33+ km ~ about 47,000 steps
Song of the Day: Put One Foot in Front of the Other – Ether Park
The guide books, the people, they didn’t lie. I assumed they had over exaggerated this section being so hard. I’m used to hiking the White Mountains of New Hampshire. This would be fine. It’s not fine. It’s hard. But it’s completely gorgeous in a mountainous way I’ve never seen before.
We started early – around 6:15 – and were able to watch the sun come up over the mountains while fog prevailed down in the valleys. It’s probably one of the most gorgeous views I’ve ever seen. The going is tough, up steep inclines right on roads or the dirt beside roads, so not exactly mountain paths.
Maverick’s doing very well, he took to chasing butterflies any time I tried to stop us to have a rest. I even made sure to stop for a long break on a beautiful grassy knoll, but he spent the entire time running after the butterflies and ended up more tired than before we stopped. Go figure.
Unfortunately, we ran out of water. There aren’t exactly many water fonts along this section. There was one food truck, but as I had yet to get any euros out (I got in too late last night and set out too early this morning) I was money-less. A nice couple from France bought me a granola bar, water, and a banana. “The Camino provides” seems to be a true saying.
As we went on from there, we got continually tired. I had started carrying Maverick’s bag and worrying about him more and more. Maybe this was simply too much for him. Maybe I shouldn’t have chosen to do this journey with him after all.
After what seemed like forever, but was only 10 hours, we finally reached Roncesvalles and a wonderful little stream just before it. It took all of two minutes for Maverick to lose the one and only ball I had packed him down the rushing water…
The albergue here allowed me to shower for 3 euros, which an awesome girl I had met on the bus to St. Jean so kindly lent me. And then we pitched our tent right outside the church and promptly went to sleep, completely exhausted from our first day on El Camino de Santiago.