We Survive Day One! St. Jean to Roncesvalles

All of our training paid off!  We survived the Pyrenees!

Last night we packed everything up and made arrangements with the hotel to leave early this morning.  The alarm went off at 5:45 AM and we were out the door by a few minutes after six.  Nobody was awake, so the hotel had me lock the front door and hide the keys in a planter.

We started the day wearing headlamps, but really, we only needed them to find our way out of the hotel!  Outside, the sky was lightening and we could make things out clearly enough.

As early as it was, we weren't the first people on the street.  As we passed an albergue, (pilgrim's hostel) the lights were on and people were having breakfast.  Across the street, a bakery was serving coffee.  It smelled good, but we were on a mission.

We decided to take the alternative route through the mountains because of Tina's asthma.  (Yes, that's right, she runs half marathons with asthma.)  The primary route over the Pyrenees takes you to an altitude of 1,400 meters (or about 4,550 feet) starting from 170 meters (550 feet.)  The route we took only went up to 1,055 meters (3,461 feet). It covered 24 kilometers, about the same as the other.

Almost nobody, it turns out, takes this route.  We traveled the back streets out of Saint Jean Pied de Port, and the only sounds were roosters crowing.  The first person we ran into was an escaped cow having a leisurely streetside breakfast of grass.  Until the last kilometer, we only saw one set of pilgrims--and that was in a cafe!

Tina makes a new friend.

Today's route was a combination of two lane highways, back roads and overgrown paths through the woods.  Because we chose to start on a Saturday, there weren't any trucks and traffic was very light.  The day was overcast and the mountaintops were shrouded in fog.  (The 99% who took the other route could see nothing.)

Below the cloud layer, we were treated to some beautiful views of the Pyrenees.

Two hours out, we stopped in the village of Valcarlos for coffee and an omelet. Later, we stopped a few times in the woods for water breaks.  The rest of the day was an uphill slog through God's country.

Today was supposed to be a baptism by fire, one of the hardest hiking days, right up front.  The hike took us from 6 AM until 2:30, about eight and a half hours.  But heck, we made it!

The first 23 kilometers of this walk were uphill. The last 1200 meters (3/4 mile) was downhill.

This was definitely the road less traveled.

 Our destination was the Albergue in Roncesvalles.  It's a renovated convent.  Tonight, we're sleeping in bunk beds (I have the top bed!).  We're in a cubicle with four beds on a hallway with at least a dozen such cubicles.  There's another such hallway on this floor, and two more floors to boot.  Get an idea of the scale?  The Portuguese route was nothing like this.

After a lunch in town (population 30), naps and then a really cool Pilgrim's Mass at 6 PM.  At the end, the elderly priest blessed all of the assembled pilgrims in at least a half dozen languages.  It was very moving.

 

The altar in the chapel at the albergue.

Tomorrow, we're going to try to walk to Larrasoaña.  The good news is that it's down hill.  The bad news is that it's supposed to rain tonight and into the early morning!  I brought a really dorky poncho from home instead of my waterproof windbreaker from the last trip--just to save weight.  If I fall to my death, Tina will pick up the blog tomorrow.  Buen Camino!