Day One St Jean Pied de Port to Roncesvalles - 27k

Camino Diary written in Retrospect in May 09
Day one - Arriving - St Jean Pied de Port to Roncesvalles - 27k

Well what do you do as soon as you arrive in a strange new place and realise that your adventure has really begun? The bus and train journeys taking the best part of two days just felt like routine, although I was expecting the Chunnel so a bit disappointed when I realised we were going to be going across in a ferry to France. One of the coach passengers was refused entry into France with her baby and kept from rejoining us as we boarded our ship. I wasn’t nervous at this point, probably a bit on edge because I’d given up smoking the previous day but not worried about a thing, my whole focus was day one of the Camino which wasn’t going to start until I reached the mountains.

Wandering the decks of the ferry I sought out the arcade for some nostalgia, harking back to my first foreign trip to France as a squeaky voiced kid almost twenty years before, putting a pound coin into a copy of Super Mario Brothers just as they announced arrival at port was imminent. There were no arcade games, only two muslims praying with their mats on the bare red carpet as the sun went down behind us. I went for a beer instead and people- watched, like the groups of school kids noisily exploring and showing off to one another or families nervously anticipating the start of their holidays.

Bordeaux was busy, grubby and the street was dug up in front of the station so approach was made more difficult. I’d met a couple of Dutch girls who had gotten off the Night bus from Lilles, saw them a few times as we all got our bearings, tickets, drinks and snacks. Met a couple from Canada who spoke mostly French, Gilles and Helene. Five fellow pilgrims waiting for their connection. I suddenly realised what I’d let myself in for and became nervous for the first time, seeing other people getting ready for the same journey made it real somehow.

The train to St Jean was similar to going to Hogwarts, rock walls either side where the line has been blasted through the mountains, conductor who gets off and blows a whistle uselessly at every empty platform, no-one is going in this direction but Pilgrims and people going home from further afield, apart from the odd teenager visiting mates all the locals have got cars and nice ones at that, horses, bicycles or their feet to get around on. Looking out, the rivers were wild and very cold looking and it all reminded me of the Alps, I half expected to see a herd of goats followed by a shepherd boy at any second.

Seemed a bit like walking through any country village late on a Saturday afternoon, a few youths hanging around having a laugh, possibly at some of the funny looking foreigners getting off the train. I made for the shop and immediately stocked up on chocolate, fruit and nuts having plenty of rolls left from the dozen or so Id made up at home, hoping to make Spain before having to buy too many provisions. I kinda followed the crowd although I glanced at a map to get an idea of the area I was headed for. Got to the entrance to the Village proper by climbing up a very old looking stone staircase and onto the narrow cobbled streets that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a period drama if it weren’t for all of the signs advertising Pilgrim menus or Internet Access.

Parting company with the two Dutch girls who I’d had a conversation with on the train, they’d walked to St Jean before and already had their Pilgrim Credencials, ready to start the Camino Frances from where they’d left off, they’d considered bringing their rock climbing boots in case they came across any cliffs worth exploring in their spare time. I couldn’t help thinking that only two weeks training might not have been enough, especially as I’d given my self days off in-between long hikes to recover from the sore shoulders and aching joints and blisters, but what the hey I’d be doing the hardest day of the whole Camino tomorrow.

The Ladies in the Accueil Saint Jacques Office were very nice and helpfully showed me to their Pilgrim Refuge up the street and introduced me to Jeannine. There were photos and a news clipping of ‘The Mother of the Pilgrims’ as she was known. Grumpy looking but a total sweetheart, I couldn’t have wished for a nicer place to stay for my first night. I wandered up to the Citadel to eat a couple of rolls and some fruit, looking out onto the mountains surrounding me, wondering quite what I had let myself in for. Having had so little sleep in the last two days I did a bit of washing and then got into bed at 7:00 ish, waking up in the early hours but going back to sleep until seven the next morning. It was going to be a long day, eight hours minimum and taking up to 12 hours to cross from France into Spain, reaching Roncesvalles well before nightfall was a top priority as the days still draw in this early in the spring.

I ate a simple breakfast of bread and butter with Jam and an apple with Tea or Coffee leaving before 7:30, it felt a bit like walking home from a night out that has lasted until the next morning, the sleepy village deserted apart from the odd dog giving me a start as I wandered past, seeing several other Pilgrims starting their journeys and wondering why everyone else was walking so much faster than me. I walked slowly but didn’t ever stop for long, just to grab something from my bag and eat on the run or to sip from my water bottle whilst still on the move. As the day wore on I became used to the sight of Vultures circling overhead, of other walkers being overtaken as they were stopping for long breaks and kept going over in my mind that I should ease myself into the walking over the next few days not do 25K a day as my knees were killing me already.

As a passenger in a car I would have been decidedly nervous being driven in the mountains but on foot it didn’t seem to be a problem, I felt more in control than ever before. Lizards everywhere, I’d hear a rustle and if I was lucky spot a little gecko making for cover. Where there was still snow it was actually more like ice and over a metre deep in places. The trail wasn’t easy to follow in the highest most difficult area, with the least signs and it was only the fact that the majority of the frozen footprints all went in the direction of a steep slope, following the line of a barbed wire fence that ran across it on whose lower side was pine forests. I had a conversation with a fellow pilgrim about this and continued until I met two hikers coming from the opposite direction, where the path was invisible, only animal tracks in the heather and a general way to go obvious from where I had been and the position of the sun.


Espana No? Pointing, I asked of them, after my question about the Camino de Santiago had gone unanswered or not understood. Si was the reply to my relief…

The downhills are already hurting so I’m having to stop but I know I’m not a massive distance from my first stop and I’m not in the mountain anymore, more cars on the road and people everywhere, fewer of them are pilgrims, just people out for a Sunday walk with the dog. One of whom I struck up a conversation with in French, Spanish and English. It became clear that this woman was from Pamplona but knowing about the Camino her offer of a lift into Roncevalles was more of a simple kindness offered to someone who looked like collapse rather than a serious suggestion. I refused of course but my feet didn’t speak to me for six weeks afterwards because of this.

I got to Roncesvalles Abbey by 3:30 ish so made the whole trip in under seven and a half hours including a stop to dip my feet in a freezing cold stream 30 minutes before, meeting Claudia for the first time to speak to, I must have looked very odd. By the time the Refugio office was opened there was quite a queue. 24 beds in a room the size of three football goals and one shower with no light. The woman I had met on the mountain freaked out and decided to book into the hotel round the corner, I hoped for her sake she’d relax about the cramptness of the beds, or theft of her stuff and get into the spirit soon, otherwise her Camino was going to be pretty miserable, although I have to admit as an introduction to Albergues it was quite a sparse and overcrowded one for the first night. Met Gilles and Helene from Canada again who mainly spoke French so our conversations were sparse too but friendly.

I went to the Pilgrim Mass in the Abbey Church and it was quite an introduction, the four older priests singing really got to me. This set the tone for my Camino and I’m so glad that I attended.



Going for the Pilgrims menu in the bar / restaurant around the corner and ending up on a table of Germans and Austrians (little did I know then that I should have learnt German as well as Spanish and French as part of my preparations). The woman from the mountain, Claudia who’d spotted my foot dipping and a few others who had all become fast friends because of the common language. I regretted not being five minutes later so I could have joined Gilles and Helene but I’d already gotten adopted as one of the gang and it was fun to meet some Germans without ridiculous moustaches and tiny pants like the ones I’d seen on package holidays before. My plan was always to walk alone during the day so I wasn’t worried about getting too attached to one group or another yet.

The next morning was strange as cyclists always get up first and they were moving around nice and early which prompted me to grab my stuff. I’d gotten into a routine for several reasons already of packing my bag the night before, leaving just the stuff I needed for the following day out. That way I wouldn’t make too much noise, and could carry my stuff outside the room with little effort to finish getting ready where I wouldn’t disturb anyone else. That was fine for me but everyone else seemed to like having a torch in their mouth or strapped to their head, pointing it wildy in all directions whilst simultaneously rustling loudly in plastic bags… I should have realised that this was the way of things to come rather than gradually getting more and more annoyed by it.