Drinking water & camping in the mountains

[David planning Le Chemin de St Jacques/El Camino de Santiago]

> I will be starting from Saint Jean Pied Du Port.  It looks like the first refugio is in Roncavalles, 27 km away.  That seems like too much to take on for my first day

I believe there is an intermediate village on the French side you could
use to reduce the distance.   Also there is a choice of routes - high or low -
and you could take the lower route to reduce the exertion.     Having said
that, some pretty unlikely people seem to have made it, with some considerable
pain in some cases.