Today we walked Napoleon’s Pass, a 24.7 km trek up and up and up, followed by a steep down into Roncesvalles. My phone says we climbed 364 flights of stairs, a new record for all of us. This is the official start of the Camino Frances. There are actually two routes to Roncesvalles, the one we took is closed when there is bad weather. We needed to put on sweaters and remove hats because the wind was strong and chilly on top of the mountain.
Today was a special day for Mark D because the end of his first Camino in Saint Jean Pied de Port was not as dramatic as walking into Santiago de Compostella, the destination for most Caminos. But today we got to climb a mountain after 30 days of hard training. Everyone beginning the Frances faced a major challenge. We had our trail legs and well exercised lungs so for us, it was exhilarating. We started at 6:50 am and reached Roncesvalles at noon. And to top it off, we were now in Spain and were able to order tortillas for lunch. Tortillas are egg, potato, onion, and olive oil. They are a staple and I love them, almost as much as Chocolatines.
Mark K said we saw more people today than we have seen the entire month. It is true. Camino Frances is the Camino best known and therefore, crowded. The Chemin de Compostelle is not well known outside of France so we, Canadians, were a bit of a novelty. Today we met more Canadians, many Australians, and lots of Americans, causing the language of the trail to quickly become English. For us, it is a bit of a shock to the system, a month on a quiet trail and now a sea of people.
Trinity is from Western Australia and was enjoying Day One of her Camino Frances adventure.
We stayed in the mother of all albergues (albergue is the Spanish and Portuguese name for Gite), the Refugio de Peregrinos de Roncesvalles. (Peregrino is Spanish for Pelerin which is French for Pilgrim) It has 183 beds! The registration process required many steps on a smart phone. We were fortunate we had to jump ahead one stage on the weekend as this place is booked solid for a few days starting tomorrow. One of the hosts, a Dutch volunteer, said there are 130 volunteers throughout the year. The volunteers are all Dutch and spend two weeks here. Impressive. One volunteer even put our laundry through washer and dryer for 7 euros. Dinner is served in two shifts – 7 pm and 8:30 pm. Luckily we had the early shift.
Dinner was… okay. A purée soup, macaroni, and chicken with fries. Yogurt for dessert. They feed almost 200 at a time so I can’t expect the same attention to detail we found in small gites.
I look forward to hearing about Mark K’s experience on the Frances, but I think I will stick to the lesser known and lesser travelled Camino routes. There are lots of them. I like having the trail to myself and a small group of pilgrim friends.