They say the first day's Camino is tough - well what an understatement - but it was awesome.
St Jean Pied de Port is at 157 metres above sea level - we had to climb to over 1400 metres to get across the Pyrenees, before dropping down to about 950 at Roncesvalles to stay the night in the former monastery there. At this point I have to convey the achievement here because we climbed to OVER 1400 metres on foot - Ben Nevis, Britain's highest mountain is ONLY 1345 metres.
It was a long hard slog and took us over 9 hours (with some breaks) and all but the last couple of hours were up hill. Once the early morning cloud had burnt off it was also fairly hot. The scenery was amazing, some of the peaks in the distance still had snow on them.
There were cows with cowbells and sheep with bells too but for me the highlight was the large number of birds of prey soaring on the thermals overhead. We saw one catch lunch and when their shadow passed over, you realised just how massive these things are. A quick check on the internet revealed that they were most probably Griffon Vultures with a 2.5 metre wingspan! Huge!
Roland - Charlemagne's son - remember him from the statue in Bremen? - he came this way too. There is a fountain/water point on the French/Spanish boarder named after him and in the monastery complex in Roncesvalles a crypt where legend has it he died. Can't give you more information than that because on arrival at the monastery I couldn't be bothered with anything else other than a cool shower and a comfy bed. Just as well part of the complex is a (really nice) hotel!
One word of advice to anyone planning this walk - Pay the €8 to have a taxi carry your luggage for you. It's far too hard to carry your rucksack too - although many do!
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