Day 3 – Virge d’Baikorri to Roncesvalles

Walked today: 6.2 miles

Walked Camino 2019: 21.4 miles

It was 51 degrees and heavy fog when our driver picked us up at 7:30, but as we retraced yesterday’s steps via car, he explained in French that before we reached the Virge d’ Baikorri, the fog and clouds would be replaced by a beautiful, clear sky.

We’ll let you decide if he was correct:

The Virge d’Baikorri is at an elevation of around 3600 ft. That means we climbed over 3000 ft yesterday (Linda’s Fitbit rated it equal to 265 floors!)

Some scenes along the way to the top this morning:

This emergency shelter served us well in Sep 2012 in midst of cold, driving rain storm.

When we reached Col de Lepoeder this morning, the highest point on the Camino Frances at 4700 ft, we had climbed another 1100 ft! And immedately, we began the descent to Roncesvalles at 3100 ft. This was a drop of 1600 ft over a distance of 3km (1.8 miles)… about as steep downhill as the climb yesterday.

Switching from uphill to downhill in such a dramatic fashion tested our bodies and left us totally spent, when we arrived at Roncesvalles( pop. 30) shortly after noon.

We survived today’s walk which should make us stronger, if old sayings are true.

Today was a little strange for us. Our walking pace is about half of most pilgrims, consequently, there are normally hoards of pilgrims that pass us during our daily walk. But because today our starting point was in between normal starting points, we only saw 2 pilgrims during the entire 4 hour walk.

We’re staying in Hotel Roncesvalles(68€), also known as “Casa de Beneficiados”, a beautifully upgraded Children’s Hospital. This will be our 6th stay since 2012, since we’ve started or finished here because of its location.

Our room is very upscale and comfortable. We had our clothes washed and dried for 10€, a delicious local cuisine dinnerware, including Navarre wine for 10€ each and a relaxing afternoon and evening.