Day 1 - Burguette

St Jean to Burguette, 32 km

Awoke to a perfect day for cycling. Over breakfast had a chat with the Dutch owners, and they understood my Afrikaans, which was quite a nice boost for that first bit of homesickness. Then I fixed the last couple of things on my bike, and went across the road to get my credencial. The church office where you get this “passport” (without it you can’t sleep in the refugios along the way, and you need the refugios’ stamps in order to get your compostela in Santiago which shows that you’ve actually completed the pilgrimage) is right across the hostel, and the people were very helpful with the paperwork.

Then it was the last goodbyes to the hostel owners, and I was on my way.
There’s mainly two routes which you can follow from St Jean to Burguette. The straightforward way is to follow the main highway (N135) over the Ibaneta pass to Spain. But instead I decided to take the more scenic and historical “Napoleon’s pass” route over the Pyranees. It’s called this because the general marched his troops on this route on his way to conquer Spain some 200 years ago. And Hannibal did the same apparantly with his elephants way back in the dark Ages. Alas, a loaded mountain bike is not an elephant.

The climb up the mountain side was seriously steep. To get onto the right track as you leave the village is a bit confusing. At one intersection there’s a lot of small roads forking, but with the right notes I found the correct one and immediately started to climb. It was hot, there was no wind to cool you down and I was still feeling the weight of my bacon and eggs breakfast.

The first 6 km’s to Orisson on the D428 were tough. It’s a narrow tarred road with virtually no traffic, but it was very steep. If you stop to catch your breath, it’s tough to get pedalling again. You can’t get any momentum going. To overcome this, I tried to stop at a farmhouse’s driveway. That way you can cycle some metres sideways in the road and get your speed up before you hit the climb again.

From Orisson onwards it gets flatter though. The mountain has some lovely scenery, mainly high hills covered with green grass and dotted with sheep. As you cycle you can hear their bells clanging constantly. Beautiful. At a small statue of Mary I had some lunch, and then it was back up the road again. A bald Italian with some impeccable pink cycling wear, Ivan, joined me. We chatted a bit, but it was frustrating to try and cycle together. He flew down the hills, but on the incline I would catch him and leave him behind. I took my own pace, and enjoyed it more.

Near the top you turn right off the small tarmac road and follow a two wheel gravel track between a couple of boulders. It was too steep, so I had to push the bike. This would happen a couple of times the rest of the day, and I was getting worried if it would be the theme for the rest of the tour. When the track went through a poplar forest, the ground was wet and muddy and I had to try and push the bike all along the side of the road. Then I was through the forest and reached Roland’s fountain.

This is a famous stopping point on the route, and I took a water stop. There were also two guys with a loaded donkey at the fountain. It turned out that they were two brothers from Nice who were on a year’s tour of Spain. The donkey’s name was Stan, but I didn’t get their names.

The road got wider again, but this time it was covered with big pebble like rocks wich made the surface uneven and on the hills unridable. Luckily it didn’t go on for too long, because then I reached the top where a small sign says Col de Lepoeder. From here you can see all the way down into Spain and the village of Roncesvalles beneath you.

It’s a fairly steep descent on rough tarmac to Roncesvalles, and the road make a couple of switchbacks. Although you want to fly down, the route is very crowded with pilgrims walking to Roncesvalles. They often walk four aside, which covers the whole width of the road.

When I reached Roncesvalles, I try to check in at the refugio, but this one only accepts walking pilgrims. They advise me to try the youth hostel, but after a couple of loops throught the village I still couldn’t find it. Not bothered I decided to cycle a further 5 km’s onwards on the N135 to the bigger neighbour that’s Burguette. Burguette has a bigger choice of restaurants and shops as well as pensiones.

I booked into the Hostal Burguette (think I was the only one there the night), had a shower and went looking for a place to get a beer and dinner. A tough, exciting day, but I was also looking forward to bed.

Time on bike: 3:44

Average speed: 8,6 km/h