Crossing the Pyrenees - the First Challenge

Day 1 - 25km (15.5 miles) and 1426 meters (4678 feet) elevation increase. Reportedly the hardest day of the entire pilgrimage. The evening will be at the Hotel Roncesvalles

A small note - we found out that every 25 years is a pilgrimage anniversay, so The Way will be more crowded than usual this year.

We want to take the Napoleon Route because a) it is harder and b) it is shorter than the Valcarlos Route.

If you want the summary of the day, check out the video at the bottom of this post.

Some history of the Napoleon Route: Since pre-historic times, pilgrims have used the Ibaneta Pass (Valcarlos Route), up the valley, to enter Spain. A route famously used by Charlemagne and his French troups in the 9th century. 9 Centuries later Napoleon sought the element of surprise by using the more circumspect, higher, more challenging Roman alternative.

The Napoleon Route is basically an 11 mile uphill, some gradients as much as 19%, with a 4.5 mile steep downhill which passes by Franco's bunkers before entering Roncesvalles.

Technically, we started the route from the actual starting place yesterday - that was the St. James Gate near the Pilgram's Office. The route takes the pilgrim through town, by the church, across the Roman bridge and out the Spanish Gate.

At the fork in the road the sign still showed the Napolean Route as closed, but we went that way anyway, feeling confident in the knowledge that I checked with the office and they said just to ignore it.

Up we went via farms and saw some nice burros, horses, and sheep. The views spread around us. It was hot going, so we were down to our T-shirts. Our first stop was at Honto - population 0. The weather was threatening, but we continued on and up along the road. Finally heading off the road for awhile, there was another official sign which said the pass was closed - we continued on, confident in the knowledge the Office said the pass was open.

Up and up we rose and we could see the Pyranees spread around us, some of them snow topped and all with menacing clouds. The temperature was dropping as I could now see my breath. Finally we come to our rest stop at Orisson for some well earned vegetable soup and so I could put some more layers on. I noticed I was the only one still in my T-shirt.... This was at about the 5 mile mark and only up half the altitude for the day.

After an hour the weather deteriorated and we continued up. The rain and wind started. By the time we got up to the figure of the virgin on the rock the wind was so strong we needed our poles to keep from falling over. To take this photo I had to wedge myself against the pole of a road sign. Later I found out there were gusts up to 56MPH (91KMH) which is Force 10 wind (worse than gale) and this is seldom experienced on land according to Google. MAYBE THIS IS WHY THE SIGN SAID THE PASS WAS CLOSED???!! The rain felt like needles at this point and we still had to go up a few hundred meters and about 3 more miles. For the majority of the time the wind was in our face, but it was wonderful when it was at our backs.

These videos give a vague context of the strength of the wind. I was not able to stand up straight.

Thankfully there were no trees or loose objects or someone would have been hurt. Of course there were those who weren't dressed properly, someone mentioned a lady with a poncho where the poncho was completely shredded by the end.

Anyway, we finally made it to the top and started down into Spain. The next challenge was that we followed the trail instead of following what the Pilgrim Office told us - we went left (it's death) versus right (it's life) - that's a a local saying for this particular fork in the road. Don't ask about why we went left. It's a story for over a beer.

Left is death, right is life....

The only good thing about it was a) it was shorter and b) it prepared us for the descent into Zubiri which is in 2 days time - more on that in a future blog. Chris had a slight slip in the mud which only damaged his pride and we felt quite lucky to make it to the hotel in one piece. We had a well deserved beer once in the hotel. Actual mileage: 15.7 miles and 5000 feet elevation gain plus wind, rain, sleet.

The hotel is MUCH nicer than in SJPP - two rooms and plenty of room to spread out.

Dinner was vegetable soup, trout with local Rose and the Basque Cake for dessert.

Can't believe we made it in one piece without too many aches and pains. Tomorrow is a well deserved rest day.