Donal Corcoran's Camino Walk for Cancer Treatment/Research In St james's Hospital

Now this was a hard day's walking. It was the first day that I fell behind on the schedule that I set myself. My blisters gave me a bit of trouble but really it was just one hard day. Ay one stage I stopped at a seat opposite     Eglise de Saint-Pierre-de-Bessuejouls and got talking to another pilgrim, called Michel and he was a Canadian. He had already walked the Spanish end to Santiago two years ago with his wife. While I was resting there I looked across to where our path was leading and I couldn't believe my eyes. Our path was leading nearly vertically up the mountainside. Later, when I tackled it, I would say that it was the most difficult part of the Camino yet . By  the time I reached Estaing at 17 Km I was well and truly knackered . And to make matters worse, I had nowhere to stay as all the places Donal(jun) had tried for me were booked out and one place that didn.t take bookings had only three places left. When I arrived they were gone. When I asked if he knew where  else I could get a bed, he said that there was a house across the street with rooms to rent for 13 euro a night and he brought me across and sorted out the bed for the night with the use of a kitchen  .  He was a member of a lay religous group and they provided beds for pilgrims