Today was day two of an absolutely grueling 2 day sequence up and over the Pyrenees mountains. I had forgotten from 2024 how absolutely difficult this is. Today was only 12 miles, but it was steadily uphill for the first 9 miles, and then a sharp steep downhill for the last 3 miles.

I walked at various time today with people that I met yesterday, which was nice. We kind of kept leap frogging each other, walking and encouraging one another. I’m pretty sure that I was the last one of our little acquaintance group to get into Roncesvalles today. I’m completely OK with that. It’ll take me as long as it takes me.

There were several beautiful landmarks along the way of today’s path. There’s a beautiful statue of the Virgin Mary called La Virgen de Orisson that’s a very famous landmark  and a place for people to stop and pray.  There’s also a food truck about 7 km in, and it’s an excellent spot to stop and get a cold drink and a snack to sustain you for the road ahead. A few kilometers down the road, there’s a fountain called the Fount de Roland, and it’s located precisely at the border crossing between France and Spain. It’s a great place to stop and visit with fellow travelers and get a cool drink of fresh mountain springwater.

I was thinking about how these first two days on the Camino go, and I’ve realized that it would be really nice to have these two difficult days occur later in the journey when one has already built up a fair amount of endurance. However, that’s not the way it works. Our bodies learn the endurance by simply just doing it. Much like life. Human beings are not automatically equipped to deal with heartbreak, loss, grief, profound disappointment. We learn how to cope with those things in a healthy way through no other way, except for just doing it. In this way, the Camino mirrors life.