Into Spain



Well the real journey starts here at St Jean Pied de Port in the French Pyrenees. After a long rail journey from Bayonne we found ourselves getting of the little train with dozens of other pilgrims all intent on getting away the next morning. It´s a bit like the UN on the train and we sat by Canadians, an Aussie and some wild French bloke who had a very old bike and a bed roll who were all travelling the Camino. We got a bed in a pilgrim hostel and as soon as light broke we were all up getting our stuff together.



There are two ways to the top. The Route Napoleon goes over the mountain and the other goes through forests and up the main road at points. We knew it was going to be hard going doing 24 plus km on our first day. At least when I walked to Rome I had 500 miles of France to walk and get fit before taking on the Jura. This is a no messing about day one, straight up. It was OK until lunchtime when it started to rain and get colder. The way dips down to river level off the side of valleys then climbs back up muddy slopes to regain the high ground. I´d recommend doing it over two days. You can´t imagine our delight when Laura the young American we´d met in France offered us a room in the apartment she´d rented in the nice hotel at Roncesvalles. We ended up staying two days because Irv´s feet had blistered very badly and there was no way we could carry on.



Since then the walking has been much easier (ie mostly flat or down). We did 22 km to Zubiri and came to this medieval bridge just outside the town. If you´ve seen the film "The Way" it´s the bridge from which Martin Sheen dropped his backpack into the river. Irv´s feet held out pretty well and we had a great room for 13 euors each. The next day was a walk from Zubiri to Pamplona, a distance of about 23km with only one large climb. As it was a Sunday the pilgrim walkers were joined by locals which made the way seem a bit over-crowded, not at all like the Via Francigena. Having said that we´ve started to get to know people who walk at about the same speed as us which is great.

We thought we´d cracked the walk but the distance from the city outskirts to the old centre is about 6km and it was hard going for both of us. We took a small room in the old town for 40 euros and have decided to spend two nights in this beautiful city to recover. It´s where they hold the bull running and it´s a city with a rich history ( the old capital city of the independent nation of Navarre). I have been mostly eating tapas and feel like I´ve reached Spain proper.