The Camino de Santiago

On my way, on the long walk across Spain.

I am five days into the walk and there is so much to tell. The first day I walked through the Pyrenees mountains from Saint Jean Pied de Port in France to Roncesvalles in Spain. Did I say ´through´? I meant over. There are two ways over the Pyrenees - the high road and the low road. The high road is closed due to snow. Snow as in ´can´t see the trail markers´snow. The week before I arrived and British man died of hyperthermia after attempting the high road. I was very intimidated (read: terrified) of the thought of walking the high road, and this before I heard about the pilgrim´s death.

You can imagine my delight when I learned I´d have to take the low road, through the Spanish town of Valcarlos, a quick and easy 30 km / 18 miles over the mountains. I´d planned to walk only to Valcarlos on the first day, which was 14 kms, but I arrived there at 10:30am and couldn´t quite picture myself sitting there for the day. So off I went. I´d imagined the next part to be more of the same, except that this is where the over part came in. The last 5 km were completely uphill, and by then I was pooped.

Up, up, up, with no Roncesvalles in sight. This is not typical; usually you can see these towns coming for miles, and you suffer knowing it´s not getting any closer. But this town did not appear until the last 100 yards. And then it gloriously appeared, albergue and food in sight, and my tired feet and sweating body headed straight for the hot shower in the Dutch-run albergue.

Happy, happy, happy. That was Day 1 on the Camino de Santiago.