St Jean Pied- de-Port – Pamplona
79.1km, 6hrs 42mins, 2447m total climb
Sitting in the sun the evening before,
we were hoping for a day of sunshine or at least good weather for the
first day in Spain - but when we woke up it was grey and cloudy. The
rain clouds were hanging in the mountains behind the campsite,
waiting to move in. Not a very promising start.
We set of a bit later than usual hoping
that the weather would clear. We knew that we were going to cross the
border into Spain today, but we didn't expect it to happen only 8km
after we left St Jean-de-Port. We passed some randomly located large
shopping areas which we guessed were for duty-free reasons in the
river valley. Immediately after the border sign we started climbing
and it started raining. The road was winding up like a snake along
the mountain right next to the walking route and we shared some parts
of it with the walkers. It was all very scenic and we were glad to
see some real changes in the countryside. The climb was long and
similar but not as tough to what we have done in Switzerland. 900m to
the top. On the way up we passed quite a few other touring cyclists
(the first ones after the three French cyclists we met just after Le
Puy), but surprisingly they were all pushing the bikes up the hill.
To be fair they were all 25 years older minimum so fair play to them
for even pushing up. That must have taken ages to the top, the whole
climb was about 15km. It was a good climb for us though, we stopped
only a few times to drink something and the slight rain and cold
temperatures kept us from overheating.
Just as we neared the summit of the
pass at 1050m, we passed another group of cyclists. There was a
modern church (our first Spanish one!) at the top and we stopped for
to refuel. The other cyclists parked their bikes right next to us and
had a little competitive look at our bikes. We got chatting to them
and it turned out that they were two German blokes in their 50s from
the Bodensee region. They seemed very competitive, and were happy to
trade their statistics of how many kilometers and days they had been
going for.
The downhill was freezing, we were wet
at the top and even though we put on all the clothes we could, it was
impossible to keep our hands, feet or anything else warm in the
single-figure temperatures. We stopped after the first 200m drop
right next to a big white sign – 750km to Santiago!
We have to mention the colour of Johannas legs. She does like to brake a bit (need second set of pads soon!), and we have worked out that the brake dust from the pads seems to get attracted to her legs (the right one especially as that seems to be the wetter one). See the pics below! On a long downhill in the rain like today, the effect can be pretty impressive!
We were very cold and were thinking of
stopping at café in one of the villages on the way but nothing
seemed open and the more we dropped in altitude the temperature
seemed to rise and then eventually we were treated with a few little
100m climbs to warm us up again.
Originally we planned to go to a
campsite at Puente la Reina but it was closed, so we decided the
night before to stop in Pamplona instead and also have a day off
there. We arrived in Pamplona at around 4pm and before consulting
the GPS for accommodation we went straight to the Tourist information
and asked for the best place for out budget. They gave us two choices
and the first was a winner. A basic but nice hotel right in the
middle of a busy side street. Looking forward to exploring the
Estafeta tomorrow.
So far 7 countries! Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, France, Spain!
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| Black line between Spain and France |
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| Sporting the waterproof booties that weren't |
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| It's SOOOOO cold that it burns!! |
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| Old righty gets the worst of the brake dust.... |
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