After the big climb and the grueling decent of yesterday, Roncesvalles greeted all the Pilgrims with a cold rain. The Hospitaleros greeted us with a nice wake up song that basically said “get up and get out!”, they were serious too.
After a quick breakfast of bread, butter, jam and coffee, Leo and I headed out into the rain, something we will grow to miss and soon. At Burguete I got coffee and Leo found a small Tienda which he treated like Costco. You have to understand, Burguete barely qualifies as a wide spot in the road. It took 10 minutes to get him out, we had 22 Km to cover.
The rain and cold stayed with us but the mountain forest was beautiful. We talked a little but mostly walked in silence, difficult for Leo.
At some point, we were off the road and on paths in the woods that have been used for hundreds of years by countless Pilgrims. Last years leaves we thick as they turned to mulch and combined with the mud, it was treacherous as we continued our descent out of the Pyrenees.
Another friend, Donna from Boston joined in and we separated for a while, by now the sun was coming out and it was warmer.
Hunger is a constant on the Camino as you’re burning calories at a high and constant pace but eating small amounts, when you can. Also, green veggies are rare, eat them when they’re available.
After descending for a couple hours, Vizkarret appeared at a perfect time. The sun was out, its right on the river and, the Bar Juan looked good. It’s places like this that you reconnect with the people you’ve met which is one of the best parts of the Camino for me.
With a full belly, more water and aching knees we started the worst of the descent down saw-tooth rocks that stopped just outside of Zubiri, my home for the night.
My thought from the day before about there always being another hill was still with me. Why had this become so present? Was I thinking about it in only the physical sense or was there more to it? At this point, it was just there.
Zubiri is is a small town with a couple of Bars and restaurants. In Spain, a bar isn’t what most Americans think it is. They certainly sell beer and wine thank you), but the also serve food and may be quite elaborate or just a tiny space. Because of the size, you are constantly seeing new and old faces.
Two of of these faces belonged to a couple recent TAMU grads. One was Madison and the other, I just called Doc as she starts Med School this summer. These young women are very smart and we (Leo, Donna and me) enjoyed our visit with them.
Sore from exertion, knees screaming and bone tired, I was in my sleeping bag by 8:00 and out 30 minutes later.
It’s almost as if you live the 1 day life vignettes every day.