When we last did this hike 10 years ago there were many fewer hikers. I don't have the exact numbers but people we have spoken to said there may be 200,000 hikers so far this year, and at St. Jean Pied-de-Port, a popular starting point, 1500 per day started! That's horrifying!
10 years ago there seemed to be far fewer. The albergue at Roncesvalles, near there, 10 years ago was a single room barn with maybe 100 people in an acre of bunk beds. (We did not stay there, but Judy's cousin's wife Sally did in what we still regard as an heroically authentic trip.) Now we hear it is a plush almost hotel-like facility.
You don't get an idea of numbers until you drive past them as we did today. Thankfully when on the trail you can't see more than a fraction of them, and we've never encountered a sold out abode.
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