Orisson to Roncevalles

The morning came all to quickly in our king size abode after a fitful night of sleep listening to the pouring rain and thunder wondering what the next day would bring us. Packed up all of our stuff and headed into the main room for yet another breakfast of coffee in bowls (at least I know what to do with them) and toasted baguette slices and yogurt. Gotta love the French.

We greeted our newfound friends, bid them adieu and buen Camino and donned our Frog Togs (rain suits), hoisted the packs upon our backs and headed out into the bleak foggy morning energized by a strange sense of adventure for the day. As the rain poured down upon us, we continued our walk over the Pyrannes and meditated to the ever present clinking of the sheep and cow bells. It was very peaceful even though we couldn't see the magnificent views reputed to be seen from here.  As a matter of fact we couldn't see them for the rest of the day. We were drenched in the pouring  rain. Rain from the outside and from sweating on our ascent on the inside. I worried a little about my feet being soaking wet but really didn't know what to do about it so did nothing. We pressed on.

After a while we came upon a small trailer that was, in my perspective, in the middle of nowhere, with a man selling everything from boiled eggs to tampons. And the best was his homemade cheese! (Fromage). Ok I admit I know another French word. We didn't partake as we had purchased a salami baguette from the alburgue and were set for lunch.

I'm sorry to say that there are no pictures of the walk today because the ipad was wrapped in a plastic bag to keep it dry.  I got plenty on my camera but that will be for another time. The only wet casualty was my notebook, which is in pieces drying on the nightstand as we speak.

All in all we hiked over the mountains and down down down into Roncevalles, crossing over into Spain, around 24 km (I'm speaking in kilometers now) 13 or so miles.  The feeling of how ancient this walk is was almost palpable and compelling us forward.

We entered the ancient Camino town and into the courtyard of the monastery that would be our refuge for the night. Immediately we met up with our friend Jim from Australia, and others we had bonded with from our night at Orisson, congratulated each other for making the reputed toughest part of the Camino physically,  and headed off to check into the Alburgue.  We stood in line, they stamped our pilgrim passports, took our money of 10 euros each and assigned us a bed.  We had yet to really have the dorm experience and were pleasantly surprised to find out we had been assigned to a cubicle with two bunks in this ultra modern, state of the art pilgrim palace! John on top and me on the bottom. (Enough from the peanut gallery and you know who you are!) We were bunked with Ron and Elenor from Canada, a hearty couple (they walked all the way from St. Jean!) about our age. We found out we could  have our soaking laundry done for about 3 euros. Washed, dryed, and folded by the wonderfully accommodating  hospiteleros. Yes thank you.

We went to the bar/cafe with friends for a well deserved beer, where we needed to reserve for the pilgrims menu, which was another dinner of pork, French fries and a wonderful soup that I think may have been asparagus.

Off to bed early, lights out at ten, we slept fitfully once again listening to the loud toilet flushing all night. Oh, and all this after spending some frustrating time trying to get the damn blog out wondering if someone is trying to tell me something!  I'm getting better at learning the ipad so that should end soon.

I'm a little sore from all the steep downhill but still excited for what the future of this Camino holds for us.