Chuck's News: May 6, 2023 - Day 6 - Crossing the Pyrenees- 10.5 miles

Let’s get the bad decisions part of the title out of the way. We have Sally’s pack transported by a service each day. We stuff it with all the things we won’t need while walking and I just carry water, food first aid gear and such. Yesterday’s weather, today’s forecast and the morning sun lulled is into poor packing. As we left the albergue and the wind was blowing a good 25 miles an hour with gusts to 40 we realized we sent all our warm clothing in the transported pack. Not a fleece nor puffy among us. It was comfortable, low 60’s or high 50’s, but the thin cloud cover blocking the sun and the wind made me realize our mistake.

The route is entirely treeless-just green luscious meadows used for sheep, horses and cattle. This is Basque Country. How can there be no trees? We are only between 2300’ and 4700’. Ahhhh. Grazing sheep for thousands of years keeps the mountains treeless. Beautiful, but nothing to block the wind nor sun. Luckily for us, the weather did not deteriorate as we climbed 2500’ and 9 miles for 5 hours to the crest of the range and then started our descent into Roncesvallis. A few people have been caught on this section of the route unprepared as we were and have died of exposure. We were lucky today, with gorgeous views, mild temperatures and good people to walk with. The strong winds at times were terrific to walk against, but subsided by about 11:00am.

We had conferred with our roommates about what time to get up and chose 6:15am. Breakfast was served at 7:00 sharp and was concluded at 7:30 sharp. They want us up and out so they can prepare for the next crowd coming today. We packed up and carried our packs outside. It was warm. I was in shorts and T-shirt and comfortable. Inside breakfast was baguettes, butter, jam and orange juice with choice of tea, coffee or hot chocolate. Sally and I were ready to go at 7:20, but Becky was not yet packed. She is a very fast walker, so Sally left about 7:25 and I waited out front while Becky finished packing upstairs. 20 minutes later she still had not come down. I went up to check on her and she was quite a ways from being finished. She told me to go and she would follow. I started up the road at 7:45. As it turned out, Becky didn’t leave until 8:15. She prepared her pack to be transported and started hiking in a t-shirt with a water bottle and a sandwich attached to her belt. So glad the weather held!

The road wound up a ridge through brilliant green fields. I set a good pace for a while and passed quite a few of our new acquaintances as I gained on Sally’s 20 minute head start. I soon caught her. She was enjoying the company of Grista so I settled in next to a woman from the Netherlands that had shared our room last night and talked with her for 20 minutes as we walked. Nice lady. I decided I should wait for Sally as I had the food and water and sunscreen.

Becky caught up with us at a grassy view point. We chatted a minute, then she was off.

About 4 miles up an enterprising capitalist parks a food truck in a dug out area of the hillside and sells hard boiled eggs, bread products, fruit and fluids. Everyone stops to get something. His prices were very cheap, especially considering the remoteness of the location and lack of competition. We stopped and Sally had a Coke and an egg. At five miles the trail leaves the road and climbs steeply up for 0.4 miles to connect with another road where it levels off and enters a forest of deciduous trees that the sheep didn’t kill. We passed into Spain, took a photo at the border. Now the sun was out, the wind was blocked and the forest was bright and cheery with verdant trimmed grass (sheep?) as a carpet. It was very inviting. I had gotten ahead of Sally. She was talking up a student from England and I had moved ahead. It was now 11:45. The grass and sun and trees made an idillic place for lunch so I stopped. Sally some arrived and we enjoyed bread, cheese. A very bruised banana and cookies for lunch.

An hour later we were on top of the pass and looking 1650 feet down into Roncesvallis, our destination for the night. We started down the road, vowing to stop often so as to not kill or knees on the descent.

All went well as we followed the one lane road and occasional shortcuts between its winding path. We reached the chapel a mile from Roncesvallis, then continued the last mile on a wide path next to a small stream into town. We walked past the albergue. As we did we asked one of the volunteers if there was beds available. You see, we have been making reservations ahead because ther are so many people walking the Way that accommodations are stretched to the max in each town. We prefer the albergues where you get to mingle with people rather than hotel rooms that isolate you. But the municipal albergues don’t accept reservations so it is a crap shoot as to whether there will be any beds available when you arrive in town. He said he thought there were and we found out later that some people we enter Roncesvallis with had gotten bedsat the albergue.

We were staying in the hotel for the night. Becky had hurried over the Pyrenees and had been at the hotel for a couple hours before we arrived. We went to reception and checked in, got our credentials stamped and made our way to our apartment, a two bedroom affair with a kitchen, Becky was there, showered, clothes washed and full of stories from her day.

We wanted to cook our meals and with a kitchen that was possible. Tomorrow is Sunday, meaning everything will be closed. Roncesvalles is more a collection of religious buildings and a hotel rather than a town. The nearest grocery store is 1.45 miles away. They were open between 5 & 7 pm. It was 3:30pm. Time for a shower, a look around the area and then hoofing it with empty pack down to the store. Becky and I walked down to the grocery, bought enough food for tonight and all day tomorrow and Monday morning. We were back to the apartment by 6:00. Sally was out meeting and talking with her new Camino friends. Becky went to join her. I concocted a dinner of spiral noodles with a packet of dry chicken soup mix, onions and red peppers sautéed in the fluids from a can of pickled tuna, pickled tuna and peas. I thought it would be terrible lol, but it was really good! (Pickled tuna and chicken soup? Really?)

Sally and Becky didn’t return until after 7 and I was very reticent to present my dinner to them. They had the same reaction I had-delicious!

After dinner Sally wanted to go check out the albergue. It was supposed to be amazing, and she wanted to say goodbye to Jane, an English woman she befriended in Orisson.

Jane was out in front of the hotel when we stepped out door. She had a gift of an earring for Sally. She gave us a tour of the 240 bed albergue. It was as beautiful as it was impressive.

We wandered back to our apartment, checked out availability of beds a few days up the Way and then climbed into bed. What an amazing day!!

Albergue with dawn sun