Camino #3: Saint Jean Pied de Port to Roncesvalles & The Pilgrim’s Dilemma (Get Sick? Plan B!) 🇫🇷🇪🇸

Camino #3: Saint Jean Pied de Port to Roncesvalles & The Pilgrim’s Dilemma (Get Sick? Plan B!) 🇫🇷🇪🇸

hi Buen Camino I’m going to tell you all about our first day of hiking the Camino it was an amazing day and H something I will remember for the rest of my life anyways we hiked 25.1 kilometers from St John petport to ronas it’s a okay everyone says it’s the most difficult stage of the hike and I will say that is probably true there is a lot of hills and really the first 20 kilometers are all uphill um varying degrees some of it is is pretty gentle but some of it is really steep the steepest parts were probably I mean right out of the gate as soon as you leave St John petport you are going uphill steep but the part just before orison that is where it gets really steep it’s also steep after orison but I think the part before is a little harder now orison that’s a great place to stop it’s about 2 hours into your hike and they have one place there it has a lot of amenities that you’ll want to know about though it has a bathroom which is great watch out the door did not lock so people are getting walked in on but there’s there’s one place to go to the bathroom there they also have water fill up your water there because after that there is only one opportunity to get water again and that’s later on the trail um also they have sandwiches we bought sandwiches we bought two sandwiches for lunch and we got those for $9 for both of those 950 it’s uh great Spot Great View and definitely take advantage of that place to rest the hill continues up until about where you get to the Statue of the Virgin once you get to there there’s a little more steep uphill but then it levels out until you reach the peak and you start down when you start down you’ll see there are two options one trail goes to the right and it’s about 4 kilometers and one goes to the left and it’s about 3 km the people at the Camino office told us do not take the trail to the left which is shorter because it is dangerous take the trail to the right that’s what we did it’s a very steep Trail um that may have been the most difficult part because after a long day of hiking our legs were not wanting to do all of that downhill but then you get into runville and ronas and once you get there that is where you will most people stay we stayed at it’s a it’s an old Monastery and it’s massive it’s pretty much the only building in town there’s probably eight buildings and you cannot miss it as soon as you get into town you are showing up there um our two beds we got two dorm beds and we paid 14 each it was a room for four PE well a cubicle for four people it was comfortable and quiet and the other people in there were nice um the place is run so well there are people everywhere who are volunteers and they know what they are doing they know how to help you and they are happy and willing to help you it’s a really fantastic place to stay and then we had the dinner that they served there and that dinner was €13 each and it was a really enjoyable dinner it’s at a restaurant actually down the street from the alberg so today I want to talk about a topic that I did not think I was going to be talking about this soon in the series I want to talk about quitting the Camino now I’m not quitting that’s nothing like that but it is something that I think is worth talking about because before you go and I don’t know about you but before we went I had this very romanticized idea of what the cin was going to be like and how I was going to feel and what it was going to you know how the day was going to go and then you get on it and it’s it’s it lives up to the promise but it’s also a little bit different so I had a really rough day yesterday I the night in ronas I couldn’t sleep at all now I I’m someone who has insomnia that comes randomly and sometimes it’s really bad and at first that’s what I thought it was it was just insomnia it wasn’t particularly noisy I was actually surprised uh how quiet it was in the big dorm room but I couldn’t sleep and I was up and I was up and I was up I got maybe an hour’s sleep the whole night so I was pretty miserable by the morning I was kind of achy and I wanted some idren but you know it’s day one so we didn’t have our system yet and I didn’t know where the ibuprofen was it was was it in my bag was it in David’s bag was it already out in a little container somewhere I had no idea where it was and everybody was asleep and I didn’t want to get up and start rummaging around and you know wake everybody up so I just laid there in my own little misery not sleeping and I just thought that’s what it was at first and then as we got up in the morning uh one of the cool things at Ron ofas is at 6:00 a.m. they start playing music so they wake everybody up it’s this beautiful you know monks singing HMS kind of music uh but it wakes everybody up and gets everybody out the door so once that started happening you know we were getting up and then I threw up and so I was like okay so this isn’t just me being achy uh something else is going on and I got really sick really fast and just felt awful and I had to make a decision and it’s like day one one I feel terrible am I going to be able to walk you know 25 km I think it was like 14 miles to the next town in zubiri and I wasn’t sure and I it wasn’t something I thought I was going to have to deal with that early but you know we had talked to someone the day before that had also gotten sick and was throwing up along the on the trail and I was just like I I part of me thinks I should jump in a cab and just go to the next place but then when I get there we can’t check in until 2 and I’m just going to be what am I going to do and like there were so many questions that I hadn’t thought about because I didn’t think I was going to have to and so I was really sick but I decided this is just the nurse in me probably was a little bit stupid I decided to just keep walking and see how it went so David was really good to me all day um the beginning part of the day was better after I kind of threw up right before we left I felt a little bit better but as the day went on I was basically nauseated the entire walk I was so exhausted I was literally falling asleep while I was walking that has never happened to me before um so we were taking lots of breaks where I was just kind of sitting for a little while I did catch a few little naps here and there uh just to try and get through but easily it was the hardest day physically I think I have ever had in my life it was challenging and along the way I’m thinking should I try and find a cab somewhere I I don’t know how I would have done it I we could have figured it out if I had really needed to but I pushed through and got through I did throw up again along the way um it was just dry heaving at that point because I wasn’t able to eat anything there was nothing in my body the only thing that really saved me I think is that being a nurse I knew I needed to not it hydrated I couldn’t drink a lot of water cuz it would make me feel sick but I was just sipping water most of the day and I think that’s the only thing that helped me make it through cuz I was in bad shape and then once we arrived to Ziri I was able to lay down and really by the time I I started I I was just sleeping I was so tired from you know not sleeping the night before I slept most of the evening I got up then I had I did have a little bit to eat just for dinner um we had a sandwich I had a couple bites of that and some yogurt and then I slept the whole night and then by the next morning I felt fine again so it just one of those bugs that you know hit me really hard and then passed and uh I’m very glad that it passed because if it had lasted longer but here’s what I want to talk about is that this could happen to you and you want to start to get it in your head what am I going to do when this happens to me so before we left I would watched other people’s uh travel channels and you know watching their their Vlogs and there were people who didn’t finish for different reasons they got injured they got sick they ran out of shenen days and every time someone had to quit early you know I just kind of felt bad for them but I thought oh that’s never going to happen to me but I’ll tell you once you’re on the trail and you get sick it’s amazing how quickly your brain shifts into problem solving mode and instead of being this you know beautiful I’m going to have the perfect experience and everything is going to be amazing and nothing bad’s going to happen and I’m going to you know make it to the end no matter what you just flip into that mode where it’s like okay let’s be realistic here and what do I need to do to get through um and am I okay with you know taxiing from one town to the next town and missing that section from walking you know to complete the Camino all you really need to do is the last 100 CL it’s like 62 miles and you get credit for it so if I miss a stage in the middle of the French way does it mean I didn’t do the Camino no it I still did the Camino and so you just have to decide for you it’s going to be different for everybody of what you think is important to you and what you want to do um do you have extra days that where you can just stop and take a rest day you know if you’re feeling sick and not move forward we had already booked a couple of nights accommodations but we could have lost that and just gave it up it’s just money and tried to stay longer some of the alberg won’t let you stay more than one night but I think they make exceptions if you’re sick um we didn’t ask we just kind of pushed through it ended up working out for us and now I feel fine and so I like I’m not worried about it again but it could happen again you never know when you’re going to get food poisoning or when there’s going to be a bug that goes around the dorms like I don’t know where I picked it up we met the girl who had it the day before you know maybe I got it from there maybe I touched a doorknob somewhere you just never know and so you can’t prevent it because sometimes things just happen so this is just an encouragement to get it in your head one don’t be too rigid with your thinking that stuff like that’s not going to happen to you it’s okay to consider uh and just be prepared because it could happen to you just like it happened to me our story wasn’t over yet one can tell what’s coming [Music] next the journey is not ours to control the journey is not our to contr I’m very glad to report I feel fine but there it is that’s our experience I hope you find that helpful I’ll see you next time bu Camino running at the speed of light trying to seize everything I desire but as strange as it may sound when I’m still things seem to come around [Music]

Buen Camino! We’re tackling one of the toughest stages of the Camino Frances – the hike from Saint Jean Pied de Port, France to Roncesvalles, Spain! With an elevation gain of nearly 4,500 feet, this section is a challenge, but the breathtaking scenery makes it all worthwhile. We’ll tell you where we stayed, what we ate, and how much it all cost.

But what happens when the Camino throws you a curveball? We’re diving deep into a topic no pilgrim wants to face – getting sick on the trail.

This happened to us, and we had to make some tough decisions. We weren’t prepared for the possibility of illness, and scrambling for a Plan B wasn’t ideal.

Learn from our experience! Before you hit the trail, consider these essential questions:

What happens if I get sick or injured?
Am I prepared to shorten stages or adjust my itinerary?
Do I have a backup plan if I can’t complete the entire Camino?

Having a Plan B can make a world of difference if you face the pilgrim’s worst nightmare.

Join us as we hike this challenging stage, share stunning views, and discuss the importance of flexible planning on the Camino.

Buen Camino! Be prepared, and let’s conquer the trail (together!)

00:00 – Practical details
03:45 – Camino Talk (Sick Man Walking)

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