Hiking 3 days of the Camino, in November

Hiking 25 km every day for 30 days in a row, that’s the Camino de Santiago. It’s a pilgrimage where people hike for 30 days and stay in albergues/hostels along the way. On our trip to Europe, my mom and I decided in the 2 and a half weeks we had, we were going to hike the 3 first days of the Camino trail!

Before you start the trek, you have to check in at the Camino office to get your Camino passport, so that they can check you in. If you want you can take a shell, by donation to bring with you on the trek. People bring a shell along with them to the end of the trek (normally to Santiago de Compostela) and it symbolizes to the world that you are hiking the Camino trail. The shells are normally put on walking sticks.

Day 1: Saint Jean Pied de Port – Roncesvalles

The Hike

Day 1 is supposedly the hardest day because it is all uphill and I have to agree (well…out of the days I did). We started off in Saint Jean Pied de Port in France which is a small town near the border of Spain.

When I put my backpack on as we left the hostel we were staying at the past night, I realized it was way too heavy! Hiking the Camino, they recommend that your bag weighs 10% of your body weight! My bag was about 10 pounds too heavy! Ooops. By the time I got used to carrying my backpack we had gotten to the trail! Hiking was very peaceful. We weren’t allowed to walk on the mountain route because it was closed off for the winter, and they didn’t recommend we go on the riverside trail, so we hiked on the road.

The first few kilometres went by quick. We passed a bunch of little houses and farms. Soon we had gotten to the first little town along the way, which is where the border of Spain is. We kept hiking along the road on the border of France and Spain and came through a village. We had bought some crackers cheese and apples for the hike. 

After about 4 hours in, there was an opening to hike by the river. We were sick of walking on the road so we decided to go down that way. We walked to find ourselves in a small village. It was really pretty there, and we wanted to stop for lunch there but nothing was open.

When we were near the top it started to get snowy. We were warned hiking the camino in November about it being rainy, but we did not expect snow. The last hour of the hike was hard as the hill got steeper and kept going and going, but we made it eventually.

Rocesvalles

When we got to our albergue I was so cold and tired of walking. It was 3:30 and we hadn’t eaten lunch so we asked one of the ladies running the albergue and she said nothing was open except for their dinner at 7. So we snacked on our crackers, cheese, cheezies and some lettuce from yesterday’s dinner. Later on we discovered that there was a cafe open but the people running the albergue were just trying to get us to buy their dinner. Someone even told us, “don’t trust anyone on the Camino”. The albergue we were at in Roncesvalles was nice compared to what I had seen in the movies. It was 4 bunk beds in an area, then another section of them right beside. There were about 30 something people in the albergue that night.

Let me just say, if you’re ever in a hostel for the night bring earplugs! I had a terrible sleep. There were 3 people right near us who were snoring, someone in the section next to us left the light on and it was so hot in the place I was sweating without my sleeping bag on! I think this is normal for Hostels though, it should be expected when you’re sharing a room with a bunch of people.

Day 2: Roncesvalles to Zubiri Navarr

The Hike

The second hiking day was crazy! We started hiking at 8 in the snow. We assumed since we were hiking downhill, we’d get out of the snow soon but boy were we wrong!

It was snowy and slushy the whole way! We stopped at the nearest town and got a hot chocolate and tea. This time instead of taking the road, we continued on the path. It took us through a farm where horses were roaming around, then to a forest. We hiked through the snowy forest and had to climb around, under or over fallen trees. There was even an avalanche warning for that area the next day! We got to a few rivers we had to walk through…so cold! My feet would turn to ice when they touched the water. A lot of the trail was in full on slush. So the lesson here is, if you’re hiking the Camino trail in November, you have to be prepared for rain, snow and cold weather. We were not prepared!

But it was pretty adventurous and for the most part it was fun! This day there were a lot more restaurants spread out so we didn’t have to worry about packing lunch with us. It was very slippery and two times I bottomed out! I got stuck in a turtle position, laying on my backpack, not able to get up because it was so heavy!

Zubiri

We stayed in a hostel in Zubiri. The 60 person hostel was closed so the only one open was for 16 people. We were lucky enough to have come early, or else we would have had to hiked to the next town to get a place to sleep. Our clothes were really wet and we had to put them with everyone else’s, by the fireplace to dry. We hung out in the common room with all the other, wet Camino-ers. It was pretty cool getting to know the other hikers. One restaurant was open, that a couple of us went to for dinner. They only had one thing on the menu, which was a traditional Spanish tortilla and it turned out really good!

We met lots of people just from the first part of the hike that we played cards with, chatted with or ate dinner with. It’s crazy that everyone was from all different places around the world. We met someone from Venezuela, Bolivia, Germany, Holland, Italy, Spain, Korea and more! It was really interesting hearing everyone’s stories and I think I learned a lot by listening. Everyone is so happy to be hiking the Camino. They were so nice too! A bunch of people kept asking us if we were okay hiking in the snow with our runners. (Most of them had hikers and thought we were crazy for not having them too.) I can imagine what a great community these Camino hikers will become over 30 days!

Even though I was the only kid there I totally felt included.
It was awesome!

Day 3: Zubiri to Pamplona

Hiking to Pamplona was the easiest day of all 3, but it was also the most wet. We were cold the whole way, especially our hands. Even though the rain didn’t start until about 11. We stopped for a rest at a small coffee shop in Villava. When we were drinking hot chocolate, my mom pulled up her phone to look for a post office. There was one 4 minutes away. The next thing I knew we were putting our sleeping bags in a box and sending them home because we wouldn’t need them anymore. I was having total deja vu from when we were in Australia. 😛

We got to Pamplona at 2:30. It was the shortest day by far, only 6 hours with a 45 minute break!

The total amount of kilometres we hiked was 80! People have been asking how we feel after all that hiking. Well… here’s an explanation. An hour ago, we walked to dinner and I was limping because of the blisters and bruises on my feet. But we only did 3 days! Don’t get me wrong, I would totally do the whole Camino hike… but with a little more training in advance so my feet and I would be more prepared.