Over the Pyrenees to Roncesvalles

After watching Candi start walking from Saint Jean, we started from the Croix Thibault and walked up and over the Pyrenees. ⛰️🙂 Alan’s foot did ok (yay) so tomorrow he will see if he can do the whole 13 miles to Zubiri. 🤞🏻🤞🏻

It wasn’t a blue sky day, but we had much better views than the thick fog we had in 2018. We kept commenting on the views we had today that were non-existent back then. We could actually see the beautiful, strong, stocky horses 🐴 (and a lot of 🐑 ) on the hillsides, instead of just hearing the bells around their necks.

It was extremely windy, but the sound of it blowing through the trees was soothing - plus it felt so nice and cool on my hot face (because it takes hardly anything to turn me into a sweat ball).🥵 The descent down to Roncesvalles is steep and tough on the body. We were glad to finally finish, get our packs off, take showers, and put on our sandals. I know for sure we will be sore tomorrow, unless the cold beer 🍻 cures it. 😂

Tonight, we are staying at Hotel Roncesvalles and our stomachs are full from an amazing pilgrim dinner…scallops, cod, steak, mushroom risotto, apple pie and a brownie with ice cream. YUM! It will be hard to top. 😋😋

So far we have met some really nice people already at the beginning of this journey, but a few really stand out.

Pierre - He’s from Australia and is doing this walk because his wife, who passed away two years ago, told him to take a little time once she died to mourn, but then she wanted him to spend some time doing something for himself. 🥹 So, he told himself he would do something his younger self would have done, and the Camino is it. We hope to run into him more in these next few days and maybe help him celebrate his birthday in Pamplona.

Gunnar: He’s from Belgium. He’s working on a Camino video and asked us if he could ask us some questions. In talking with him more today he shared his wife passed away in 2019 from a brain aneurysm. He decided right then to not wait until retirement to do things in life.

Australian Couple:

We met a really sweet couple who are walking the Camino with there 9 month old son. 😳 The mom was carrying him in front for three hours while we was sleeping and then, once he woke up, his dad carried him in child carrier backpack. The couple said the little guy enjoyed all the people talking to him. It kept him busy and happy. Maybe he will be one of the youngest Camino pilgrims to make it to Santiago. 🙂👶

Fun fact learned today: When stung by stinging nettles, grab some dandelion leaves, smoosh the leaves up and rub them on your skin. It takes the sting away! Thank you to the Dutch woman for that. :)

Tomorrow, our plan is to walk 13 miles to Zubiri - slowly, with lots of breaks. 🙂Read more