For a while I wanted to record and post about one of Bracknell´s greatest attractions for cycling, the Mountain Biking trails in the Swinley Forest. I took a young friend to the trails yesterday, but I made too many stops and I wanted to get a continuous footage of the ride / trails.
The Green and the Blue Trail begins and ends here.
Just as my luck would be as I arrived in the Swinley Forest it started to rain. If you read / watched the post and video about my Bath Two Tunnels ride under rain you must think, this guy loves to ride bicycles when is raining… No, I don´t! But I live in the UK and you can´t escape it here. It´s a beautiful country, but rains a lot. I don´t think I need to write what already exists available in the web, so I did some copy and paste from some of these resources. All credit goes to the authors and the links are available. From the Bracknell Forest Council Page: “Swinley Forest is an area of the Windsor Estate between Bracknell and Bagshot to the west of the A322. Owned and managed by The Crown Estate, it comprises 1000 hectares of mainly Scots Pine woodland. Three cycle trails in line with the International Mountain Bike Association industry standards are available for you to enjoy in Swinley Forest. The green, blue and (*) red cycle routes all begin from The Look Out Discovery Centre and provide a range of challenges for families cycling for fun to highly skilled riders. Further information about the cycle trails is provided by The Crown Estate on the Royal Landscape website. Please visit The Look Out Discovery Centre’s outdoor activities page for information about how to get there, about car parking charges and bike hire available from Swinley Bike Hub. (*) A small part of the red trail is currently diverted owing to the presence of ground nesting birds.”
I found out through Google that there is a Mountain Biking group called Swinley Riders. They are a lot of information available in their WEB site: http://www.swinleyriders.co.uk/. Will try to get in touch with them.
Swinley Bike Hub. Bicycle rental.
If you are visiting and don´t have a bike, you can rent an excellent one at the Swinley Bike Hut. Rental Prices, according to their web site is £15 for 2 hours (includes helmets) and £5 for additional hours. 2 Hours is sufficient if you only want to do the green and blue trail. Please check their web site for any pricing changes.
If you want a map of the trails, there is one in PDF format here.
OK, enough info, right? I did the green and the Blue trails today. When I have time, and hopefully the weather improves, I will try to update this post to include the Red trail too. The data below is from my Garmin Edge 810 and does not coincide with the data given in some of the resources above.
Green Trail:
Very Easy – For total beginners, families and small children.
Distance: 0.93 Km or 0.56 miles
Time: 3 min 57 sec.
Average Speed: 11.7 kph
Max. Speed: 23.7 kph
Elevation Gain: 8m
Average Heart Beat: 176 bpm
Max. Heart beat: 186 bpm
Calories: 65 C
Blue Trail:
Intermediate – Not for complete beginners. Quite a few climbs and some will actually get your heart pumping and leave you breathless (see the charts).
Distance: 8.65 Km or 5.37 miles
Time: 44 min 32 sec. (I am somewhat out of shape. I managed to do it around 30 min in the past)
Yeah, I know, this post was well overdue, sorry. This is about the 4th day of our Camino de Santiago Pilgrimage by bike which happened on the 28th of May 2015. We´ve done this stage of 64.24 Km (40 miles) from Viana to Santo Domingo de la Calzada in 8h and 19m, of which 4h 54m were of moving time.
Entrance to the Albergue (hostel)
We left the hostel just before 8am on this beautiful sunny day. As with previous days we were not certain where we would stop. We were trying to keep an average of 60 Km per day or, failing that, stop cycling by around 5pm, which would enable us to get to a hostel early enough to find plenty of beds available, shower and get ready for an early dinner.
Stork´s Nest in the outskirts of Logroño.
We were near Logroño, the next big city in the Camino. The initial 5 Km were on the NA-111 with another 3 Km on a very nice and wide tarmac covered, cycle path (the “red road” you see in the video).
Logroño´s Cathedral
As we arrived in Logroño we crossed the river Ebro to get to the town centre and stopped briefly at a hostel we passed by to ask for directions and stamp our pilgrim´s credentials. We then started to look for a place to have breakfast and found this nice and friendly café bar under the arches of Calle Portales called Calenda.
Breakfast at Calenda
While we were waiting for breakfast to be served, we managed to contact Paula via Facebook messenger, who, unlike us, rode all the way to Logroño the day before. She was, actually staying not far from where we were. It was a pleasure to have her company for breakfast.
After a nice and fulfilling breakfast the 3 of us walked a little, pushing our bikes, to the tourist information centre to stamp our pilgrim´s credentials (again, yes). There was a small market in the square in front of the tourist information with music and lots of young people.
Marcelino´s Hermitage
Back on the bikes again we crossed Logroño riding together as a group for another 8 or 9 Km until we reached Marcelino´s “Ermita del peregrino Pasante” (hermitage of the passing pilgrim). What a nice bloke he is. I´d recommend you buy some mementos or souvenirs to help him out.
Marcelino and me
The ride to his hermitage was really nice, on a wide shared cycle / pedestrian path. There were a lot of pedestrians and runners on the path though, so caution is advised.
Next stop was the small town of Navarrete on a mix of minor road and dirty roads/tracks with a few places in which we had to push our bikes. In Navarrete we had some water and a bite to eat.
From Navarrete we continued on the NA-120 for another 5 to 6 Km where we left the road and continued on a dirty road that followed besides the A-12 motorway for 2 to 3 Km and then turned right onto another dirty road in the direction to Ventosa. After Ventosa we took some dirt tracks that proved quite difficult in places. This dirt track actually led us back to the same dirt road that ran besides the A-12, so we later realised we had made a big detour for nothing.
We intentionally followed mostly the same way the pilgrims on foot do this day, but in retrospect, had we stayed on the N-120 we would have probably saved some time, even though we might have had ridden a few Kilometres more.
Hostel in Najera
The next town was Najera, where we stopped at a local hostel to stamp our pilgrim´s credentials and rest for a few minutes. Najera has an interesting rock formation, almost like a wall on one side of the town which led to some climbs on a dirt road in good condition.
Rocky wall in Najera
For the first time we started seeing sign posts with the distance still remaining to Santiago. I took a picture at one of them (580 Km remaining). This region has a lot of olive plantations. That is the small bush you can see in the video.
580 Km to Santiago
After Azofra is essentially just dirt roads but there is a long and difficult climb full of pebbles as we approached Cirueña in which we had to push the bikes up for quite a distance. With the strong sun on top of our heads that wasn´t very easy. Cirueña is small but has a big and rather luxurious (it seemed) golf camp, in which the
Near Cirueña
restaurant welcomes pilgrims with special prices, apparently (we didn´t stop, but lunch was advertised at 6€ and breakfast 3€). We stopped briefly at a restaurant in town for some rest and water.
We left Cirueña on the LR-204 which had some nice and colourful wheat fields on both sides of the road.
The LR-204 took us straight into Santo Domingo de la Calzada where we stopped for the night. Almost at the same time as we arrived in Santo Domingo so did Paula. If we had agreed on a meeting time and place it would have probably not worked so well.
Bike Pilgrims are nothing new.
Paula, Fernando and I stayed at the same Albergue, the “Abadía Cisterciense” managed by sisters of the monastery of Nuestra Señora de la Anunciación. The albergue is very basic and the rooms felt a bit tight, with rooms that you have to pass through to get to other rooms sometimes. It’s a building built around 1609, 330 years old, so no wonder the design is a bit odd. The rooms I saw had no bunk beds. It was 5€ a night.
Paula, Elenice and Fernando
After we settled down, the 3 of us left the hostel in the early evening to find a place to eat and it was in the restaurant that we met Elenice, also from Brazil. After dinner we all had a walk around town together. Elenice was walking the Camino, so after that day we never saw her again, but we all kept in touch through Facebook ever since and I am aware that after returning home Paula and Elenice accidentally bumped into each other in São Paulo, a small city of only 25 million inhabitants… small world this one we live in, isn´t it?
View of Santo Domingo´s Cathedral
If you visit Santo Domingo, make sure you go into the cathedral as they keep a live Hen and a Rooster by the altar in a small chicken coop, which may seem odd until you learn about the legend of the Hen that sang after being roasted.
This is a follow-up post of my previous report about my bike ride from Bracknell to Bath on the National Cycle Route 4.
At the entrance to the Devonshire tunnelDevonshire Tunnel
As I mentioned before the reason I cycled to Bath was to experience the Bath Two Tunnels Greenway Circular Route. After two days of brilliant weather and sunshine the day of this ride was pouring down with rain. Unfortunately weather is something we still cannot control and unlike people who might be doing this for living, this is my hobby and as such I don´t have the luxury of choosing to ride and record only in good weather.
Despite the bad weather it was worth it.
Just a few notes before we proceed to the video:
The route I took didn´t follow exactly the Sustrans route (PDF), but is very close. In urban areas the Sustrans signage is very poor and I got a bit lost a few times. Google Maps helped a lot as well as passers-by to which I am very grateful (if you can recognize yourself in the video drop me a note).
If you are planning to do this with small children note there are portions of this route on busy urban roads
The Combe Down tunnel is said to be the longest cycling / walking tunnel only in the UK and possibly in Europe. It´s just over 1 mile long (or 1672 metres to be precise). It has some quite interesting light / music displays inside.
The Devonshire Tunnels is smaller at 409 m
On the cycle paths the surface is paved and smooth.
If you are not local and are staying at the YHA Bath, like I did, the closest point to the route appears to be the The Holburne Museum, which is where I started from and went back to.
Note to self 1: Next time I go out to cycle under heavy rain, need to remember to wipe the water of the camera lens more often.
Note to self 2: Find a better solution to protect my phone during rides under heavy rain. The phone pouch got completely wet inside.
Back to the hostel, soaking wet.
Planning my next cycling to be around this area as well, taking the route from Bath to Bristol which is only 13 miles long, completely paved over an old railway track and full of things to see.
Keep tuned!
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(If you don´t like reading, scrool down for the videos)
Few weeks ago I was watching the Cycle Show on ITV4 and they brought a piece celebrating the 20 years of Sustrans in the UK. They recorded a portion of that show riding on what is known as the Bath Two Tunnels Greenway circuit, a 13 miles (21 Km) long circular route around Bath.
Bath on it own is already worth the trip, but what is interesting about this route are the two re-purposed railway tunnels, that had their tracks replaced by paved and smooth shared pedestrian / cycle way.
With just over 1 mile, the Combe Down tunnel is the UK´s longest pedestrian / cycle ONLY tunnel and possibly the longest in Europe as well.
Sign of the National Cycle Route 4 in Reading
That sparked my interest! I was already thinking of riding the route 4 to Bath or Bristol, so, naturally I had to go check it out. The plan was to leave Bracknell and ride to initially to Reading and take route 4 from there.
The trip was done in 2 days.
In day 1 the plan was to ride from Bracknell to Pewsey, which is half way between Reading and Bath. On Day 2 I would complete the trip to Bath. Pewsey is a small town and there aren´t a lot of places to stay for the night. The only B&B in town (well, the only I could find) was already fully booked as there was a music festival happening in town that weekend.
The Bruce Arms
I didn´t take my tent with me, but took an air mattress and a sleeping bag just in case. As I was getting closer to Pewsey I was stopping and asking people for places to stay and was already thinking I would have to sleep under the stars that night. Thankfully I met a nice gentleman, whose name I unfortunately can no longer remember, who suggested a small change in the route and a pub along the way where I may find accommodation.
Small Caravan in the Bruce Arms, my home for the night.
The Bruce Arms has actually a good camping ground, with all facilities available, but as I hadn´t brought my tend, Matt, the owner of Bruce Arms, kindly offered a small caravan for the night.
I did just under 80 Km that day and the beer was well deserved.
Day 1 video is below
Things to watch out for on this ride:
The NCR4 between Reading and Bath follows mostly the towpath of the rivers Kennet and Avon as well as the canals. The towpath is smooth in a few places, but mostly very bumpy. Lots of loose gravel and exposed tree roots. In places the path is very close to the edge of the canal especially when you go under bridges, so be careful.
Lots of gates, I mean, lots really. It´s a very rural area and you find cattle roaming around. Make sure you don´t leave any gates open.
Don´t take too much on your rack as you will have to remove the cargo to overcome some of the gates and obstacles along the way. If you use quick release panniers you won´t have a problem, but if you have to unload and load again you´re going to be pissed.
On day Day 2 the ride was shorter, just 62 Km or 39 miles. Initially on minor roads and then back on the towpath.
The Honey Street Café
I left the Bruce Arms without breakfast, so the plan was to ride a few miles and find a nice café along the way. I was thinking I would find one in Pewsey few miles down the road, but it was Sunday and pretty much everything was closed. So I continued on my way until a small village called Honey Street where I found the Honey Street café. definitely a great place for tea or breakfast.
Honey Street Café Garden
Their garden is full of flowers and is right alongside the canal and the food is also delicious. To my surprise they had freshly squeezed Orange juice and it tasted almost the same as the Spanish juice during my Pilgrimage couple of months ago. I had the Big Boaters Breakfast which is essentially a double English Breakfast. I truly recommend this small café.
From that point on I was back on the towpath and would be pretty much towpath all the way to Bath.
Caen Hill Locks. View from the top.
If you have time there are many points worth stopping along the way, but the Caen Hill Locks in Devizes is one of the most impressive.
As you approach Bath you´s pass by 2 aqueducts as well (bridges of water over water). The Avoncliff aqueduct near Bradford on Avon is the first and a few miles later the Dundas Aqueduct near Bath. Although I didn´t, there are nice cafés and pubs nearby for a stop if you want.
The day 2 video is below
Things to watch out for on this route:
Same as above
Lots of vegetation on both side of the towpath, sometimes completely covering the view ahead.
A lot of traffic with cyclists and pedestrians (remember if was Sunday and it was a nice day. Work days the route is likely quieter)
YHA Bath
I had booked 2 nights in the Youth Hostel in Bath, which is almost on top of Bathwick Hill. The hostel is great, one of the best I stayed. Rooms and facilities are very clean, staff is extremely friendly and always ready to help, breakfast and dinner are really good. The room I stayed had 5 bunk beds (10 beds) and everyone has a locker, but you have to remember to bring your own lock to secure your stuff in the locker. The hostel is only about 15 – 20 min walk from Bath´s historic town centre or there is a frequent bus service right in front (Bus 18 or U18). The only problem with the hostel really is that is on top of the hill and after having ridden 62 Km on a loaded bike that hill is a challenge.
Bath Abbey
I won´t go much about how nice Bath is. Go there and see for yourself… It´s worth it!
Well, as I mentioned at the start of this post, I went to Bath to ride the Two Tunnels circuit and so I did on the next day, under heavy rain. unfortunately 2 sunny days seems to be the limit of nice days in a row in the UK 🙂
Pulteney Bridge in Bath
I´m working on the video for the Two Tunnels now and will add another post about it here shortly.
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This post is about the 3rd day of my Camino de Santiago Pilgrimage by bike. It happened on the 27th of May 2015.
Puente la Reina (The Queen´s Bridge)
Before we get started you should know that the time-lapsed pictures for this day started about 2 Km away from Puente la Reina where we stopped the day before. I thought I had turned the camera on as I left the hostel, but it turned out I didn´t. Unfortunately the day didn´t start with a time-lapse, but with a memory-lapse, I´m afraid 🙂
We´ve done this stage of 63.67 Km from Puente la Reina to Viana in 8h and 11m, of which 4h 55m were of moving time.
As we were getting our bikes ready to leave the hostel we met Paula from Brazil. Paula was also cycling the Camino, but having started from the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris she was already on the road for much longer than we were at that point. We met Paula along the way several times this day and thereafter all the way to Santiago.
Fields near Cirauqui
We left Puente la Reina around 7:40am, not quite sure where we were going to stop. Weather improved significantly as you can see and we had a wonderful sunny day all day. Like in previous days, we left the hostel without having had breakfast. We stopped for breakfast 47 min later at a little village called Cirauqui about 10 Km away from Puente la Reina.
Poppies everywhere
One thing I learned pretty quickly is that in Spain Breakfast is not a big meal. People typically only have a cup of coffee with toast and one or 2 pastries. My strategy was, however, to eat only once during the ride and then have dinner in the early evening after the day´s ride. I don´t like to fill up with food in the middle of a bike ride. I feel heavy and drowsy and don´t perform well.
After breakfast we continued on the NA-1110 which was the road we stayed pretty much all day, with the exception of the 10Km I rode by myself following the walker´s path after Irache, but I am going ahead of myself.
Water Fountain in Estella
As we arrived in Estella and crossed the river Ega we decided to enter this historic town for a quick look around. Few moments later Paula arrived there also and we took a few pictures together.
Paula, Fernando and Me in Estella
Not long after leaving Estella we arrived at another known pilgrim landmark on the Camino: The winery known as “Bodegas Irache” with its famous wine fountain. It lies right beside the Irache Monastery witch is also a Camino landmark and served as a hospital for pilgrims for many years having been also a pontifical University, between 1615 and 1824, the first university of the kingdom of Navarra.
Irache Monastery
Although it´s called a fountain, wine does not flow continuously. Like in modern water fountains, you have to press a button for the red wine to flow. Wine comes out at natural temperature. It wasn´t really to my taste. This place is usually crowded with people trying to taste the wine and take pictures or selfies of themselves at the fountain.
Wine and Water fountains of Bodegas Irache
After Irache, I was keen to experience the same paths as the walker pilgrims do, so I decided to take the walkers path and Fernando continued on the road. We agreed to meet in Los Arcos later that day.
This was the most challenging ride of that day. Please read the blog post for more information about this path and make sure that if you also want to take the walker´s path with your bike you understand the consequences.
Riding the walker´s path
The 1st 2 Km was done through a rather narrow forest path with various degrees of difficulty. Had to push my bike quite a few times because of the boulders and other obstacles along the way. The nice thing was that it was cool as the forest provided a welcome shade from the strong sun.
The remaining 8 Km are on dirt roads full of stones, sand and generally difficult to ride. Unfortunately most of it is upwards leading to a heights of above 700m in places, which is higher than that of the Alto del Perdón. If like me, you are keen to try the walker´s path with your bicycle, beware of the consequences before you commit to it. It took me 1.5 h to cover just 10 Km on the walkers´ path to a village known as Luquin were I met asphalt again. Another 1.5 Km and I was back on the NA-1110 and decided to stick to it as I thought I had suffered enough for the day.
Los Arcos indeed
From that point on to Los Arcos was another 10 Km on the road which I did in 35 Minutes.
Paula and Fernando in Los Arcos
When I arrived in Los Arcos Fernando and Paula were already there for some time. Given my breakfast in the morning was poor, I was starving and the paella at the little restaurant they were seated at was simply irresistible 🙂
We spend almost an hour there… we ate, we talked, drunk lots of juice and had ice creams. A truly enjoyable moment in the company of an old and new friend (no pun intended).
Church in Viana
Back on the road again after the wonderful pit-stop in Los Arcos our goal was Logroño, but it was a hot afternoon and the ups and downs of the road to Viana to took a bit of a toll on us.
We arrived in Viana just before 5 in the afternoon and the intention was initially just to get our pilgrim credentials stamped. The Tourist Information office was closed until 5:30pm so we decided to stay there for the night.
View from the ruins of the San Pedro Church
Viana was officially founded in 1219 with a clearly defensive objective against the Kingdom of Castile. It´s Perched up on a hill and the urban layout is that of a fortified square, with narrow streets surrounded by part of its thick medieval wall. We walked around before heading to the hostel and one of the most interesting thing was the ruins of the Church of San Pedro which collapsed in 1844 due to damaged caused by the 2 wars that happened between 1808 and 1840.
Door to the ruins of the San Pedro Church
We stayed at the municipal hostel called Alberguería Andrés Muñoz, which was good and wasn´t full. We paid 8€ each for the night. There were several empty beds in the room we slept that night. We stayed in the downstairs´ room after the kitchen / dining room. The room had 4 bunk beds (8 people) and had also lockers that required a 1€ coin to operate. The room had only one or two power sockets as well. Pillows were available, but there were no sheets or blankets. You need your sleeping bag.
Entrance to the Albergue (hostel)
The bathroom / toilet was right outside the room and it was clean with a good warm shower. The bikes stayed in the laundry room. There were 2 washing machines and a dryer and we took the opportunity to wash our clothes (I think it was €4 for the machine with soap included). There was WiFi available in the hostel and it worked in our room, although signal was weak.
View from Viana
We had dinner in one of the many restaurants in town and paid 8€ for the Pilgrim´s menu, but were charged 3€ for a beer as we declined the wine. I was sun burned in that day which caused me sun
View from Viana
fever at night. The fresh breeze as we walked out of the restaurant felt more like an arctic wind for me at the time, so while
Fernando decided to walk a little after
dinner I headed straight to the hostel for some internet browsing before going to bed.
It´s essentially the way back to Buckingham Palace from the Guerkin with a stop at the Leadenhall Market (which is close to the Guerkin), for some food. The ride back was much faster as there were not as many cyclists on the streets by that point.
The only edits made to the video were parts in which we took the wrong way for a moment and when we were stationary. Everything else is as it was on the day. Video is 33 min long, so feel free to jump around if you don´t want to see everything.
Unfortunately, we didn´t get to ride the part along the Thames as we were quite late and our ride home was already waiting for us. Something for 2016…
About one hour later we were back home, in Bracknell, and then watched on TV the professional woman cyclists ride this same route (or a part of it) and that was cool.
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this is the 1st part, of 2, of the Prudential Ride London ride I did with my 2 sons on the 1st of August 2015.
What a party! 70,000 people riding bicycles on the streets of one of the busiest capitals of the world. It´s a rare opportunity to see a “calm” and safe for cyclists London. Things are definitely improving…
Before you watch the video you need to know a few things…
This is the 1st part of the ride, from Hyde Park Corner were we started to “the Guerkin” building in the city.
This is the FULL video! I only cut out the parts we were stationary, as these wouldn´t add any value anyway…
Still this video is 49 minutes long.
No need to comment it is TOO long. I know. Feel free to jump around.
I will produce a PART 2, which shows the way back to Buckingham Palace. It will not be as long as this one as the streets were more empty, but it will still be long for YouTube standards.
If I have the time I will then produce a shorter 5 to 10 min video with the best moments of the ride (this is NOT a promise though).
So, here it is… Enjoy!
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I´ve put this short video together for those Mums and Dads with children transitioning from 12″ or 14″ bikes (balance bikes or bikes with training wheels) to bigger 20″ wheels.
A Tag-Along (or sometimes referred as a “Tag-a-long”) bike has some PROS and some CONS, but I think the PROS outweigh the CONS.
PROS:
Parents can safely ride with their kids at higher speeds than they would be able to if the kids were on their own bikes (mind you higher, not “high”).
Allows older children to be towed on longer journeys.
Aids child fitness levels (assuming they pedal! Keep motivating them)
Child can pedal as much or as little as they like. Depending on age they can tire pretty quickly.
Harder workout for the parent. Fit parents are an example for their children.
CONS:
Child cannot ride independently.
May take longer to develop balance and they may get dependent on the parent (may not want to learn how to ride on their own)
Generally only available with a 20″ diameter rear wheel.
Cannot be used at the same time as a rear mounted baby seat, so may be a 1 child solution only, but depending on the age of the 2nd child a Kangaroo seat can be an option if you have children with significant age differences.
Parents need to be careful as movement by the children may cause a wobble that can throw the parent off-balance.
Click here for my earlier post (review) about the Adventure Echo Six Tag-Along bike
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If you are the type of person who doesn´t like reading, I made it easy for you. The video below is an almost exact transcript of this post, with a few minor differences, so feel free to watch the video and skip the post if you want.
So… you like to read then? Good for you, because I lied 🙂
I provide more information on text than I do on video and to complement the text I added some links to interesting pages I found while doing some research as well.
Leaving Roncesvalles
We´ve done this on the 26th of May 2015 and according to my Garmin it took us just under 8 and a 1/2 h to complete the 80 Km that separates Roncesvalles from Puenta la Reina where we decided to stay for the night. Together with me was Fernando, my Pilgrimage partner.
Having done only 30 Km the day before we wanted to push ourselves a little to bring us closer to the average 60 Km per day we planned to do all the way to Santiago. This proved to be unnecessary later, but when you have a scheduled return date you have to account for some spare time in case you run into any problems during the journey. We also had the intention of riding further to Cape Finistere if we got to Santiago with time to spare.
We left Roncesvalles just before 8:00am and didn´t know exactly where we were going to stop. Puenta la Reina was one of the options. For any visually impaired person listening to this account, the day started wet and rainy. According to Garmin as we started the temperature was 12C falling to 5C 1h later and peaking at 19C around 2:30pm. Although it wasn´t necessarily cold it called for something warm to be worn.
Alto de Erro, 801m.
Roncesvalles is still situated mid-ways up in the mountain (Pyrenees). The ride starts with an initial descent of about 200m in total with a few ups and downs in the 1st 17 Km until the town of Erro where you start a 3 Km climb to the “Alto de Erro” which is at 801m at its highest point. We stopped for a few minutes there to take some pictures.
River Arga, crossing Zubiri.
I had eaten only a banana and a cereal bar as I left Roncesvalles. This became more or less the norm for me during the ride with a proper Breakfast stop later along the way 1 or 2h later. After our short stop in the Alto de Erro, we rode for another 7 Km and decided to stop for Breakfast in Zubiri which is a little village 28 Km from Roncesvalles. It had taken us 2.5h to get there and by that point I was really hungry.
Tortillas de Patatas (Potato Omelet)
Zubiri is lovely small village. It’s the point where we first met the River Arga which flows parallel to the road almost for about 20 Km thereafter, all the way to Pamplona. The village appears to live entirely of the tourism generated by the Pilgrims as there seem to be too many hostels and hotels for such a small place. My breakfast included 2 pieces of a delicious Potato Omelette or “Tortillas de Patatas” as it’s known in Spanish as well as some pastries like a
Zubiri viewed from the Stone bridge
Croissant and a chocolate roll served with coffee and a freshly squeezed orange juice. There are many things I miss from my time in Spain but the sweet and freshly squeezed orange juice is one of the things in the top of the list. This simply does not exist in Britain and even in places where natural orange juice is served the taste is nowhere near that of the sweet and non-acidic Spanish oranges. After Breakfast we walked to the very old looking stone bridge of the village, took some pictures, stamped our pilgrims´ credentials and continued to Pamplona.
River Arga on the outskirts of Pamplona
Moving on, we continued on the N-135 road or “Carretera”, as it´s called in Spanish, all the way to the outskirts of Pamplona where we took a cycle path along the river Arga. The Arga also crosses a portion of Pamplona. As we got to the outskirts of Pamplona we stopped for a minute contemplate and take a few pictures of the serene scenes the river Arga was providing.
Bull running Monument (Encierro)
Our passage through Pamplona was very quick. Pamplona is where the famous running of the bulls happen, known in Spanish as the “Encierro“. We only stopped for a few minutes at the bull run monument in the city centre and at the pilgrim´s office to stamp our credentials. At that point in the journey we thought we were pressed for time and we didn´t want to arrive too late in our destination that day. We also knew we were coming back to Pamplona anyway since it was there that we were going to return the rental car we reserved to drive back from Santiago.
The Citadel in Pamplona
We crossed the city and got a bit lost in the park where the Citadel is located, but that allowed us to stop for a minute and take a few pictures. Really impressive example of an old military complex. As we left the city and started to get into more rural areas we met a local cyclist who advised us to avoid the walker´s path up to the “Alto del Perdón” (Mount of Forgiveness), which is one of the
Alto del Perdón
many landmarks along the Camino. The company that runs the wind turbines on that mountain has created a number of bronze sculptures to celebrate the Pilgrims who climb it. The road route is about 4 Km longer than the walker´s path. Even though I perfectly understand Fernando´s reluctance to take the walkers´ path, I confess I was a bit disappointed. I only realised how big the challenge was going to be when I got up there and saw all the bikers pushing their bikes up. We took the NA-6004, then a left turn on the NA-1110, which runs parallel to the A-12 motorway, in the direction of Astrain. The climb is long but perfectly rideable even when you leave the NA-1110 to climb the NA-6056 in the direction to the mountain alongside the wind turbines.
Panoramic View from Alto del Perdón
I believe getting to the top of the “Perdón” provides the Pilgrim with the first real feeling of achievement in the Pilgrimage. The altitude recorded by my Garmin was 682m, which is by far not the highest mountain along the way, but perhaps because it’s so well known, or perhaps it’s because of the long challenging climb, I think there is something about that view on both sides that made an impression on me.
Alto del Perdón
On one side you see Pamplona in the background and on the other you have the view of the entire valley where Puenta la Reina is situated. It´s a really magnificent view, but I guess the pictures are worth more than a thousand words. Oh by the way, if you ever wondered why there are so many wind turbines in Spain, the noise you´ll hear in a moment should provide a clue. As the saying goes, everything that goes up must come down, so no surprise that after the Perdón you´re in for a long descent. The NA-6056 which is the minor road alongside the Wind Turbines requires attention because it´s littered with pot holes, but once you are back to the NA-1110, an excellent main road, the pavement is smooth and allows for much higher speeds. In fact, it was on this descent that I achieved the highest speed in the entire journey and probably the highest speed of my life on a bicycle so far: 74.8 Km/h (or 48 mph) according to my Garmin Edge. A great rush of adrenaline.
Arriving in Puente la Reina
The distance between the Alto del Perdón and Puente la Reina is about 10 Km and it´s mostly descent, so after the Perdón you get to Puente la Reina pretty quickly. What a lovely town Puente la Reina is and its impressive main landmark: The romanic bridge over the river Arga (yes the same that crosses Pamplona). It was built by Queen Mayor (hence the name Puente la Reina or “Bridge of the Queen”) to allow pilgrim´s to easily cross the Arga.
Puente la Reina (The Queen´s Bridge)
We stayed at the “Albergue de peregrinos de los padres reparadores” (Pilgrims´ Hostel of the Fathers´ repairers?) which cost just €5 a night. The Albergue is very simple and if you are too fussy you will have issues with the shower rooms and the fact that there are almost no power outlets in the bedrooms, so people that want to charge their phones or gadgets fight for the few there are. One pilgrim actually left his phone in the bathroom to charge and stayed there for almost an hour while the phone was charging, something I would never do.
Puente la Reina
In the next day as we were leaving the Albergue we met Paula for the 1st time. Paula was from Brazil and was doing the pilgrimage by bike, with the main difference that she was on the road much longer than we were, since she started from the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. Well, that´s it. I will try to produce one post every week. Even though I am benefiting from this writing exercise (especially in German), it hasn´t been easy to find the time to do this in 3 languages. I will complete this Pilgrimage series in all languages, but I may decide concentrate everything only in English in future “adventures”.
This is the first post of my Camino de Santiago Pilgrimage. I intend to write at least one for each day of the Pilgrimage. In this post I decided to include also something about “Day Zero” of our ride. I am calling day zero our journey from England to France by car. Other people in England might benefit from this experience (if not then I just wasted my time). Feel free to scroll down straight to Day 1 if you want. I am also trying something new for me: Doing “voice-overs”. This is definitely taking me out of my comfort zone, so please be kind.
Day 0, Sunday, 24th of May 2015
The 4 of us… – Fernando (who did the Pilgrimage with me), Mara and her daughter Luize (who I met through BlaBlaCar), and myself – … left Bracknell at around 5:30 in the morning to get the 7:30 Eurotunnel train. All the details are in the video below, if you are interested:
It took us an entire day to reach Saint Jean. We arrived in Biarritz short before 8:00pm and in Saint Jean around 9:00pm. A drive of more than 15h. Even though my friend Fernando drove most of the time, I was exhausted when we arrived. Driving is no longer the same pleasurable experience now as it used to be in the past.
Saint Jean Pied de Port is the start of what is called the French way (route) of the Camino which became the main route few hundred years ago because of conflicts and unrest in the northern most part of Spain at the time. The ancient route is known today as “Camino Primitivo“. The French way is about 820 Km long, depending on the route you take and not accounting any distance if you get lost.
We stayed at the Gite Ultreia. The hostel was simple, but friendly. Bernard, our host, made us feel quite at home. The beds were comfortable, had clean sheets on them and the hostel offered a blanket (not all do, hence the reason you must take a sleeping bag with you, even if you are not camping). The overnight price of the hostel, booked from the UK, was 22€ incl. Breakfast. Except for the hostel we stayed for 1 night when we arrived in Santiago, this was the most expensive we paid in the entire Camino. The hostel closed at 10pm (as most do), so we left our bikes and luggage there and went to find a place to have a quick bite. Thankfully there was a bar right in front which was still open, but their kitchen was already closed. All we got was a Bayonne Ham sandwich and beer and, honestly, the Sandwich wasn´t very good and the ham had a lot of hard bone in it, but it was enough to calm down the hunger. Our bedroom had 4 beds and we shared it with a Brazilian lady from Rio and a gentleman from Australia.
Day 1, Monday, 25th of May 2015
If you saw any of my previous posts you will know that I usually leave the camera rolling, taking pictures at 5 second intervals and then compile them all into a short movie of the ride. This was my intention with the Camino also and I´ve managed to successfully capture every day, except the first day. Well, I did actually capture the pictures, but due to an oversight on my part end up losing all for this day 🙁
The video below is a compilation of the few pictures I took with another camera (and my phone) as well as some clips Fernando recorded with his GoPRO.
On this day, breakfast included coffee, various types of bread, Jam and a few pastries (no ham, cheese, eggs, bacon or anything like that, but you can cook them yourself if you buy them the previous day). Whether you are walking or cycling the Camino I would strongly recommend not to really just on breakfast and take food with you, especially if you are going to take the walkers route/track.
Parking Sorted. When we returned car was exactly as we left it.
As we were going to leave the car parked in Saint Jean for 3 weeks, we were advised by our host not to leave the car parked in the town centre. He told us, however, about a quiet residential street nearby where, he said, we could leave the car and that it was quite safe and problem free, so the first thing we did after breakfast was to move the car to that place. He was right! As we
returned 3 weeks later the car was exactly as we had left it (with the exception of the huge amount of leaves accumulated on the bonnet as I parked it under a tree – Probably good to avoid, but I was thinking about shading it from the sun).
The ancient stone wall that protected the town in medieval times.
With Breakfast, parking and packing done our early start ended up turning into a 10am start, but we had to go to the pilgrim´s office first to get our official Pilgrimage credentials. There was a small queue in the office, so 10am became 11am including a quick stop for a prayer in the church.
Finding our way out of Saint Jean was easy.
Ancient Town Gate
The town is small and the streets are well sign-posted. We had a few hills to climb straight away, but mostly was relatively flat for the initial 5 Km or so and then you start to climb. Having seen the accounts of people who cycled the walkers path we knew this wasn´t a route we wanted to take. The path up is riddled with rocks,
Old bridge over the river Nive
sand and obstacles which, even if you are strong enough and had no load on the bike, would still be very challenging to ride. Even harder for amateur cyclists like me (perhaps “pros”
would manage it). The video below is something I found in YouTube of someone who has walked the walker´s path (used with permission).
So we took the road, which I presume was easier from that point of view, but that doesn´t mean it was easy.
Pushing my bike up the Mountain
After the initial 7 Km from Saint Jean, as I mentioned before, the route is essentially a continuous climb of about 20 Km with gradients that very from 5% to about 15% in some places. I´d estimate 80% was “rideable” and in 20% we decided to push our bikes up.
We did not meet a lot of bicycle pilgrim´s that day. Turned out the Monday the 25th of May was a bank holiday in France, so there was little traffic of all sorts on the roads, which was probably better. It was also a grey and wet day with some light rain throughout. There was a large group of cyclists on road bikes and no luggage (they were probably dispatching the luggage to the next location by taxi). In one of those climbs we met Michael that was already more than a month on the road, cycling from his home in Germany to Santiago and further. We all had dinner together that night and also met Michael on many other occasions afterwards, during the journey.
Summit of Pass Ibañeta
According to GPS data it took us just under 5 h to do 30 Km. That appears to be very typical for crossing the Pyrenees. I must confess, I was expecting to be able to ride a greater distance on the 1st day, but the climb is very demanding and by the time you get to Roncesvalles you will be already pretty tired.
Hostel in Roncesvalles (Albergue)
The hostel in Roncesvalles (or Albergue as it’s called in Spanish), is an experience you should not miss. It’s essentially a 12th century building, which was recently renovated. It contains large halls with a capacity of 120 beds in each hall, or 60 bunk beds divided into “alcoves” with 2 bunk beds in each alcove where 4 people (or pilgrims)
Hostel in Roncesvalles. Large halls with 120 beds (60 bunk beds)
sleep. Each pilgrim has a small locker (requires a 1€ coin), but there are only 2
power sockets in each alcove. Challenging when 4 people want to charge their phones at the same time. It was likely the biggest hostel I stayed in the entire Camino. The staff on duty that day was composed mainly of Dutch volunteers. The groups of
Bunk bed in the hostel. 2 bunk beds by alcove or cubicle.
volunteers who run the hostel change from time to time, so you may get different groups at different periods of the year. At the end of the hall there are male and female toilets/bathrooms. In the male section I could only see 3 toilets to the left with a set of 4 sinks in the middle and 3 shower rooms on the right. I have not had to wait long to use any of these facilities that day.
Although I have not used them, I am aware the Albergue also has a fully fitted kitchen and a large dining area.
One thing that was a bit annoying, was that every hour or so, one of the carer takers of the hostel would walk the full length of the hall. Probably to see if everyone was behaving appropriately. The noise of his steps have woken Fernando up a few times that night and a good night sleep is an important factor for those that will be walking or cycling all day next day. If you easily wake up with noise during sleep I would strongly advise that you bring ear plugs with you as with so many people sleeping in the same place, Albergues are not really a silent place during the night (think of snorers and other types of noises people make when they are asleep).
Dinner at the Pilgrim´s Restaurant. The Pilgrim´s menu is 10€ and has 3 choices (1st dish, main meal and desert). The price includes wine.
We had dinner at the Pilgrim´s restaurant and the pilgrim´s menu was 10€. I had pasta as a starter and fish as main meal with some yogurt as a desert. All served with plenty of water and wine. It was delicious. You have usually 3 choices on pilgrim´s menus. Roncesvalles is a tiny place and there are not many options, but there are a few more places you can get a meal.
Catholic Mass in the Roncesvalles Chapel.
After dinner we walked to the chapel to attend the catholic mass, which is celebrated in several different languages.
The hostel also closes at 10pm and around 11pm everybody is already asleep. Well,I was anyway.
