Daily posts

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Puente La Reina to Estella

Around 23.2 km and 5:08 (see map).

Overcast and cool to start with, but clouds cleared and the sun came out for the last couple of km into Estella. (Electrical storm passing over Estella now – good to be inside while that happens.) Easy walking, with only a few small humps to get over. Passed through three or four small villages on the way and managed to have a coffee or tea in all but one of them (there was no café there).

I’ve added a page ‘Daily walk summary’ to the menu. It contains the data for each day’s walk recorded by the Garmin watch Soph lent me. I’ll update it from time to time, assuming the watch keeps working (one of the buttons is on the blink).

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Pamplona to Puente La Reina

25.5 km and 5:57 (see map).

A dull start to the day. Cloudy and with a cold wind.

First stop out of Pamplona was a panaderia in a side street off the camino. The centre of early Sunday morning life in the small village. The kids took great pleasure selecting their pastries.

Rolling meadows from then on, with a gradual climb up to a ridgeline. Showers became a little more insistent from here on so it was on with the rain coat. Countryside still beautiful though, despite the weather.

A vending machine totally dedicated to the needs of the peregrino – blister pads, nail clippers, tape, wound dressings, etc. Not a pack of potato chips in sight, but there were condoms (€7) – did wonder whether they would be useful on toes to prevent chafing.

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Pamplona

A day off.

The cafés don’t open early, but there’s some life in the narrow streets: workers heading to their Saturday jobs, street cleaners, patrons of late-closing bars meandering home, peregrinos (the main body of walkers were on the path by 7 am, like all days so far), an older local or two out for their morning constitutional. I managed to find a café outside the walls of the old city, then wandered back through the town, found the markets and returned to the albergue for a shower.

Tomorrow I’ll head to Puente La Reina, 24 km southwest from Pamplona. Elevation profile not too alarming – around the 400-500 m level mostly, with one 300 m climb over 5 km to 800 m.

Eucalyptus handed on to a couple of Canadian ladies.

Crowd gathering in the town hall square for the midday pealing of the bells.

More streetscapes. Just can’t get my head around the idea of a bunch of bulls thundering down them, with a crowd of fools running ahead of them.

Anti-racism / support refugees event on down the street from the albergue.

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Zubiri to Pamplona

20.7 km and 4:35 (see map).

A valley walk down to Pamplona. Dry, but a cold wind for some of the way.

Zubiri is a small village on a river. The houses are built to last centuries, like most seem to be in these parts.

Pleasant walking on off-road paths most of the way down the valley.

Coffee stop.

Water stop.

Picturesque photo opportunity stop.

A stop to watch a fisherman on a bridge. Quite a few folk out fishing the river today – it’s a public holiday I think (Ascension Day).

Getting closer to Pamplona.

Plenty of old ruins along the path.

Pamplona street, with the Cathedral at the top.

A glass of wine, with the cathedral behind. My hostel is 3 m away from this bar and 10 m from the entrance to the cathedral.

I was undecided about staying an extra day in Pamplona, thinking I might just keep walking. But the town warrants some time spent wandering its lanes and soaking in the history so I’m staying on for another night. A day off the camino probably won’t do the tired legs any harm either.

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Roncesvalles to Zubiri

21.5 km and 4:53 (see map).

Easier walk today – undulating rather than lots of big hills/mountains and some downhill for the last few kms. Another day of spectacular scenery. A few high clouds about, but sunny and warm.

Wifi bandwidth abysmal so far – too many peregrinos trying to access it at once. Consequently uploading photos challenging. Will keep trying.

790 km by road. About the same on foot.

Inquisitive (and, I must say, rather attractive) sheep.

Breakfast stop. Interesting juxtaposition of bar and church, although I suppose each could be considered a sacred place.

Started to see a few rivers today.

Pretty houses in the villages.

Typical countryside for the morning.

Morning tea stop.

A slug.

Haven’t seen or heard any wild animals yet. Greatest danger faced so far is spearing by an errant walking pole.

Not much grass in this small village.

Blind corners abound.

A coffee cart a few km before Zubiri.

The municipal albergue at Zubiri.

€8.00 for a comfortable bunk bed in a bright airy room.

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Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Roncesvalles

24.2 km and 6:23 (see map).

Clear blue skies, warm, nary a breeze. 16 km up to 1,400 m, then level for a while before 5 km descent into Roncesvalles. Beautiful walking. Bunk for night in 180-bed albergue in old monastery. €10. Albergue is full. Phone about to run out of charge so this will be all I’ll post until later. Will put some photos up too – took at least a hundred or so.

Leaving Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port (Beilari albergue). About 5 deg and foggy.

8.75 kg pack weight. Not bad. Includes sandwiches and copy of Eucalyptus.

Into the mist we go.

Out of the fog after a few km, to rolling rural vistas.

The camino diverges from the road part way up the hill to Orisson.

Lots of signs pointing the way. Not much chance of getting lost.

The approach to Orisson albergue and an espresso. Did think of staying here for a night, but it was full and anyway was keen to go through to Roncesvalles. Nice albergue nonetheless.

Post-espresso view of Orisson albergue, looking back down the hill.

Getting higher.

Some snow on the distant big peaks of the Pyrenees.

Ever higher and what do I see around a corner? A coffee cart. Turned out to be a good place for a lunch stop.

The unprepossessing marker of the border between France and Spain.

Through a dead forest, well that’s what it seemed like – leaves from last autumn on the ground and no new growth on the trees. Late bloomers.

Emergency shelter near the Col Lepoeder.

Snow near the col.

Emergency wifi at the col. Social media updates not supported.

Down through a grand forest …

… to the albergue in an old monastery (Roncesvalles pilgrims hostel). €8.00 for the night.

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A day in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port

Picked up my pilgrim’s passport / credential yesterday. It’s stamped at the start of the camino at the pilgrims information centre (and at the end too), and along the way at the albergues.

Recommended pack-to-body weights at the info centre.

Will weigh my pack before heading off tomorrow.

Prayer house and inclinations (wishes) ‘thing’ up the back of Beilari. Inclinations are written on small pieces of paper, put inside small plastic balls then added to the thing. There are lots of them in there so it’s obviously a popular activity. A bit like a wishing well.

More queues at the pilgrims centre. They coincide with the arrivals of trains from Biarritz / Bayonne so aren’t always there.

Plan to head off around 7:30 am tomorrow. Walk will either be around 8 km up to Orisson – if I can reserve a bed at the refuge there (will find out later this evening), else 26 or so mostly uphill km through to Roncesvalles. I’m okay if it’s the latter as the forecast is good, the days are long and I’m in reasonable walking shape.

Stocking up on carbohydrates.

Grimbergen. Blonde. Quite partial to them.

It was a communal dinner last night at Beilari. And really enjoyable. Josef the host facilitated introductions – essentially over the course of a few games (and a glass of passable port) each of the 21 or so peregrinos there introduced themselves and explained why they were doing the camino. Quite moving to hear the various motivations. Dinner was pretty good – bean soup, salad and a sort of vegetable slice thing, and rice pudding for dessert.

Everyone moved on today except me (many / most limited on time available to do the walk), so there’ll be a new group of peregrinos to meet tonight. I’m looking forward to that. Also looking forward to tonight’s meal, but hope there are a few more carbs in it than there were last night (having a beer now can thus be considered prudent risk management).

Not sure whether there’ll be wifi wherever I am tomorrow night so maybe no post. Will have the SPOT running through the day so you’ll be able to track my (slow) progress (link at top right of blog).

So tomorrow is the start of my camino, my pilgrimage if you will.

Pilgrimage teaches you to keep going – forward. It teaches that your only obligation is to this moment, right here beneath your feet; there is no ‘there’. Santiago de Compostela might be your destination, but it is irrelevant if you do not take the next step.

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The final transit leg to the start of the Camino Francés

Bayonne to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port (‘Saint John at the foot of the mountain pass’). The train leaves later this morning; takes about an hour. Good weather up there today – this forecast from yr.no:

Early afternoon …

Wonderful trip up into the Pyrenean foothills, for much of the way alongside a river and through farmland.

What’s the collective noun for a train load of disembarking peregrinos (pilgrims)? A disembarkment?

Seems the town name is hyphenated. Must fix in all my posts.

In and around the township (the old town is walled):

Cathedral count so far (Gothic or otherwise): 0 (not including Bayonne; expect count to increase over coming months)
Splendid bucolic scenes: 47+ (gave up counting soon after leaving Bayonne)
Peregrinos on the train: maybe 50 (all strangely quiet)

A queue at the pilgrim information centre (where you get your pilgrim passport) …

… but patience paid off and I got in later during a lull.

The albergue where I’m staying for a couple of nights opened at 2:30. Josef the owner explained the house rules, the most important of which is the communal dinner at 7:30 and a close second being the hours of silence. Nice place (will post some photos tomorrow) and the communal dinner will be an opportunity to meet some people.

The ‘family’ who stayed the night at the albergue.

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By train to Bayonne

So I’m leaving Paris and the day dawns clear and sunny, albeit brisk. You wouldn’t read about it.

8 am on a Sunday morning and not many people on the Metro.

It’s a 20-minute ride across to Gare Montparnasse, from where my Bayonne train will depart. The platforms haven’t been assigned to all trains yet so waiting travellers gather expectantly in front of the departures board until the numbers come up and then hurriedly migrate en masse to the platforms.

I prebooked a seat before leaving Melbourne. I didn’t prebook the large man with blocked nasal passages who sat opposite me and alternately snorted, snuffled and snored for the duration of the trip.

Bayonne is around five hours from Paris. (The train to St Jean Pied de Port leaves from Bayonne. I’ll catch it tomorrow.) A really enjoyable journey through the French countryside: flat and sometimes gently undulating agricultural land, field after field of brilliant yellow canola crops separated by green pasture, scattered cotton-wool clouds, stands of dense thin-trunked trees with delicate green foliage, clusters of old farm buildings here and there, every so often a small village, vines around Bordeaux (not unexpectedly), extensive pine plantations beyond.

I noticed heavy snow on the mountains in the distance to the east as we neared Bayonne. I have an idea they might be part of the Pyrenees and wonder, if they are, whether there’ll be snow where I’m walking the first week or two. Maybe my thermals will get a workout after all. I’ll wait until I get to St Jean Pied de Port to find out more about conditions.

Bayonne station is pretty.

As is the town.