Day 5 - Belorado to Burgos

Start as usual; wake up with the other pilgrims. The biggest difference this time was the fact that the Swiss organisation that runs the Refugio we were staying at offered breakfast to those interested. We were. Nevertheless we were still pushed out of the door at 8h00 (from then to 12h00 they clean the place and then open up again for a new flow of incoming pilgrims). By the way, the place we stayed at was a small building linked to the church of Belorado (a very small village) and was previously used as the village theatre. Nowadays the only acts on stage are the one of snoring pilgrims and the croaking of the storcks on the church roofs. We all have earplugs with us, started to enjoy using them, and consequently do not wake up that often during the night.
Start as usual; first we (Richard that is) repaired a new flat tyre. This time it was Richard´s though, not Jan´s.
Today there was no rain. Not a drop. Lots of clouds threatening us and not very hot (18 degrees). No rain, but as much wind as you want. Head-on. The whole day long, the typical westerly wind you would find in the Flemish or Dutch polders. Both during the climbing and the down-hill it slowed us down dramtically.
Every 2 hours we stop for a fill-up on calories. Usually at the typical local bars in the villages we pass through. The bars survive on pilgrims like us (and some truck-drivers for the lucky ones). We live on tortilla (the spanish mixture of patotoes and omelette), or any other local sandwiches on offer. Today Jan had the pleasure of finding his childhood favourite of ´blood-sausage´(Black Pudding).
The usual climbs, long and steep. Rocky surfaces, then mud at the end of each down-hill which saps our energy and kills our speed. It´s hard to keep the front wheel on the ground. It´s hard not to let the rear wheel slip away. Did we mention the wind already? The wind that drowns out all other sounds. Trucks from behind, a few of the better trained mountain-bikers. And the same goes for the other pilgrims, the walking kind. The road is small and we cannot simply pass them at full speed. We have to approach them carefully, not to scare them. We whistle or call "ola" or something similar. It´s their camino too! Buen Camino for all!
We did reach our goal for today: Burgos. The last 15 km were the least interesting we have seen till now (honestly they were bloody awful!). Entering the imense industrial area, entering the outskirts of the city (it took at least half an hour), not to mention the traffic lights (internationally the same, always red). But we did visit the cathedral! The biggest, most amazing, impressive, huge, rich cathedral we´ve seen for a long time (maybe only Rome can beat it). And then we went for our usual stroll around the city, had a bite at some tapas bars and sipped some of the local wine, Rioja.
Day5: 51km, 4 hours. Tomorrow we enter the plateau called the "meseta".

Day 4 - Navaretta to Belorado

Spain is known for holidays, olive trees, heate waves, sunburn, gazpacho...
Forget it. Today it rained as if we were in the middle of Belgium, Holland or England. Really heavy rain, pouring down on us. Cats and dogs. A plouat in draci. Pijpestelen. You got the picture. Sam and Richard put on their special ´ponchos´,which made them look like clowns in military colours (we´ll post a picture later on). Jan put on is rain jacket, which has the special feature that it is not water proof. But we kept going, we had to. Whenever you meet a pilgrim (walking or cycling) you salute them with the famous expression, ´Buen Camino´, or the easier, ´Ola!´. When it is raining there is little less enthusiasm among pilgrims, though Sam and Richard did raise some big smiles with their nice ´bad weather´outfits.
The start of the day was rain-free but included 2 more flat tyres (for Jan and Richard: Sam seems to have the specific skill of avoiding any sharp stones, branches or broken glass) . We learned our lesson and bought 3 extra inner tubes for the days to come.
We are again sleeping in a dormitory for pilgrims. Last night we paid 3 Euros a person for our beds. In the one we are staying at now they don´t even ask for anything except a donation at the discretion of the guest. Try to open a hotel for pilgrims in these villages... a lost cause.
The scenery today? No surprises. Hills. Lots of them. Tomorrow evening we hope to reach Burgos. After that we have 200 kilometres of ´Meseta´, flat land, waiting for us. Will we be nice for a change. Our bodies will also welcome it. Main areas of concern are our backsides (Sam especially, probably has to do with him not cycling over any sharp stones, don´t ask us how or why), thighs (all of us, an effect of climbing mountains), and every other muscle in the body (even some we didnt´t realise we had).
We sleep at Belorado this evening. Again we made a bit more progress than hoped for. But tomorrow we will loose some of this momentum by sleeping in Burgos (in order to get there we have some 30 kilometres of climbing waiting for us, don´t tell our thighs).
Day 4: 65 kilometres, 5.5 hours of cycling (the hours of cycling actually refer to cycling, it does not take into consideration any/many breaks we take during the day)

Day 3 - Estella to Navaretta

Pilgrims wake up early. Understandably, they prefer to walk in the cooler morning hours, and most refugios have a curfew, which means you are in bed anyway at 22h00 at the latest and the lights really go out at that hour in the dormitory. The one we slept in last night had 30 bunkbeds, there is no way you can escape the rule in such an environment. Even if everyone tries not to make too much noise when waking up and preparing for the day, you wake up anyway. The most typical noise is that of plastic bags being put into backpacks.
So we had an early start, except for the fact that when loading our bikes we saw Jan´s bike had a flat tyre. Richard is our handy guy for bicycle repair (sic) and he got a new tyre setup in less than 15 minutes!
The landscape we cycled through today contained rolling hills with lots of wheat fields with a lot of poppy flowers to make it even more spectacular. Today we entered the Rioja region, so we also cycled through kilometres of vineyards. We even had the pleasure of finding the pilgrim´s fountain which does not only supply water but also has a wine tap for all pilgrims interested in a wine break. Good quality according to our professional winetaster, Sam.
To further challenge our capacity for repairing bicycles, Jan´s gear system (again him) broke down. You need gears on this Camino. Richard and Sam put all their knowledge together, opened the gear changing system (Richard calls it a "satellite" for some unknown reason) and after working on it for half an hour they succeeded in getting it back into working order.
If yesterday saw us cycling less distance than we hoped for, today was the other way round. We went on for an additional 15 km after the assumed finish. Good for our confidence (even if it does not help us with the small problems that are beginning to crop up in terms of sore muscles and posteriors)
Day 3 : 65 kilometres, 5 hours of cycling (it does not seem a fast ride but we promise you we are trying our best - this is not Holland after all).

Day 2 - Pamplona to Estella

Earlier start than on day 1; we are used to putting the bags on the bicycles. First a sandwich-breakfast in a local bar (the nice manager of our pension did not offer any breakfast; we were happy he didn´t).

The drive out of Pamplona starts with a big climb, a real big climb, an impossibly big climb, the sort of climb where you see people walking next to their bikes. For the first time we met with a lot of other pilgrims on the road, our late start on day 1 meant we were somehow alone on the road. Not on this 2nd day, we met/cycled past at least some 100 walking pilgrims during the day (conduct rules make that cyclists do only pass pilgrims where the road allows for it; means we were cycling at the same rythm as pilgrims walking in front of us from time to time; each time you pass another pilgrim you great each other with a ´Buen Camino´).

A big first climb, followed by an easier downhill rest of the day, we believed. Try again. The whole day was full of incredible up and down paths, some of them feasible, others impossible; all of them in an amazing environment, passing through fantastic old villages, really beautiful (one of the sites we saw was the church at Eunate where in the past they used to bury pilgrims who died on route (today we believe they send the bodies to the guy who runs the pension where we stayed yesterday in Pamplona).

The plan was to cycle to Los Arcos and to stay the night there in the refugio run by Flemish volunteers. We did not get that far. We are now staying in Estella, a nice provincial town (some 22 kilometres before Los Arcos). We booked into a local refugio, our first night surrounded by some 30 other pilgrims (we are the only cyclists). Tomorrow we have to leave the refugio by 8h30 (an early start is ahead of us). And tonight we have to be back at the refugio by 22h00 because then the lights go out... (we will have to come back another time to see the world famous Estella nightlife).

Day 2: 54 kilometres, 4,5 hours of cycling (or walking next to our bikes).

Day 1 - Roncesvalles to Pamplona

We got off to a late start due to the fact that we did take breakfast (something most pilgrims don´t do - and most refugios don´t even offer it). Above that, we had to mount all our equipment/bags onto the bicycles. Took us more time than expected and we realised that even if we did pack light, we had difficulty in fitting everything into the ´pannier´bags supllied to us.
Before heading off, we first visited the official pilgrimage office in Roncesvalles where we obtained the pilgrims´credencial (the booklet in which we will get stamps from each stop on our trip). Finally we hit the road at around 11h00; the book told us we had an easy downhill till Pamplona ahead of us but after about 1 hour we realised that there is a big difference between theory and reality. We tried following the original pilgrims path but that prooved to hard in certain sections (at one stage some walking pilgrims we passed a few minutes before caught up with us as we were carrying our bikes down the rocky slope.
We finally arrived in Pamplona at around 17h30 and booked ourselves in a one star pension run by someone who looked like he had 5 corpes hidden in his freezer. The price he asked for the room made us turn a blind eye to this minor issue (anyway we could not comment much, he was another fine example of someone who speaks spanish as if it were his mother tongue).
Dinner included several beers (yes, Oliver, we are keeping count) and the usual selection of tapas.
Day 1: 48 kilometres, 3,5 hours of cycling (breaks not included).

Roncesvalles - ready to go

Just a quick note; we had a nice flight to Madrid, a perfect drive to Pamplona, and a friendly taxi ride to Roncesvalles (we drove along the road that we have to take tomorrow and realised that this really is a hilly environment). We are now sitting in the Hostel La Posada in Roncesvalles. On arrival we were more than happy to find that our 3 bicycles had been delivered as requested (Didier of Bikeiberia lived up to our expectations) and that we had a room reserved (thanks Cristina). Tomorrow we will put the pannier bags on the bikes and cycle to Pamplona.
The weather does not look very promising. We had thunderstorms on our way here and as we write it is raining outside.
Roncesvalles is full of pilgrims, some of them looking fresh (such as us), others really suffer from the walk they had to make over the mountains in order to get from St Jean Pied de Port to Roncevalles (1.200 meter of climbing), we are glad we decided to start our trip from here (and not from France).
A last comment: everyone speaks Spanish here; very fluently.