Orisson → Roncesvalles
Distance: 10.5 miles / 16.9km
Elevation: +2634ft, -2161ft
I woke up at 6:30am this morning to someone’s phone alarm, and then they didn’t shut it off for 10 minutes - not cool. I got out of bed, packed my things up, and then headed down to breakfast at the hostel. Breakfast was from 7 to 7:30am and it was a baguette (with butter and jam), orange juice, and a coffee.
I ate breakfast and then set off walking! It started with some pretty brutal elevation. 1000 feet of elevation in the first 2 miles. The weather was cool, windy, and a bit rainy. It was nice to walk in at first as it kept me cool, but the wind became really strong. It was blowing so that you were walking against the wind instead of with it which made it a tough uphill trek. There were a few times where the wind was so strong I thought it was going to send me rolling back down the hill!
Since it was raining on and off, I also wore a poncho for most of today, and the poncho turned into a parachute with the wind. The walk was still beautiful though. It was more incline than yesterday, but it felt easier being over a greater distance.
After a few treacherous uphills, we finally began the descent and it was a STEEP trip down. The path was very rocky and descended rapidly. This area is notorious for leg and ankle injuries from people going too quickly. Thankfully, I made it down with no issue. Using trekking poles makes a huge difference both on the ascent and the descent.
After the steepest part of the descent, I stopped and sat on a log on the path and ate lunch which was a baguette sandwich with salami. The bread was a bit dry but anything would’ve tasted good in that moment.
At around 12:40pm, I arrived at Roncesvalles and checked in to my hostel for the night. This hostel sleeps 180+ people and is an old monastery, so it is huge. I had a top bunk, so I unpacked and got everything set up for the night but it turns out I misread the bed number and I was in the next section over. So I had to climb up to the top bunk and re-do everything which was a bit inconvenient.
After unpacking and decompressing, I went to Casa Sabina (one of three restaurants in town) for an early dinner at 4pm. I didn’t choose the dinner package that came with the hostel but turns out the hostels sends everyone to one of the three restaurants anyway so I didn’t miss out on much.
I ordered off the pilgrim menu, which came with bread, red wine, and ice cream for dessert. I ordered trout with french fries and a salad and it was very yummy. I ran into a few friends I had recently made while I was eating, so I finished eating and then sat with them and chatted for a while. It started to rain so we went back to the hostel (3 minute walk away), and then I did laundry.
Everyone hand-washes clothes on the Camino, but some hostels (like the one tonight) have a spin dry machine. It works like a salad spinner for your clothes, getting all the excess water out. Definitely useful when you have clothes you need to wear the next day and didn’t get around to washing them until 6pm.
Since I had dinner early, I took a long shower and had some alone time while everyone else was at dinner. It was nice to have the time to myself to journal, think about the day, and get some quiet time.
I texted Tovin for a bit, then did some planning for the next week or two of the Camino and figuring out what cities I plan to stop in. Some days are going to be much longer than others and I may end up doing some 20+ mile days.
I tried to go to bed early and was in bed by 8:30pm.
