We left our hostel relatively late at 7:30, and began an ambitious pace fueled by our excitement. We hit giant hills immediately and they would continue all day, yet continued on for about 1 and a half till a break for morning prayer. During its duration, just about all 20 or so people who we passed started to pass us. The break having finished, the continued at a more moderate pace though we still passed many, especially those who stopped a while at a small hostel in the mountains where we only grabbed a sandwhich to go.
With 9kms under our belt, we proceeded to tackle the remaining 18. The mountain views were beautiful and kept getting better, as our mountain pass route wound around the summits with the next always higher than the last, the path was filled with look outs over the valleys or random herds of horses, cows, sheep, and goats. We met a number of other pilgrims (from London, a lot from Texas, Sweeden, more French, and Spain) we chatted with a few, walking a bit of the way together.
The hiking ended with a knee killing decent, where in about 40 mins we lost about half of the elevation that we had gained in 6 hours. The day is drawing to a close in the albergue of Roncesvalles, valley of thorns, close to the spot where Charlemagne lost his rear guard, lead by Roland, while returning to France. The town is tiny, 30 residents, and completely sustained by pilgrims and tourists. The albergue here is a pilgrim’s paradise, with good accommodations and services, and it is very clean! It used to be run by a monestary which is still standing as a museum.
On the spiritual side of things I have a few disjointed tidbits at the end of a long day.
Brother, high spirits, community, time for prayer
Good to hear from you, Father Awesome. While on a marain league pilgrimage, I met one of the seminarians from Savanah who goes to the Mount. I forget his name, though. What hiking trip have you not been on? Thanks for the advice and know of our prayers!
Fr Jason Adams of St George Trek memory here. Praying for you all. I did this hike back in 2009. Be patient with yourselves and don’t feel that you have to race and hike over 25-30km a day! You will see the people who burnout and blister fast. Take advantage of friendly donation only hostels run by religious groups too. When you are really sleepy, pay the little extra to get a bunk bed in a private room. buen camino.