We started walking the Camino de Santiago yesterday. We walked over the Pyrenees from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in France to Roncesvalles in Spain.

It was the first stage on the Camino Frances, also known as the French Way and the Chemin de Saint Jacques. There are a few different ways to do the Camino and the Camino Frances is the most popular.

We knew before we started that our first Camino walk was going to be pretty hardcore. We’d been given a sheet of paper showing the elevations of all the different walks so we’d braced ourselves for what looked like one of the hardest.

Sheet showing elevations of each Camino route

The whole walk was about 27 kilometres long. We climbed 1,200 metres and descended 500 metres. The highest we got to was around 1,400 metres.

We reckon the amazing views (and our lighter backpacks) made the walk much easier than we thought it was going to be.

Here’s what we saw.

View from the Pyrenees mountains with clouds hovering over hills in the valley

View from the Pyrenees mountains with clouds casting shadows on fields in the valley

Tom looking over the hills in the valley

Pigs eating rubbish left by walkers

Horses wandering along the top of mountains

Tom on a mountain in the Pyrenees

Afterwards we agreed that it was one of the best walks either of us had ever done.