Loved my misty morning

So I knew that in theory today was going to be a tough day, but the reality of a tough day on the Camino definitely left the theory for dead. Seems this is not only a long walk, but a hard one as well – missed that in the fine print!

I started out skipping out of St Jean … humming, singing, whistling and even bopping out a bit of Pharrell Williams depending on the incline. Yep, you guessed it – feeling high on the happy scale. There was a bit of early morning mist, but it just added another layer to the scenery which, incidentally, is pretty damned gorgeous.

Not sure if it was the mist, but was really  struck by how quiet it was – I only saw one other person all morning (a friendly enough German chap who quite happily walked about 50m behind me for two hours)  and so all I heard was birdsong, gushing mountain streams and my occasional outburst of song (Pharrell now joined slightly incongruously by Tiffany as I  thought I was alone now)  I had been worried about descriptions of this route saying it followed a main road most of the way, but quite honestly that was all of an hour and I must have seen about six cars while I was on it.

Anyways, have smashed about 19km and am thinking I am quite possibly the world’s greatest Camino walker when I hit a sight saying 8.5km to go. What the sign failed to mention was that that 8.5km was pretty much vertical (well, about 30 degree in line by my reckoning) and was secretly designed to feel like 85km. Let’s just say that four hours later (yes, four hours!) after trudging through snow and an ever-thickening mist, a slightly more humble and infinitely more shattered version of the world’s greatest Camino walker hobbled into the monastery at Roncrsvalles.

Said Camino champion is now showered, changed and trying to recoup some semblance of humanity whilst sprawled across a top bunk in a 120 bed dorm.  All very clean, modern and civilised … though from the snores emanating from the afternoon nappers, am already glad I packed some earplugs.

So I made it through day one. 27.1km down. Not much to go then …