This is a route for pilgrims who like it peaceful. You’ll share the path with very few others, on one of the oldest roads across the Pyrenees. Even when the Route Napoléon is closed, you can still cross the mountains here.
You start in Bayonne and head inland. For the first few days the landscape is still gentle and rolling. In the second stage you cross the border into Spain. After that, the route takes the low pass of Otsondo and descends into the green Baztán valley in Navarra.
Don’t underestimate this route. In the third and fourth stages you have some serious climbing to do, and the climb to Olagüe is the toughest, with more than 500 metres of ascent in five kilometres. That calls for a good start and a steady pace. At the end you reach Trinidad de Arre, on the edge of Pamplona. There you join the Camino Francés and continue towards Santiago.
It’s best walked in April or from August to October. From November to March it’s cool and often rainy. Then the green is mostly just wet.