What a beautiful day. The walk up to and over a little section of the Pyrenees was glorious. We started out a little after seven on a misty, heavily overcast day and finished with a perfectly blue sky overhead.

The first 8km to Orisson has to have been the most relentlessly strenuous uphill I’ve walked in a long, long time. Think of an 8km Brill hill or the hike up to Wansfell repeated 20 times.

We stopped at the Orisson albergue for breakfast, a cross between an omlette and a flan accompanied by two strong cups of caffeinated coffee each. The albergue was a hive of activity, walkers and cyclists arriving and leaving, a riot of colours and accents.

The remaining uphill hike to the pass was strenuous but relatively comfortable, think Headington hill or the walk up to angel tarn out of the langdales. We finally broke through the clouds close to the pass to reveal a broad sea of white punctuated by islands of green and black in a perfectly blue sky. Stunning.

We met a French chap tackling the first 150km of the Camino with his young son and daughter. With a combination of broken English and mum’s GCSE French it transpired that he worked out in French Guiana on the arianne rocket – a real rocket scientist 😉.

At the pass we had a choice of routes down to Roncesvalles – a dangerous descent or a more relaxed trek. We choose the latter. The first 500m or so were fairly precipitous but the poles coped superbly and we made it safely into the forest below. The next 3km was utterly gorgeous; we saw no one else until we emerged at the albergue in Roncesvalles. Admittedly we wondered where everyone had gone but having the forest to ourselves, carpets of alpine flowers, the only sound that of the birds was a real treat. It was only after getting to the albergue that we realised we’d taken the wrong route, but how lucky.

We’ve checked into the albergue- €12 each. A nice lady is washing and drying our clothes whilst we sit in the sunshine and drink beer (mum) and coffee (me). The small areas on my shoulders which have borne the weight of the rucksack are extremely sore but knees and feet are in fine form. Mum’s hips are sore but the rest of her is bearing up well. Clearly 60 years of relatively gentle living is paying off.

We’re trying to decide whether to take the pilgrims dinner at €10 or something a little more sophisticated at twice the price. As holders of the Compostela we’re entitled to the pilgrims fare, rustic but apparently very filling.

What will they decide I hear you asking so in order to maintain suspense I’ll stop at this point.

Buen Camino