day 28 – draft Tuesday, 3 May 2016 Saint-Jean-pied-de-port to Roncevaux / Roncesvalles / Orreaga

day 28 – draft
Tuesday, 3 May 2016
Saint-Jean-pied-de-port to Roncevaux / Roncesvalles / Orreaga
24 km today - 24 km on Camino Frances - 747 km to date

Breakfast is do it yourself from when you get up, and I am up just after 6h and ready to go just before 7h.

The first 15 km is one long rise from 200 metres above sea level (asl) to over 1300 metres asl.  While an average of about 8 metres rise for every 100 metres walked the reality is long sections of more than 10 metres rise for every 100 metres walked.  In other words very, very, very steep.  In my training I had not encountered such steepness and not over such a prolonged distance.  The early parts are good and I stride away, my general fitness from lots of training plus four weeks on the road helps a lot.

As we get to the steep sections I develop a technique of taking very short steps and timing my breathing to each step, in on the left foot going down and out on the right.  Despite the short step, I find I am passing everyone.  A pause after 8 km at a refuge to check the weather: all good, no snow and no rain.  At this point we are in fog and my informant doesn't mention wind.  The fog thickens and a strong wind gets up.  Keeping an eye on the markers does worry me, especially since at times I cannot see anyone else.

A sign announces the last French stamp for the walkers credential and soon I see a crowd of about 20 or more walkers hovering around a stall selling bananas and stuff.  I pause for a few moments but the wind bites me and I move on.  About this point we leave the road and negotiate what seems like an obstacle course with every natural blockage I've encountered so far all assembled in one place.  Plus fog and strong wind.

I can see about 20 to 100 metres either side or in front.  As best I can, I try to keep others in sight.  Sometimes this is only one person.  But she seems confident of where she is, so I keep as calm as I can.  I notice there are trees at this height (about 4000 metres above sea level) and that they are just beginning to bud.  This is slow compared with the spring growth I have encountered elsewhere from day 1.

After what seems like an eternity of this I encounter the Col de Lepoeder, the pass through the Pyrenees route we are on.  Apart from relatively pristine snow on the ground, which we also have to go through, albeit for only a few metres, there is nothing to see except the ground sloping away quite quickly.  What an anti-climax. 

Shortly afterwards there is a decision to be made.  At the Pilgrims Office in Saint-Jean we were strenuously warned to take the road route down and under no circumstances go down through the forest.  The difficulty is this: the forest route is the only one marked and there is no indication where the road we are on will lead to.  So, the group I am with all decide to go down through the forest.  We knew it would be steep, and it is.  The difficulty is in the early stages and quite quickly it becomes quite pleasant.

I reach Roncesvalles about 12h30, nearly two hours sooner than the suggested time. 
After some reflection I decide to stay here tonight.

Mass is at 19h and it seems nearly all the 200 or so walkers are there.  Rather than come forward, as the five of us did at Saint Jean, the pilgrims blessing includes a recital of the countries the walkers are from.  I don't hear New Zealand (or a variant) and nor do the other handful of New Zealanders present.

Then to dinner: I and a woman from Virginia, United States get to talking and have to break the curfew of 22nd.

And so to (my own) bed.