Spain At Last

Setting off!

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Well I caught the bus to St. Jean-Pied-de-Port or literally "St. John at the Foot of the Pass" and met an American lady by the name of Sarah. We talked a bit on the bus and she was really easy to get along with. Fatigue kicked in after all my ´fun´from the night before and slept some of the way but still got some good photos.

When we arrived, we went straight to the Camino Info Centre and signed up as pilgrims and got our credentia which we´ll get stamped each night along the way so thats a nice little souvenier by itself.

I bought supplies for the next days hike as we dón´t pass any towns until our following nights accommodation at Roncesvalles. Even then the next shop isn´t until 4Km down the road at the next village. A nice dinner then it was off to bed.

I got off at 7:45am after a basic brekkie. Basic because when I went to the kitchen I could see bowls but no cerials, jams but no loaves of bread so I made myself a coffee. As I was leaving, some French pilgrims came in for their breakfast and that´s when I learned the bowls were for the coffee. The French stick in the corner was for the toaster (I´m still questioning that though) so I buttered a few pieces of french stick and drank my coffee. At least I had some snacks to eat on the way. OMG the apples here are enormous! Forget the adage - they ARE the size of my fist!

St Jean in the distance. It got steep QUICK!

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I raced up the first bit which was the hardest and thought that this would be easy. 5km into it and 500m high then it eased on the steepness and that´s when I started to struggle. I´m blaming the breakfast (or lack there of) but hopefully my body will start using the fat stores I built up in the past year.

The views of the Pyrannes were amazing and I got plenty of photos. I got to the highest point at 1470 which was about 20km into the walk and then came the downhill. And boy do I mean downhill! It wasn´t ridiculously steep in the sense that you slid down on your bum but it was long and hard on the knees with no steps, just slanted ground. I MISSED MY LEKI POLES! To give you an idea we dropped 500m in 3.6Km and there were a good few nice flat stretches at the end. Probably about 1km´s worth in total!

Is that all? I´ll be done in no time!

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So I´ve arrived in Roncesvalles and got a drink and sat down. There´s a nice river here so I might go and soak my feet in it. Then the "el cheapo" pilgrims meal at the restaurant!

Tomorrow I head out. I was going to do 22Km but seeing as I did 27.5Km with a 1300m climb I might try for further. See how the legs feel in the morning.