Vitalie Ciobanu

Data Analyst as a Service

Tag: Caminata

  • Stage 2. Roncesvalles – Llarasoaña

    Stage 2. Roncesvalles – Llarasoaña

    Well, this day was much nicer than the previous one. Much more wild and beautiful.

    Roncesvalles

    Straight from the start we enter a nice path through a forest. It’s kind of short but energizing to start the day with.

    Overall, the entire day passed through nice areas, with many nice views and trails. It was mostly going down today, not lots of uphill some short and steep parts but very manageable. I’ve enjoyed today’s walk.

    We planned to finish in Zubiri, after about 22km. But we reached this city relatively quickly, by lunch time, and since there was no stores or much things to do here, we decided to go to the next bigger city after lunch, Larrasoaña.

    We had lunch in a bar-restaurant. They ran out of falafel the day before so all they could offer was some salad, potato chips, olives and a big sandwich with avocado and tomato. Not a lot but ok to replenish the energy for 5 more km.

    After having lunch we entered a small shop and bought almond milk and biscuits for tomorrow’s breakfast and chickpeas for tonight’s dinner then we moved on.

    We stopped at Pension San Nicolas, a private one, because we wanted to do the laundry and cook. Here we were told they can make us something for dinner and picnic as breakfast as well.

    Laundry: 4 euros. Dryer: 3 euros.

    Other than this, the pension is nice, clean, and bit cold. There is a fully functional kitchen, although no accessories (towels, paper etc). The hosts are nice!

    The boots hace to be left outside. Under a roof, but outside. So in the morning I expect them to be almost frozen 🙂

    Roncesvalles
    Distance to Santiago de Compostela
    Tomorrow’s plan, short route

  • Stage 1. Saint Jean Pied de Port – Roncesvalles

    Stage 1. Saint Jean Pied de Port – Roncesvalles

    First day of the walk. As mentioned in the previous post, today was about the “backup” route, or winter route. Veeeerryyy boring, long distances on asphalt and sharing the road with cars. The entire distance is mostly going up, with the last kilometers having a steeper incline. Only the last 1.5 km is all going down 🙂

    So, today, exactly 15km of asphalt before entering the first trail. 1km+ of beautiful forest trail that ends in the same road with cars. Luckily today was Sunday and there were no trucks.

    Afterwards, shortly after passing the 18th km, we enter an amazing forest with beautiful views, trails, river bridges, small cascades with mostly positive, steep, elevation until the 22nd km, where we get off the forest for few hundred meters to enter another trail. Warning, the water from the spring that you can find here is not treated. Meaning you can drink it, but it’s on your own risk.

    From here, we’re following the same trail, that peaks at 1050m, until the hostel in Roncesvalles.

    The hostel is nice and looked after by volunteers. The kitchen is well equipped. Lots of tables to eat and space to prepare something to eat and then wash everything. We didn’t go to look for lunch options, since there are only 3 places nearby so vegan options are quite limited.

    After about 7km there is a commercial area with few stores, including a supermarket. The prices are very low because the store is treated as duty free, since it’s at the border between France and Spain.

    We got a can of beans, a can of artichokes and some cooked rice. With the half of the onion soup left from yesterday, we made a quick soup to which we added the beans and the rice. It ended up being more solid dish that we enjoyed a lot.

    For dinner went to Hotel Roncesvalles to see what vegan options they have. They were kind enough to make us a quinoa dish with vegetables out of the menu. With a vegetable soup as a starter, it wasn’t that bad. 2 vegetable dishes 🤦🏻‍♂️

    Start of the St. James Way
    Nice house 🙂
    Some drawings on an old building
    Pilgrim monument
    Another monument to pilgrims
    Today’s track and elevation
    Mostly all day like this
    And this, less cars though
    And this
    The first forest trail
    A nice bridge crossing the river
    The last hundred meters of uphill
    A panorama from the highest point of the route
    Map and distance left from here to Santiago
    Soup make in progress
    Our vegan lunch today

  • Montserrat to Sant Jeroni hiking

    Montserrat to Sant Jeroni hiking

    Managed to squeeze in a short and easy hike yesterday afternoon 🙂

  • Viladrau-Matagalls hiking

    Viladrau-Matagalls hiking

    This was kind of an unplanned hike. I decided to postpone the Santiago Way for later. Instead, I’ll join a group of people and we’ll do the Mont Blanc circular route, which is about 160 km and 7k total ascent.

    For this purpose I bought some new shoes from Salewa and wanted to test them. If you’re curious, I liked them 🙂

    Also, this was my first activity with my new Forerunner 955.

  • La Papiola – Bonastre – L’Albeda – Salomo hiking

    La Papiola – Bonastre – L’Albeda – Salomo hiking
    First time with hiking sticks 🙂
    Albinyana
    Ermita de Sant Antoni de Padua
    January weather 🙁
    Bonastre
    Pic de la Mola
    Salomo
    Salomo
    Puig de Sant Antoni