You can already see the look of trepidation on my face.
After relieving ourselves at Orisson, very important as this was THE LAST TOILET FOR 17.4km, we started walking.
I had spent the whole of the night before psyching myself up for this walk. After the struggle of the 8km yesterday, I was very worried. The walk to Roncesvalles continued for 14km up the mountain, before a 3km descent to Roncesvalles. 14km uphill. I was scared.
There were lots of other pilgrims heading off around the same time, so we followed everyone else, and the many way markers.
The scenery was amazing, and for about the first 5km, despite the steep incline, I was enjoying myself.
Look at us up that mountain, still smiling and everything- take that, Pyrenees!
At one point we came across this beautiful craggy rock with a statue of Jesus on the top.
Oh hey there, buddy!
And then we walked a little further on and saw snow! Right next to us! How novel! Luckily there wasn't snow on the trail though...
Still, we were enjoying the scenery. Noni and I saw our first ever MOLE!!
We even had time to stage photos like this one:
It's obviously staged because there is no way that I was ever in front of Noni- she was always ahead, often waiting for me to trudge up the mountain, like this:
We saw this emo horse standing on the mountain's edge, contemplating the meaning of life:
Just after crossing into Spain, the Camino leaves the road and heads cross country, through what we were calling 'haunted woods', because they had to have been, what with the creepy way the trees grew out of the side of the mountain and the fog that enveloped them.
And then suddenly, there was snow. On the trail. For the next few kilometres. Let's just say that Noni and I were pretty miserable. Have I mentioned that we are doing the Camino in sneakers? This is the time that we wished we had waterproof shoes. It was not pleasant.
After a lot of whinging and moaning and hating on life, we finally got to the part where we start heading downhill- we were on the home stretch, only 3km to go!
So of course, it began to pour.
We whipped our sexy ponchos out of our packs and started tramping down the now slippery and dangerous mountain. Noni discovered that the zigzag uphill walking also made the walk downhill easier, placing less strain on your legs.
And then finally, we made it all the way down, rounded the corner and were presented with this glorious sight:
The Abbey and municipal albergue at Roncesvalles. A happier sight was never seen.
Apart from the rain, we had timed our arrival pretty well, arriving at the albergue just 10 minutes before people were allowed into the room.
I had been warned what these albergues were like, but I definitely wasn't quite prepared. On the one hand, the facilities were very modern and nice, with only 2 bunks (4 beds) per... cubicle is how I would describe them. They were all open to each other, but only 2 bunks in each section. There was a little bit of privacy, as you can kind of make out in the photo, but it was all still exposed to each other, so EVERY SOUND CARRIED. Sleeping was very hard- there were 100 people in that dormitory. And many snorers.
The bathrooms were pretty crap- 3 showers per gender per level. And they were those push-button ones where you press the button and get about 2 seconds of hot water before it stops and you have to push the button again. Nice. But for €10 you can't complain, right?
We also had the €10 pilgrim menu for dinner, which is 3 courses and wine included. If you ever stay and Roncesvalles, I highly recommend you DO NOT bother with this. Or at least get the pilgrim menu from another restaurant, not through the albergue.
The other thing is, being in the mountains, it was freezing. Noni and I sexed it up by making sure our sexy sandals were enhanced by socks.
We did some exploring of the immediate surrounds of the albergue (not too much because we were exhausted), and discovered the stunning church.
St James was in there too, making sure I didn't light a candle without putting money in the box first.
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