Rhon and I will be leaving Melbourne for Paris on September 8. Pat and Jenny have already left - they are going to have a couple of weeks in The Isle of Man where Jenny's folks live before we all meet in Paris on September 11th.
On the 12th we will be catching a train to St-Jean-Pied-de-Port via Bayonne. We leave at 12.30pm and arrive at 7.30pm.
To travel the full Camino Frances you start at either St-Jean on the French side of the border or Roncesvalles on the Spanish side. Both are considered to be traditional starting points. If you start at St Jean the first 20odd kms is straight up a 'hill' to Roncesvalles - about 1200 mtrs high and many consider this the toughest day of all.When we started our planning we decided this was too big a climb for us on our first day and decided to get a taxi to Roncesvalles instead of riding.But we are spending the first night in St-Jean and will collect our Camino Passports at the pilgrim's office. (The passport is stamped everywhere you stay and is the proof that you need to gain your Compostela in Santiago).
We are spending a full day in Roncesvalles to get familiar with the bikes, do some last minute preparations and get all fired up to start riding on Sunday, September 15th.
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