Day 2: Roncesvalles – Larrasoaña: 17 miles
Sunday, September 11, 2016: Departed: 6:30am, Arrived 2:30pm
Kim and I wisely decided to bypass the breakfast assembly line at Albergue Colegiata, and to go ahead and start day 2 of the Camino at 6:30am. Walkable twilight starts around 7am, so we walked the first several kilometers with our headlamps. To our good fortune, we came upon a deli serving good breakfasts in the next town of Burguete. Upon leaving the town, we enjoyed the sunrise over the cattle pastures and surrounding mountainsides surrounding the town in a valley plain.
The rest of the day, while scenic in both small villages and hilly landscapes, were not of particular note beyond what we had already passed, such that we took few pictures and just kept moving.
We stopped for a leisurely lunch in Zubiri, which is actually the town that our guide book listed as staying at. But we had already determined that we wanted to utilize the day to go a little further to the next town Larrrasoaña and stay there. I think it was a good decision, at least for us. We walked up to the Albergue San Nicolas and secured 2 beds in dorm quad, but just an hour later, the place was full, and they were turning the other peregrinos (pilgrims) away. Seems a small local festival in town had closed down the municipal albergue where most pilgrims would have stayed. Glad we got a spot when we did, and glad that after dinner Kim and I checked out the little festival and danced in the street to a small town DJ.
Our albergue turned out to be a nice night of international fellowship, the kind I had been hoping for. Unlike our previous albergue that was so huge, it was almost pointless to try and talk to other pilgrims, this one was small and quaint, making it natural to strike up a conversation with the handful of other pilgrims. We initially did a load of laundry and dried our clothes on the line in the hot sun, and then decided to buy some sausage and pasta at the local market to cook our own food, which we did in the hostel’s kitchen. But before and after our meal, there was a lot of mingling and talking with the other travelers – in particular some couples from Oregon, Australia and the UK.
The past 3 nights, I’ve gotten inconsistent sleep. Here’s hoping tonight will be more solid, and with another 10pm curfew, we should be able to “sleep in” and still be on our way by sunrise.