Up and over the Pyrenees…

Day 2 – Sept 7, 2022 – Orisson to Roncesvalles 

We continued our climb over the Pyrenees today after yesterday’s short, but steep hike to Orisson. We woke up early knowing we were in for a long day and the weather could not have been better!  We had overcast skies that kept the hot sun off our necks and the temperature very cool as we climbed. 

We have a running joke when we hike peaks. It varies depending on our craving at the moment, but the gist is we wish there was a food truck at the top of whichever mountain we happen to be climbing serving cold beer and delicious tacos or pizza. We’ve never found this mythical truck, UNTIL TODAY!!  There was a nice man selling local sheep’s cheese from his farm as well as other hiker favorites like bananas and Aquarius, which is a European version of American Gatorade. Needless to say, we didn’t let this opportunity pass by without stopping!  A short while later we crossed the border into Spain which was fairly uneventful. We were hoping for a cool “¡Bienvenido a España!” sign to take picture with, but sadly there wasn’t one. 

We made our way down the mountain and stayed in the albergue in Roncesvalles. It was built in 1127 for pilgrims and today it is run by Dutch volunteers. It was a long walk today with both the remaining uphill climb to the peak followed by the long decent all the way to Roncesvalles. We were very happy with our decision to stop in Orisson yesterday even though it was a short day. Had we tried to go all the way to Roncesvalles in a single day right from the start, we may have hurt ourselves. 

Day 3  – Sept 8, 2022 – Roncesvalles to Zubiri 

After looking at the elevation map and hearing from several people the day’s walk was “relatively” flat, we decided to attempt the 21.5 km trek to a town called Zubiri in a single day. 21.5 km my ass!  The map creators are liars!  Not only was it nearly 24 km, but the hills were insanely steep and never-ending. We certainly bit off more than we could chew today and nearly choked on it.  Rex even commented at one point that these were most certainly kilometers of unusual size!  (That’s a Princess Bride movie reference in case you didn’t get it).  We walked in absolutely exhausted and skipped our usual regiment of showering and doing laundry. We just didn’t have it in us.

On a lighter note, something quite special occurred on the trail today. We witnessed what I am calling Camino Magic. See the video for more on this. We took a video so you can enjoy as well.