready physically. But part of me still wonders if I’m undertaking a challenge greater than my abilities.