Pilgrims on the Way

Before leaving Roncesvalles, we stopped into the thirteenth century Royal Collegiate Church of Santa María (Real Colegiata de Santa María de Roncesvalles), which is where the Augustinian friars who live here worship as they have done for 800 years. Back in 2013, I had been privileged to be at their Pilgrims’ Mass, where three old friars chanted the psalms of […]

We arrived at the great monastery of Roncesvalles as the sun was just beginning to set. This was considerably later than had been our intention! The museum was closed, all of the lovely little medieval chapels were locked up for the night, and by the time we showered the evening Pilgrim’s Mass was already finished. At least we managed to […]

The second half of the Valcarlos route is pretty much nothing but highway through increasingly alpine forest. The slope and the trees do a good job of hiding the road ahead, but it’s switchback after switchback like some Sisyphusian nightmare. It didn’t help that it was hot and sunny. I think we all got sunburns. Towards the end, Penny and […]

Midway through the lower pass is the town of Valcarlos. This photo is taken from the edge of town, looking backwards into the valley we’ve just climbed out of. Weirdly, this was the easier part of the day. If we ever walk the Camino again along this route, I’d walk as far as Valcarlos and take a taxi from there […]

On that first day, we also met a young German named Matthias. While it was our first day walking, it wasn’t his: he started his Camino by walking out his front door in Köln, Germany more than a month before he met us. Most of his pilgrimage had been through France so far, and there are few pilgrim hostels (called […]

We crossed from France into Spain while walking through a town. Arneguy straddles the border, and this sign stands vaguely near the middle. Although it’s difficult to read from this angle, it welcomes you to “Reyno de Navarra” – the Kingdom of Navarra. For reference, the last native (Basque) king of Navarra was Sancho VII “el Fuerte”, who died in […]

We met Penny that first walking morning. She’s from Idaho, and she had apparently cut her long hair short the day before she flew to France. She was walking without a pack. She said that she had way too much stuff in it, and it was too heavy for her to carry. So instead, she had it sent ahead to […]

You see some interesting art along the Camino. This strange beauty was poking up through the top of an old fence-post. She’s only perhaps four or five inches tall, though she was undoubtedly taller before the silly thing lost her head. Date: 30 March 2016 Place: Route de Valcarlos (France)

The road out of Saint-Jean starts out relatively innocuously. It’s uphill, of course, but for a while it’s a gentle rise over narrow rural lanes, while larger hills on both sides cast long shadows over the valley. It was a beautiful day for it. Walking on paved roads is never my favourite, but I was buoyed along for much of […]

The Camino leaves Saint-Jean for the hilly French countryside of the Pyrenees. We left on the morning of the 30th of March and elected to walk the lower pass into Spain: the Valcarlos. Mostly, this was due to the fact that the upper pass, the Route Napoleon, was still closed by the Spanish authorities. Something about snow. In any case, […]