Orisson to Roncesvalles, 17.2km, 5.5 hours

We made it over the Cize Pass but it wasn’t too easy. It rained pretty much the entire day and sometimes the wind was howling. In fact, there is one small hut built for pilgrims stuck in a storm on the exposed side of the pass. As we approached it in the exposed area, suddenly the wind started blowing hard enough to knock us off balance. My umbrella (and Melanie)somehow survived until we got to the shelter 100m away. Even in the lee of the shelter, it took several minutes to close the umbrella. Then, of course, we fought our way through the 20 or so pilgrims standing cheek to jowl who were already there and reassessing their holiday plans. Our walking time today includes a half hour stay in the lovely “Hotel Izandorre Refugio” where we ate our picnic sandwich (a ham and cheese baguette), told jokes about leaving bad Booking.com reviews about the place (the hot tub was out of order, etc.). It was fun.

There are several dangerous bits built into this section of the Camino. If you have seen the movie “The Way”, you will know what I mean. The trail can be confusing to follow at times despite the efforts of the volunteers who mark it every year. In bad weather, like the think fog/cloud) we spent most of the time walking through, visibility can (and did) get down to about 30m at times. Some trails are along steep drop offs and others are over grass pastures where you have to just keep an eye out for grass that looks walked on. We didn’t here of or see any major issues today but one friend from dinner the night before, Robin, turned around at the 7km mark because she was getting close to hypothermia. She walked back to Orisson, caught a taxi to Saint-Jean and bought a coat and better rain gear. She then took a taxi to Roncesvalles where we met again. I think she just guaranteed 30 days of sunny hot days but she did the exact right thing, something many others would “brave through” and then get sick or injured.

We arrived at the massive albergue in Roncesvalles to complete confusion about 1:15pm. There were 50 or so pilgrims, dripping wet, shivering and looking glum. We assumed they were in a long queue to register but it looked more like a mass of people jammed in a small room. Where was the end of the queue? It turned out that the queue to register only had about 10 people in it. Everyone else was waiting until 2:00pm, when the hostal bed and bath areas would open. You should have seen the dash for the showers when the gates finally opened!

Roncesvalles is a pretty small town (population: 30 souls) but they deal with up to 200 pilgrims a day coming through. Other than the albergue, there are two hotels with restaurants and a church where we will likely go to 8:00pm mass. It’s my kind of mass though – in Spanish so I don’t have to pay attention and usually only about 20 minutes long. They have a special blessing of pilgrims after mass which is why we go. We need all the help we can get.

We also have a 7:00pm seating for the pilgrims dinner so I better go and make sure my tuxedo is pressed.

Peace y’all.