A misty morning in St. Jean, which cleared quickly as we made our way up the the foothills towards the Pyrenees. We had been tracking these magnificent mountains from almost 120 kms away in Miramont-Sensacq on our last walk 4 years ago and the views didn’t disappoint!
It was just fantastic to finally get started with some familiar sights, smells and sounds of life in rural Basque country – the red and white GR signs, rotting hay bales and the sound of bells. Far fewer walkers along the trail than we had feared, though Orisson, where we had an early lunch, was quite busy.
The road started gently enough – rolling hills – before turning sharply upwards, first to Huntto (~600m), then Orisson (~800m) and finally Vierge d’Orisson at just over 1100m. The climb of 900m is easily the most we have done on any camino and over only 11km definitely the steepest sustained ascent!
We get picked from the Vierge by the kind people at Express Bourricot, taken back to SJPDP and dropped back here tomorrow, when we will climb a further 350m to this peak (there are three more before we each Santiago!) before dropping down to Roncevalles and the rolling hills of the Basque country.
A great day’s walk at 11.7km – check out the route here!
steelewalking 
Well done Dave and Al on finally getting going. Sounds like a tough start with all the ascending! Scenery looks fantastic and not too hot ?
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