Day3 Roncesvalles to Illanatz

 Longer walk today: 26 km.

The place where I stayed last night used to be a hospital for pilgrims run by monks. They would fix up the feet of pilgrims that cross the Pyrenees mountains, and allow them to stay and regain their health before continuing their pilgrimage.



The day started out earlier than I expected when at 6 o’clock the lights were turned on, and Gregorian Chants started playing. At 6:15 a hospitalario, or volunteer, came through the rooms a singing “good morning good morning it’s a beautiful day. Time to get up the sun will be up at 7:15 and you’ll be on your way. “. It was fun.

Today’s walk was through farms and forests and cute small villages. The morning temperature was perfect but it got a little bit hot this afternoon. The highlight of the day was when a shepherd brought his flock of sheep down the path. He led the sheep, and a dog brought up the back. 

The obligatory photo from the start of the Spanish Camino. Most people from Spain start the Camino in Roncesvalles.

Another little video with pics of all the cute villages. 



Popular posts from this blog

To O Pedrouzo

Image
 Long walk today. Nothing new. I love the smell of the eucalyptus as they were harvesting today.  Mostly shady walk through a few old towns.  Again, I am meeting many people that I have walked with over the last 6 weeks. It’s fun to catch up.
Read more

Day 2 Orisson to Roncesvalles

 It was another panoramic beautiful day! 18.5 km today. It was very windy all day. I had to cover my ears and put on my wind proof rain jacket.  The area that I walked through was open grazing and I saw a lot of horses. The horses also have bells! It was a lovely soft sound.  Being an alpine region, spring is just arriving. They had snow last week. Many of the alpine wildflowers are starting to come out.  After about 2hours of hiking I came across a little van that had juices, fruit and hard boiled eggs for sale. What a treat! Of course I sat down and had a juice. There was a steady climb for a lot of today. It wasn’t too steep though, so manageable. However, with about 2 hours of hiking left, I started downhill. I was glad I had brought my knee compression sleeve. Made it down without knee pain. Yay! The refuge I’m staying in tonight is HUGE. There are 3 floors of beds and each floor must have 100 beds. They are very well organized to get all the pilgrims to their a...
Read more

Booking

Image
 Well, I have done the thing that I did not want to do. I have booked my night’s stays all the way to Santiago de Compostela. I find this very stressful. Now I will have to walk exactly the distances I chose today. No stopping at interesting spots etc.  I tried to get a bed for tomorrow 3 days ago, but was unable to get a booking for tomorrow night, except for 36 km away And that is too far for me. I will take the bus part of the way and walk the rest of the way. This experience encouraged me to spend the day trying to book the beds. I took an extra day here in Logroño. Even the Pilgrims’ office is encouraging everyone to book at least four nights out.  These poor pilgrims at my hostel have just figured out that there are no reservations within a 3 day walk of Logroño. They are all trying different tactics to make it work. One is trying to stay 3 nights in one place then walk tomorrow as far as he can then bus to his reservation then the next day bus back to where he had ...
Read more