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Pilgrimage through the Voie Nive Bidassoa: A Winter Adventure
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[QUOTE="Aurigny, post: 1093738, member: 64839"] [FONT=times new roman]Closing thoughts:- * The VNB is, as it were, a "service" Camino. It has no specific identity of its own, nor any particular spiritual significance beyond being one of a large number of routes used by pilgrims over the centuries to reach SdC. Its existence is defined by being the end-point of one set of pilgrimage trails – the Vézelay, the Route de Tours, the Piémont from Carcassone and, for those not continuing on to Roncesvalles, the Podiensis – and the starting-point of another. While it passes through attractive and varied countryside, few people would feel the need to travel it in its own right. * On the other hand, it's more or less axiomatic that everybody who does walk it for the purpose of joining the Norte will by then have completed at least one long and strenuous route. The VNB's clientèle, therefore, can be assumed to be more experienced; accustomed to dealing with longer stages and fewer amenities; and probably physically fitter than the average. * For this cohort, in its current incarnation the route presents few insuperable challenges. With some effort, it's possible to figure out where to go nearly all the time. There's not a lot of infrastructure between starting and finishing points on each leg; adequate food and water will have to be acquired ahead of time. (This applies particularly to the Espelette-Ascain stage, which not only has nowhere to top up a water-bottle but not really anywhere to sit down, unless one is willing to venture off-trail.) But experienced pilgrims will know how to deal with that. Likewise, there's nothing like a [I]gîte d'étape[/I] or [I]albergue[/I]-equivalent network. Accommodation will have to be sought from rural hotels, [I]chambres d'hôte[/I], and the like. But again, the seasoned pilgrim will not be fazed by such a thing. * The time of year does matter. This time around, the winter has been unusually mild. Twelve months ago, the snow on the Pyrenees was so dazzingly white that I was cursing my failure to bring sunglasses, and I was weaving my way around patches of the stuff two days before reaching SJPP. This week, in contrast, I couldn't see a single snowflake even on the higher elevations. That was very convenient for me; if anything, there were times when I felt overdressed. In a more normal year, though, parts of the VNB are likely to be completely impassable if there's significant snow or ice on the ground. Under such conditions, as a case in point, I can't imagine anybody even being able to stand upright on the descent off Suhalmendi, far less being able to negotiate his or her way to the bottom. Other spots are nearly as potentially treacherous. * Likewise, this is, I think, a route that needs to be done in daylight. The only part that I walked after dark, a 15-km or so jaunt from beyond Bidarray to Espelette, coincidentally was among the few sections where such a thing was practical. Even so, I was probably off-piste for the last three or four kilometres of it. Other sections, due to the inconspicuousness (and occasional absence) of the waymarkers, would have been far more difficult to complete after dark. The chances of going astray are, in my view, unacceptably high. I'd rate them at about an even-money chance under such conditions. * Speaking of the waymarking, it's now extensive enough to be helpful over a very large proportion of the trail without ever being sufficiently comprehensive that one can navigate with sole reference to it. At a large number of ambiguous spots, one has to take one's best guess in the absence of any supporting evidence. For long stretches of several kilometres at a time there's no waymarking at all, either because the volunteers believe that there's no possibility of wandering off track (much of the D 349) or the correct direction is too obvious to require pointing out (the descent into Ascain). That said, sometimes the waymarkers are flat-out wrong. Half a kilometre before the Pas de Roland, for example, following one around a corner put me in somebody's front garden. It indicated a right turn when it was supposed to signal a left. Doing a reality check with these things is always necessary. * Despite its relatively short length (c. 80 km), it's quite physically demanding. The first section, to Bidarray, is reminiscent of the early Invierno in both terrain and elevation. The third, from Espelette to Ascain, took me by surprise. Although the summits are modest, the gradients are not. I worked as hard physically on that stage as I have on any comparable day along these various routes. None of it is impossible, but one should expect to be challenged. The VNB's reputation as a "low-level" option, in contradistinction to the formidable GR 10, does not mean that one will not be doing quite a lot of serious climbing and descending every day. * So far as staging is concerned, sensible people will make a four-day trip of it: Bidarray, Espelette, Ascain, and Hendaye. The unreasonably optimistic, like me, will do it in three. Complete maniacs will attempt it in two, although even for the obnoxiously fit it will, as I say, be necessary to wait for the summer days to become long enough that no part of the second 40-km stretch will require to be done in darkness. But all that said, I'd encourage anyone wishing to link up with the Norte to go ahead and walk it in its present incarnation, and to do so without any anxiety. A little advance planning is unquestionably required, but I believe it has now reached the stage of development where it need cause few qualms for the experienced pilgrim.[/FONT] [/QUOTE]
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