Camino Francés Day 2 – Roncevalles to Zubiri

I remembered the earplugs this time and used my snood as an eye mask. The only bathroom for two dorms was accessed through our dorm. Throughout the night the door to the hallway was in constant use, flooding light over us weary pilgrims.

Just before 7, everyone was up packing their bags. All the activity spurred me to do the same. My clothes hadn’t fully dried, so a shoved it in the drier while I wrote in my journal.

Around 8 I set off with a fellow walker from Poland called Sandra. The morning air was crisp so I couldn’t wait to get moving.

After crossing the road outside the monestry, the sign to Santiago showing 790km away; reminding us of the task ahead.

From here it followed the road into a quaint village called Burguete. We stopped at a supermarket where I brought some fruit. The path merged with the main the road, before turning off on to a farm track and across a ford.

By this time the sun had burnt off the light cloud cover, giving views of the mountains I crossed the day before. The path passed some cows grazing on the verges before heading into more woodlands.

The path went up a short steep incline before descending into Espinal, where the church bell rang to announce our arrival. We called into a bar for a break at which point two fellow pilgrims who shared my dorm last night joined us; Dirk from Belgium and Markus from Paris.

They stopped for a drink before we all set off as a group. The trail was mainly in woodlands until we entered a little hamlet called Lintzoain where we had our sights set on a bar for dinner.

Unfortunately it was closed, so we sat outside in the shade and ate some of our snacks. While we were munching away, a bloke with three laden donkeys in tow, a dog and a small procession of goats walked past us!

From here it was a steep 75m rise before the 6km decent into Zubiri. Where we found room at an albergue. After a quick beer at a local bar we returned to the albergue for a pilgrims meal.