The Camino Francés day-by-day (three years ago)

[jungleboy]

Tomorrow marks three years to the day since @Wendy Werneth and I started our first camino, the Francés, from SJPdP. I posted a photo and a sentence or two each day on Facebook while we were walking and I thought it might be fun, given the current circumstances, to repost these here each day and relive the journey over the next 39 days as though it were a live camino.

Wish us luck and let’s hope Wendy doesn’t get plantar fasciitis on Day 1!

 

[jungleboy]

Camino de Santiago, Day 1. After a hike of 24.5km, including a climb through the Pyrenees to 1429m and a non-existent international border crossing, we eventually made it to Spain and the village of Roncesvalles. This is supposed to be the hardest day on the entire Camino Francés, so it should be easy-peasy from now on!

(2020 note: I’ll put the photos inside spoilers to make the page load more quickly and reduce scrolling.)

Spoiler: Day 1

 

[jungleboy]

Camino de Santiago, Day 2. After a 6am wake-up song by the Dutch volunteers at the pilgrims' hostel, our hike began with an early-morning stroll through this witches' forest, where nine people were burned at the stake during the Inquisition. That set the tone for the rest of our day, which was another 24km but largely flat and forested.

Spoiler: Day 2

 

[jungleboy]

Camino de Santiago, Day 3. After a short-ish 21km hike, we arrived early this afternoon at the only place on the Camino Francés that I had already been to: Pamplona, which I once visited for the running of the bulls as a two-and-a-half-week traveller at age 21 in July 2001. Today, at over 30 degrees at 6pm (springtime!), local kids cool off by splashing around in a fountain next to the Cathedral.

Spoiler: Day 3

(2020 edit: I notice that I called it a ‘hike’ on each of the first three days. I guess it took me a few days to understand that the camino is not exactly a hike!)

 

[jungleboy]

Camino de Santiago, Day 4. As we walk away from the Pyrenees into the heart of Navarra, the landscape is changing around us. The forests and grazing areas of the first three days are now gone, replaced by crop fields. Here, a lone pilgrim ahead of us walks through a golden wheat field.

Spoiler: Day 4

 

[jungleboy]

Camino de Santiago, Day 5. The trail itself takes many forms, from main roads to village streets to dirt tracks and everything in between. Today we walked on another type of trail, centuries older than the camino itself: a secondary Roman road that once went from Gaul to Hispania.

Spoiler: Day 5

 

[David Tallan]

Camino de Santiago, Day 5. The trail itself takes many forms, from main roads to village streets to dirt tracks and everything in between. Today we walked on another type of trail, centuries older than the camino itself: a secondary Roman road that once went from Gaul to Hispania.

Spoiler: Day 5

View attachment 75872

My poor feet still remember those roads years later. I'm sure in Roman times they must have had some sort of additional covering. Otherwise, no legions that marched along them would have been in any shape to fight when they arrived at their destination.

 

[jungleboy]

My poor feet still remember those roads years later. I'm sure in Roman times they must have had some sort of additional covering. Otherwise, no legions that marched along them would have been in any shape to fight when they arrived at their destination.

The surface of the road would have been a lot smoother in Roman times, that’s for sure!

 

[jungleboy]

Camino de Santiago, Day 6. Today was the first rainy day of the Camino, and we walked in constant drizzle for a couple of hours and light drizzle for a couple more. But every cloud has a silver lining, and the way to warm a pilgrim's heart at 8am on a rainy day is by having a magic wine fountain.

Spoiler: Day 6

 

[jungleboy]

Camino de Santiago, Day 7. Village churches are often closed when we pass them on the trail, and, if not, we're often too tired to fully appreciate them. Today we rose later and walked more slowly, which helped on both counts. One of the highlights of the day was this small and beautiful 12th century sandstone church, octagonal in shape and Romanesque in style with some Mudejar elements as well (Muslim-influenced architecture in Christian lands in Spain). The dome ceiling is decorated in a wonderful style that originated in Jaca, a town in Aragón that we visited last year.

Spoiler: Day 7

 

[jungleboy]

Camino de Santiago, Day 8. On our 10th wedding anniversary, we took it easy and walked only 9km this morning. Along the way, we crossed from Navarra into La Rioja, so we thought it might be a good idea to try some of the local produce...

Spoiler: Day 8