18 April 2008

Today, we left for Roncesvalles early in the morning. It was a cloudy and rainy day, so we opted for the route via Valcarlos which goes around rather than directly over the mountain. The path went along the N135 highway for short distances, it went over hills, and into valleys, and all the time it rained. Mostly heavy rain, but sometimes a downpour. We even encountered a thunderstorm during which we were pelted with hail the size of large peas and winds enough to blow us off the trail.

The most difficult obstacle was the mud. At times we struggled through ankle deep mud for hundreds of feet. The only time the sun came out was when we were faced with a strech of uphill which served to wet us from the inside.

Finally when we had reached the limit of our endurance, we had to walk up a steep uphill for several hundred metres to the Col de Ibeñeta, the ancient pass through which the Roman armies led by Charlemagne passed. At the top we encountered a cold wind that froze our hands, so that operating a camera was painful. Our gloves were of no use, as they were wet.

It was far and above the most difficult thing that we had ever done. We heard later that day that two couples had to be rescued from the Napoleon route (the one that goes over the mountain) due to high winds and a snow storm. It was downhill from there to the monastry at Roncesvalles. By then we had been walking over nine hours! The albergue was ok, we were so tired and covered in mud it didn´t matter much.