From St Jean Pie de Port to Roncesvalles

From SJPP to Roncesvalle 08/02/2023
The day started with less than 5 hours of sleep. We had breakfast at the Belaire Albergue, took pictures with the hosts and headed out for another day of adventures. This Albergue was in the perfect location, right across the street of the Peregrines office where we obtained our Peregrine Passport and received our first stamp. Also, we were 100 feet away from El Peregrine Shop where I purchased my hiking poles. We walked out of the shop, look at each other and said, let's do what we said we were here to do, "conquer the Pyrenees". In retrospect, I wished we could have spent another day at SJPP however the weather was to change this evening, and I wanted a sunny day to cross through the Pyrenees.

It was a beautiful sunny morning around 55F. As we were heading down the hill through the narrow cobblestone street, we could see at the distance the beautiful view of SJPP, the port of Notre Dame crossing, the gorgeous Nive River and la Puerta de España. As we missed our first map instruction and had walked about a kilometer before realizing no one was following us, there was this young man parked on the side of the road. We approached him, showed him the map and asked for directions in English. He pointed to the map and gave us a response in French. May as well could have been smoke signals. He then pointed back to the road in the opposite direction, we knew we were heading the wrong way, and it was time to turn back into town. As we are coming into the crossroad in town, we look up into the horrific hill we had just laughed about where all the other pilgrims were going. Then, the fun began. The first endless hill was about 3.5 hours climb. I cannot even beguine to explain the magnificent views of the countryside. We climb, climb and more climbing to the top of something that it is hard to explain. At times I turned on my 360-camera to captured some of those extraordinary experiences that I hope will be shared with my future family generations.

The climb was hard, and another long 6 hours and steady. From time to times, we had a flat to make us believed that were at the top, but to our disappointment, there was another mountain to climb.

Our iPhones and Apple watches were both suffering from disbelieve. They were shutting off our step recording, where at times it was asking if I was still walking. Many times, a saw the warnings as my heart rate hit the 174-178 and I needed to stop for a breath. During my El Camino preparation and I had walked around 450 miles, I had spent my last two weeks prior to the trip caring my backpack with 20 pounds of weight but never experience hills like these. Swallowing up my tears at times, "Hi-ho, hi-ho, up the mountain I go" was ringing in my head. My son Nick sang Marines boot camp songs to help us stay focus, "one step at a time dad". Many times, I found myself counting my steps as I was moving very slow supporting myself from the hiking poles as we were 8-10 hours into it.

We finally reached the cross (you will know when you get there if you ever try the Napoleon Pass). I had recorded beautiful 360 videos along the way of the herd of sheep, the horses and cows and the vultures flying over us. At one point, I said very load "I am not dead yet".

Shortly after the Cross (shortly in relative terms), we came into the last water source. We replenished our water and ate the 2 sandwich we purchased on Refuge Orisson 5-hours earlier. Offloaded our backpacks and laydown for a bit. We rested for 15 minutes with some of our other El Camino acquaintances. As we continued our journey, around 5-5:30PM local time the weather started to change. The clouds were cooling us down and obstructing the view as we were walking right through them and reaching the famous Teakwood bench. After 5 minutes of rest, we started our descend. It was getting darker, and we were 8 kilometers away from the small village of Roncesvalles. However, somewhere along the way we reached the crossing converging of the Vancarlos and Napoleon pass but missed the "do not go down this hill" message on the map.

At this point I had enough energy and weight to roll down the hill, but we found ourselves in the middle of a very challenging path. We were in the middle of the clouds and a very dense fog as well. It had reached what I got to called "the suicidal slop", a 35-40 degrees 2 kilometers rocky downhill descend route where a few people have perished before. Not even a kilometer into it, my legs were shaking so hard I couldn’t stand any longer with my 18 pounds plus water weight on my back. I had to seat down on a rock for 10 minutes to rested. I was sure this journey was not going to end well if I were to continue with my backpack weight. I suggested to hide the bag and to come back the next day for it as it was almost pitch dark. "I am done" I said. Then my son Nick loaded my backpack on his back and his backpack in the front and carried them all the way down to Roncesvalles. He loaded up and said "we are 7 kilometers away, let’s finish this dad"

As we continued down the hill and exited to rocky section into the dark forest, we could hear voices and see light through the trees... but they were about 2 kilometers away on this curvy and sharp descend. It was cold and rainy night. We decided to drop packs and lay down to rest. Here comes the Hungarian and his 66-year-old father (a year younger than me) and they sat with us to rest. There wasn’t a winning medal at the end but a nice shower, a meal and a bed. We kept walking down hill until we reached old castles in Roncesvalles. I do believe we were the last exhausted peregrines for the night.

In summary, this section of El Camino de Santiago is for the young and the young at heart who has trained and prepared for the brutal journey.Read more