Stunning day – again. Lots of table talk at breakfast about snoring, and freezing cold and not sleeping (don’t ask me, don’t ask me), ‘how about you?’. “Errr, well, we fell to sleep to the sound of a crackling log fire with a sheet, and woke up to the alarm….”.
The morning sunlight over the mountains was stunning. After a hearty breakfast and ham and cheese sandwich provisioning by Border, we get away at about 8am and its maybe 11 degrees, blue sky and dead still.
It’s a solid, steady and consistent walk up to the top of the pass at Astobiscar (1300m) before dropping down into Roncesvalles. Winding up the mountain road, the distant snowy peaks of the Pyrenees national Park open up before us as the villages shrink and finally dissappear way below.
It’s fun passing and being passed by our fellow lodgers from last night, sometimes engaging in conversation, sometimes just smiling and saying hello (or buen camino). There’s a steady stream of people heading up, always people in view. About thirty people are stopped at the drinks wagon halfway up. He has terrine, cheese and bread and can stamp your Camino passport!
I have a small plastic trowel hanging off my pack for just-in-case. I pass these two and the American lady says discreetly, ‘that man has a shovel on his backpack’, to which her massive gentleman German companion belows, ‘yah, zis iss for poo-ing and diarrhea!’
Di and I take separate paths down from the pass (after lunching there just after 12pm), I the more direct but steeper path and Di the slightly longer but less steep contour path. We hook up again shortly after and head into Roncessvalles together where the pilgrim’s bar sells cold beer and wine – serving pilgrim’s spiritual development for centuries. After a couple of those in the glorious afternoon sunshine, it was hard to tell which was more difficult – the days walk up the mountain or getting up from the bar to walk to Burguette!
A lovely stroll really through more forest into the little village. I’m glad we stayed here in hindsight. Roncesvalles has a massive albergue with great historical significance (13th century french gothic church), but its a bit imposing. Burguete on the other hand, is a quiet little Spanish village with a few small hotels and restaurants – quite picturesque. We stopped at Hotel Burguete where Hemingway stayed and mentions in ‘the sun also rises’.
In the late afternoon we chat in the square by the local church until the restaurants open at 8:30pm (in typical Spanish fashion its actually about 8:45, ‘yes,yes,we open…in about 10min’), both grab steaks, then head off to bed.
We’re off to Zubiri tomorrow, about 19km same as today but mostly down hill so should be nice.
Smooth start. Great weather and good sleep. Congratulations
Thnx Kathleen all good so far