Camino Pilgrim

Probably the hardest day of the journey because of the mountains. I got a pilgrim passport the night before. It costed only 2€ and the volunteers at the pilgrims’ office were really helpful.

When I arrived at my accommodation, I was the last person in my room to arrive. The other seven people in the room were either sleeping, snoring or texting. It also didn’t help that the air conditioner turned on every few minutes for just three seconds to make a horrible noise all through the night. Luckily, I had some ear plugs with me.

I woke up at 5am today. When I went downstairs for breakfast, there were already other people eating and packing. Within the hour, I showered, ate, charged my phone and got dressed for rainy weather and ready to hit the road.

Outside it was completely dark, super foggy and surprisingly cold. Nevertheless, I started off at a good pace. Went quickly past all the small groups and joined teams with a German guy that had a headlight. I honestly didn’t want to get lost in the mountains on my first day. Also, hearing his stories about travelling 1800km on foot across Germany, Switzerland and France to where we met was really interesting.
It was foggy and raining for half of our walking journey today. This gave me a chance to do some talking while doing 1300m elevation on the Napoleon route over the Pyrenees. Close to the highest point and just before crossing the mountain into Spain the sky cleared (picture above). The sight was breathtakingly beautiful. Like small bubble, mountains reached over the horizon and large majestic birds were guarding the skies. The mountainsides were filled with sheep and goats. Definitely a moment to remember.

Crossing over to Spain had just one large stone with Navarre carved on it. That is the name of the first region in Spain I’m passing.

The only time today that my sneakers got a little bit wet, was when passing through a forest after crossing into Spain. The ground was covered with ten centimeters or more of old leaves that probably had been there for many years. The ground covered in wet leaves was extremely soft and filled my shoes with water, but there was no other option to walk.

After the forest, we went to warm up in a small hut for travelers in the middle of the mountains. There was a Dutch guy inside from the night before with his cute tiny dog that he found on the Camino three years earlier. The dog was called Nussi. We did a quick five-minute break to sit there before heading on to make sure our bones and muscles wouldn’t chill down from the cold and windy weather. It was all foggy again…

The road down the mountain went really fast and almost effortlessly. The only problem was that the rain was on and off every five minutes. You never know if it’s finally really over or not. Stefan from near Munich, with whom I had been hiking, also confirmed that my fear of horses, cows and other animals that roam around freely (and are together with their young ones) has quite often resulted in the death of hikers in the Alps region. Finally, I know I am not totally uselessly paranoid when it comes to going past very close to the hooves of animals on the mountain road.

By midday we reached our destination for the day. The small medieval village of Roncesvalles with just 5 buildings that are all massive in size. Here I am sharing a roof with over a hundred other hikers. Everyone sleeps in a designated bunk bed, which is organized like bookshelves in the library.

The massive walls of this three-story old building make it very chilly on the inside. With the Wi-Fi working perfectly, I can at least get a lot of work done. Can’t wait for tomorrow.