Biarritz to Puerto del Somport ?

[TJL-E]

Hello all,
Does anyone know how to travel by train/bus from Biarrtiz airport to Puerto del Somport in march? I've travelled to St Jean from Biarritz before, but struggling to find route to Somport.
Any advice much aprieciated.
Thank you
Tom

[geraldkelly]

Hi Tom

From Bayonne there's a train to Pau and from there there's a train to Oloron and from there there's a bus to Somport.

If you go to
TER Aquitaine - SNCF - Fiches horaires
and select "ligne Pau Oloron Ste Marie Canfranc" from the drop-down list you'll get an option to download a pdf of the time table.

You should consider starting in Oloron, the 3 days up to Somport are beautiful. But it's a tough climb on day 3!

Gerald

[TJL-E]

Thank you Gerald, that's a great help.
Someone said it was quite a lonely stage compared to St Jean to Pamplona. I walked that way a few years ago and was wondering if less people walk from Somport..certainly there seems to be less refuges before approx Pamplona?
Tom

[geraldkelly]

Hi Tom

It's true that there will be fewer people on the Somport route than on the St Jean one. It's still a beautiful walk. I prefer it to the St Jean route. Its only disadvantage is that it bypasses Pamplona. But you could always do a short detour to include Pamplona if you want to.

If you look on my website Camino de Santiago Guide - Way of St James Guide there's a guide to the Somport route which I wrote after I walked it in October 09. If you're going to walk it maybe you could send me some updates. I was never lonely on this stage but it helps if you speak French since (at that time anyway) most of the people walking it were French.

Gerald

[TJL-E]

Thanks for your post Gerald. Your guide is very interesting, although I could not find the route from Somport. I think either way it will be great!
Tom

[geraldkelly]

The Somport route is under Camino Aragones, that's what they call it in Spanish.

Camino de Santiago Guide - Camino Aragon?s

[TJL-E]

Thank you Gerald - apologies for slow reply I didn't have access to internet. Your guide made for an interesting read.

Are there the normal yellow arrows and shells marking the way from Somport like on the rest of the camino or will I need to depend more on a map?

Regards
Tom

[geraldkelly]

Hi Tom

Once you're in Spain there are yellow arrows. In France there are official GR signs (Grandes Randonn?es) which are red and white lines painted on trees or walls which point the direction. An important point about these is that they're designed to point both directions, but it's usually obvious from their position which way you should be going. On this stretch too there's quite a lot of other signs pointing towards the next village with how long it'll take you to walk there.

I didn't have a map and it went fine. It's north nearly all the time and it's mostly a fairly narrow valley. So you can't go far wrong.

Here's an explanation of the signs. It's the red and white ones you'll be following:
http://www.ffrandonnee.fr/balisage.aspx

By the way, if you spot any errors in the guide or find out more useful info, just drop me an email and I'll update it. I'm always keen to hear back from people with additional info.

Ger