Day 1 and we are sill speaking! Even though Katie has tiny American legs and Bea has long Dutch legs that tackle mountains like a cake walk.
These views were our motivation. That and the fact that we were homeless of we gave up.
We took a break before a hill we thought we had to climb. Turns out it wasn't part of the route and we celebrated. 20 minutes later we were looking down as that "steep" road from our steeper path.
Katie wants to get married int their garden.
In Spain!!!
The river!
One of the many waterfalls we saw!/walked through.
Skeleton and slug.
There is hope.
The beginning. Was such cake.
The rain was pouring down but our spirits were high and the beautiful scenery encouraged us to keep going. Katie took a lot of pictures on her iPhone as she had a waterproof cover for it. (Thanks mom!) Bea unfortunately did not pack her camera charger as last minute she decided that it was too heavy to treck up the mountain. She also did not check if the battery was full (which it wasnt) and therefore her camera was rendered useless.
The first half of the way went by quickly and we reached the town of Valcarlos in no time. We felt so great we kept walking which in hindsight was our first mistake. Suddenly our spirits dampened as the rain poured down heavier and the route became a steep uphill. We were soaked to the bone and only halfway.
The next stretch was along a dangerous winding mountainous UPHILL road with cars speeding by in the mist. Here we risked our lives for St James. We hope he appreciates this.
The route then turned into a lovely track along the river with plenty of waterfalls, we remembered why we signed up for this adventure after all. However After a while the track became a mudslide which incidentally in Spanish is Barro.
We took the lower route as the higher route was too dangerous (it is so cold here it was snowing in the mountains). In hindsight this was a stroke of luck as the lower route was much tougher than expected. It broke out-of-shape Katie.
We finally reached the summit with a map of the vista we should have seen. Katie collapsed on it out of brokenness. We looked up and saw Spanish clouds the look just like the ones in both America and Ireland. We got a bit lost for about 5 minutes as it was spitting down rain with high winds. We eventually found the right way and continued on and soon saw a sign that indicated Roncevalles was only 15 min away. We finally saw a building that looked like a castle. We planned to walk right past it to find a hostel with a hot shower, but as luck would have it, it was the hostel! It is run by the Dutch and therefore wonderfully clean and orderly. The floors are sectioned off into little compartments of 2 bunk beds. It had hot showers which we abused until we could feel all of our limbs again. It also has a laundry service! 2euro70 and they will wash and dry your clothes. Obviously, as out clothes were soaked with borro, we took advantage of this!
Then we hung out for a bit in the common room and chatted with and American for Arizona and an Australian. Then we went to a restaurant and ate a 3 -course meal (soup, trout & fries/pasta, yogurt and a bottle of wine!) We sat with a lovely Irish couple that was there for 12 days to do part of the hike.
All in all it has been a beautiful and challenging day. Crossing our fingers for some sun soon!
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