Day 2 - Roncesvalles, 10.5 miles
And then there was snow…and hail… and sleet… and rain…and 50 mph winds! What a difference a day makes. Strangely though, as we continued our hike up the mountain in the drizzle, with fog coming in, Linda and I looked at each other with Cheshire cat grins. “Do you feel really excited too?” I said to her. We both agreed that in spite of the weather, we couldn’t wait to do this day.
Our muscles were not warmed up so it was a bit of a slog at first beginning with a fairly stiff climb, and as we got going the weather quickly got worse… The rain came down harder, the wind got stronger, then we could hear it hitting our ponchos and realized it had turned to hail…as we continued to climb the mountain, our legs warmed up and it became a little easier.
About 1/2 hour in, continuing to climb higher and higher, we turned a corner and a huge gust of cold wind took our breath away…the clouds briefly parted to show us an amazing vista below. Then miracle of miracles a rainbow! Before I could get to my phone, it disappeared and back came the clouds… The wind picked up even more, whipping our ponchos around us, flapping against our faces and ears making communication difficult.
With wide eyes we laughed, as we planted our poles and braced ourselves against a sudden huge gust…we continued on.
The hail/sleet turned to snow and it began snowing in earnest and the wind threatened to knock us off the path…
We came upon the Virgen de Biakorri, (a statue of Mother and Child sitting high on a rock) and stepped off the trail for a minute for me to say a quick prayer for my grandson. As we stood in front of her, the clouds parted revealing a startling clear blue sky and brilliant sunshine and the snow stopped temporarily…I said my prayer, 4 of us took pictures and as quickly as the sky had parted, it once again clouded over and the hard pellets of snow/hail once again began to sting our faces. Had we just witnessed our first Camino miracle?
The wind was so strong, I had a few fleeting thoughts that we might lose our balance and be blown off the mountain. I smiled “I feel like we’re getting the full Camino experience today” I said to Linda…
Then we entered a magical forest with a lovely path on fairly even ground… A welcome respite…it felt more like we were walking in a park, the snow was intermittent. Linda and I both felt exhilarated, maybe endorphins kicking in?
The final uphill push that took us to the highest point of our 2000 foot ascent for the day had a fair accumulation of snow, Linda’s inner child came out and she made a snow angel.
We met up with John who we’d met at dinner the night before, his wife had given him this trip for his 60th birthday his pace matched ours so we began walking together.
There was some confusion as we came to the part in the trail to begin our descent into Roncesvalles, a large monastery, and our home for the night. We knew there were two ways to go, one beautiful, but dangerous, slippery very steep path through the forest for 2 kms (1 1/3 miles), the other a switchback road, 2 1/2 km, still steep but much safer.
After some deliberation, we ended up on the road we wanted and began the steep walk down, I could feel a blister beginning to form on my baby toe, but it could not take away from our exhilaration as we spotted the huge monastery from on top of the mountain, like some fairy tale castle nestled in the forest.
We got our beds with the other two ‘hags’ from our group, in a huge 150 bed Refugio/albergue. The one featured in the movie The Way, although now updated with individual four bunk cubicles.
Off to our second communal pilgrim dinner… I can see where these are going to get old fast… A good value for the money, but the food repeats itself from place to place and is marginal quality in a country that has excellent food choices normally…bed early.
