Walking the Camino de Santiago Day 1
Our Day 1 of walking the Camino de Santiago the French Way was slightly different than we had hoped as it started in Bayonne France because we missed our train from Paris to Saint Jean de Pied de Port, so this was the closest we could get to Saint-Jean.
The bus arrived at St Jean left from Bayonne at 7:45. We arrived at 9:13 am and our first job was to find the pilgrim office to get or credentials (passport). Initially, when we got off the bus we all stood around looking for a Yellow arrow but there was none here, so we just followed the crowd up the hill toward the town. We were full of excitement and it was like stepping into the film
It was a 5-minute walk up some lovely little french streets up to the top of a hill to get to the Pilgrim Office. When we reached the Pilgrim Office, we had to fill in numerous different forms, stating our name, country etc, we spent around 10 minutes doing this. The man that helping us to fill in the forms also gave us a quick rundown on the trail ahead of us, well as best he could because he had no English but we still sat there smiling and nodding or heads even though neither of us knew what he was saying.
It was now 9:30 am and it was much later than we had hoped to start the walk to Roncesvalles. We knew that we were behind the main crowd and that we could be potentially walking in the blistering hot sun but we decided to continue and get our Camino started. The Pilgrim office told us to allow 7 hours to walk to Roncesvalles from Saint-Jean.
Walking the Camino de Santiago Day 1
Saint Jean de Pied de Port sits at an elevation of 170m above sea level and the highest point on the route to Roncesvalles across the Pyrenees is 1450m. We knew we were going to have an uphill climb today but we felt we were better prepared than anyone because we just finished the Tour du Mont Blanc 3 days previous to this. This stage is described in all the guide books as the toughest stage of the whole Camino and is a baptism of fire.
Starting our Day 1 hike of the Camino de Santiago
Our Camino started by walking out of the Pilgrim Office and down through St-Jean, stopping and buying local bread and lovely meats and Cheese for our lunch. We were conscious that there was going to be very few shops to buy food and water on the hike to Roncesvalles, so we were stocking up on supplies.
After we had finished our grocery shop, we started walking out of the town and we met our first Camino signpost beside the town walls, which gave us our times and distances to Orrison and Roncesvalles on the Napoleon route.
The walk out of St Jean began with a gentle climb on some nice small roads. We walked on the road for 1 hour 30 minutes until we reached a trail that leads us onto a mud track. At the start of the trail, there is a signpost that informs walkers of the weather conditions and if the path is open or closed due to poor weather.
The distance from Saint Jean de pied de port to Orisson is 7km. The took us 2 hours 10 minnutes to walk this section
From the start of this trail, it took us about 40 minutes to reach Orisson Hostel. We went in and got our compulsory Coffee, cake and a stamp for our Passports. As we reached this hostel later than most of the other Pilgrims we saw that a lot of people had stopped here for the night. It was a little bit early in the day for us to stop, plus there is over 16 km to Roncesvalles from here.
After our brief break, we kept walking toward Roncesvalles. According to the signpost just after Orisson hostel, we had a 4-hour walk to Roncesvalles and our bed for the night.
This stage of the walk consisted of more small road walking but for us, we couldn’t see much of the amazing Pyrenees scenery because a blanket of thick fog dropped over the mountain just as we were crossing it.
We continued walking on the small roads for about 1 hour but we decided to stop for a bit of lunch hoping that the fog would start to lift. We sat down on the side of the road and ate our French meat and baguettes from Saint-Jean. As we sat eating our lunch we could hear wild horses in the distance and after a few minutes, one even came close enough for us to get a photo.
As the fog was so bad, we were being guided by every arrow and signpost that we could find. Our main mission was to find the next arrow or a landmark to help fix our location on the map. We eventually went off the road and back onto a trail. We walk around the base of Leizar Atheka and are now up to 1275m in elevation. We now walk over the Spanish and French border and into Navarra.
It took us 5 hours 30 minutes to reach the Spanish border including to breaks for coffee and lunch
After walking into Spain we got a small break from uphill walking and walked downhill through a beech forest on a lovely wide path. Unfortunately, we both knew that there were days high point was still to be climbed so we didn’t get too excited.
We reached the highest point of walking the Camino de Santiago on day 1 at 4 pm. Col de Lepoeder sits at an altitude of 1450m and thankfully the fog started to lift as we started to reach the high point. We eventually got a small glimpse of the landscape of the Pyrenees and Navarra/Basque.
We sat down at the monument and had one of Gina’s favourite snacks, Nutella and Baguette. We relaxed here for 10 minutes and soaked in the amazing views, we also let the feet breath after a tough climb. The signpost from here says that it will take us 1 hour and 15 minutes to reach Roncesvalles. The route starts to descend pretty quickly through a forest, it took a couple of minutes for our knees to get used to going downhill.
Walking the Camino de Santiago into Roncesvalles
We arrived at our hostel at 5 pm and walked over 25km in 7 hours 30 minutes. The signpost at the start of the walk from Saint Jean had a walking time of 6 hours 35 minutes, so we were pretty happy with our time. When we arrived at the hostel there were loads of spare beds but we did pass many other Pilgrims which were struggling on the mountain with sore feet and injuries.
The hostel in Roncesvalles sleeps 183 people and it’s really clean and well laid out and modern. When we got to the hostel we were asked if we wanted dinner to be included in the cost. We decided not to wait because it wasn’t going to be ready until 8 pm. Later that evening, we were speaking to the two women that we shared our bed cubicle with and they said that the food was very slow and not that nice. We got our dinner across the road in the restaurant called la posada for €12 each and the night stay cost us €10 each.
Time and distance from Saint Jean de Pied de Port to Roncesvalles
- We left Saint-Jean at 9:40 am and reached Orisson at 11:50 am
- We left Orisson at 12:25 and reached the Spanish border at 14:50
- We left the border crossing at 14:50 and reached Col de Lepoeder at 16:00
- We left Col de Lepoeder at 16:12 and reached Roncesvalles at 17:00
Advice for day 1 of the Camino Spain
- Take it easy on this stage. If you need to stop in Orisson, do that. It’s not a race and more than likely the people you see walking really hard will end up with an injury, blisters or are probably seasoned walkers. We met many people hobbling along with sore feet on the second half of the day because they got blisters early on in the day.
- Try to stop blisters before they form. If you feel a hot spot forming stop immediately and change your socks or put on a different pair of boots/sandals.
- Hiking boots do not suit everyone, bring sandals or trail shoes as a backup. I even saw someone complete the whole Camino in Nike trainers and they said they didn’t get any blisters on the whole Camino.
- Pack up on supplies in St Jean. Always buy lunch when you get the opportunity.
- Enjoy the first day, don’t rush it. There is no rush today if you are a slow walker and you are afraid of not getting a bed then reserve your accommodation in the Alburge.