Saint Jean Pied de Port to Roncesvalles, leaving in the afternoon

[henrythedog]

We really should have fitted you with a tracker. I spent a few hours virtually watching friends on the Berlin marathon on Sunday and I think you could have had quite an audience.

Good luck.

 

[K_Lynn]

@JonnyRosa Buen Camino! Have a wonderful time.

 

[CarolamS]

Good decision. I hope you get some nice views as you go. Thanks for provoking an excellent thread.

 

[Kathar1na]

Today, traveling by bus from Pamplona to SJPP, we passed through Roncesvalles. In Roncesvalles, it was raining and the fog was all over the mountain.

Hi again, @JonnyRosa, you made a sensible decision. The current weather isn't anything even close to severe, just dense cloud cover reaching low down in the atmosphere and some rain but there is not much point to walk where, imho, the main attraction are good views. It will be better when you start walking tomorrow.

I am a little puzzled that you wrote yesterday that you were very happy with the weather forecast and you only saw in Roncesvalles today that you weren't so happy. Today had been pretty predictable, see cloud cover and precipitation forecasts below. And it had been mentioned earlier in the thread that mountain weather is not identical with "small town in the valley weather" or with "city some 75 km away weather". Precise location details matter.

You are coming from the Sao Paulo region where, it seems, the lowest temperature during the year is some 14 ºC. When you leave SJPP tomorrow morning, it will be around 11 ºC and that's what it will feel like. By lunchtime it will be around 16 ºC in SJPP while you will be already further up at a higher altitude of some 1300-1400 m where the temperature will be around 9 ºC but it will feel more like 5 ºC or 4 ºC, especially when there is some wind. No body parts will freeze off but it will feel not so pleasant ... I think nippy is the word. I am sure you know how to dress appropriately.

Have a great walk and I am looking forward to reading your report!

 

[alexwalker]

Even though I was a little upset, I decided to spend the night in SJPP and leave for Roncesvalles tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow I'll tell you how the journey went and how I got there.

Good decision.

Good decisions are based on experience.
Experience is based on bad decisions.

Lots of experience on this forum...

Buen Camino!

 

[JabbaPapa]

Even though I was a little upset, I decided to spend the night in SJPP and leave for Roncesvalles tomorrow morning.

Great !!

30 years ago I was as fast a walker as you are today, and leaving SJPP after 11AM at the VERY latest was completely unreasonable.

Tomorrow OTOH you might have a good chance at getting some distance beyond Roncesvalles.

 

[JonnyRosa]

Hi again, @JonnyRosa, you made a sensible decision. The current weather isn't anything even close to severe, just dense cloud cover reaching low down in the atmosphere and some rain but there is not much point to walk where, imho, the main attraction are good views. It will be better when you start walking tomorrow.

I am a little puzzled that you wrote yesterday that you were very happy with the weather forecast and you only saw in Roncesvalles today that you weren't so happy. Today had been pretty predictable, see cloud cover and precipitation forecasts below. And it had been mentioned earlier in the thread that mountain weather is not identical with "small town in the valley weather" or with "city some 75 km away weather". Precise location details matter.

You are coming from the Sao Paulo region where, it seems, the lowest temperature during the year is some 14 ºC. When you leave SJPP tomorrow morning, it will be around 11 ºC and that's what it will feel like. By lunchtime it will be around 16 ºC in SJPP while you will be already further up at a higher altitude of some 1300-1400 m where the temperature will be around 9 ºC but it will feel more like 5 ºC or 4 ºC, especially when there is some wind. No body parts will freeze off but it will feel not so pleasant ... I think nippy is the word. I am sure you know how to dress appropriately.

Have a great walk and I am looking forward to reading your report!

View attachment 178453

Thanks Kathar1na,
When the bus passed through Roncesvalles, I noticed something that the weather forecast didn't show. The forecast was for a maximum of 5 mm of rain, and during my journey it rained much more than that, with a lot of wind and poor visibility, which could have been a problem at the end of the stretch, on the way down to Roncesvalles, because whether I was going on the asphalt or through the forest, the stretch to the finish line was through a forest. I'm writing this detail because it might be useful to someone.

 

[alexwalker]

You have travelled far today.

Enjoy your first (and last) French dinner tonight, get a good night's sleep, and start fresh and well-slept tomorrow morning. It will be a great day with no stress about darkness or invisible hurdles in the dark, and then a good Spanish dinner in Roncesvalles.

One point; When I walked, I took the way through the forests down to Roncesvalles: It was autumn, like now, and it was steep and incredibly slippery due to large amounts of wet, rotting leaves on the ground: I was falling several times. My advice is to follow the road the last part.

Edit: Thanks to the last post by @Kathar1na , we can see that you would have had a tough afternoon/evening if you had started today. Remember, this is the hardest day of the whole Camino Frances. Better save your efforts for the coming days. Many pilgrims have been broken and had to stop their Camino after day 1. Too bad.

Tomorrow, OTOH, looks clearly much better.

Visit the Pilgrims Office tomorrow morning, get your credencial and first stamp, and pay close attention to their weather advice. No stress.

Looking forward to your report tomorrow. From Roncesvalles...