And now for something completely different ….

A quiz!

From which film is this photograph taken from?

Ok don’t all shout at once … so all I can say as I lie in my bed writing this blog “ Eat your heart out Julie Andrews because we’ve just climbed to the top of the Pyrenees!!!” Every tough step of the way …and we’ve made it 🤗🤗👏👏

Yes you were all correct of course … it was ‘The Sound of Music’ and we did indeed ‘Climb Every Mountain’ …and I mean every one !! Each time we thought we couldn’t go higher … we’d turn a bend and ….. you’ve got it, someone had put yet another mountain in our way .

However, in truth, it wasn’t the sound of music we heard but the sound of cow bells … not forgetting the sheep and horse bells too

A horse with her bell … and yes she was a she …

Sheep …trust me they all have bells around their necks …

We met a lot of very interesting people on our way Americans, Australians, English and Canadian … one of whom we named the laughing policewoman… no joke, we met her first at the Auberge Orisson , 8 km out of St Jean Pied de Port . No idea if she was an actual police woman but her laugh was constant and loud throughout our climb . Near one of the tops, a German gentleman stopped where we were sat but apologised to us saying the batteries in his hearing aids had run down so he couldn’t hear us well 😘😘 “ Lucky for you “ I thought “you won’t be able to hear this woman’s continual laugh transcending every valley !”

Back to the animals…..at one point , I have to say , the bells ringing together sounded just like a xylophone…very appeasing to us perigrinos ( pilgrims to you and us !)

So to channel my inner Julie Andrews, I should really , as the song says “ Let’s start at the very beginning”

Us leaving outside the French version of Fawlty Towers

At this point I would like to say , whilst we didn’t have any major run- ins with our French Basil , we did have reservations . We have specific dietary requirements (not life threatening but even so) … but there was clearly no provision for these . Ok I hear you say… well why didn’t you ask? Can you imagine the Major asking Fawlty for gluten free bread ? No , I didn’t think so …I’ll leave it to you the instruction Basil would have given to poor Manuel ……

Anyway we secreted our picnic lunch made up of breakfast ingredients …. mainly cheese sandwiches and a hard boiled egg… into Kathleen’s rucksack …Basil was none the wiser …and we had our very own picnic to carry “ up, up, up,up ad infinitum and over” with us !

The climb out of St Jean Pied de Port was immensely tough … thank goodness for our training walks … but also thank goodness on my part , thanks to the wonderful Dr Michael Mosely ( sadly and tragically no longer with us ) , I have lost two stone ( and no Dear Reader have not managed to find them !!!) No wonder I struggled with our last Camino ( you remember the one … where we discovered quite unexpectedly, a mountain range between us and the coast) …I was carrying the equivalent of at least 12 bags of sugar about my person 🙈🙈.

Fortunately the Napoleon Route that we had chosen to take was “ Ouvert” !!!

So having left our hotel at 07.45 we eventually reached the Auberge Orisson having climbed ( and steeply may I say) for 8 km, we felt it would be ok to stop for a coffee, water refill and toilet usage.

It also happened to be a pleasant sort of day and Kathleen and I were in walking trousers that had zips to enable them to become walking shorts with the whizz of a zip. She went to get the beverages so I decided I’d do the whizz job on my trousers …..

Imagine her shock when she returned with the coffees …

Clearly faulty trousers … explanation to follow ..

At this point, I ask you to please ignore the rather unflattering marks! I unzipped the left leg zip …all good … but to no avail! The lower leg was still attached !! How? The zip wasn’t broken … then I realised, the lower part remained attached to the upper part by a section of the fabric ! Faulty gear indeed … but after having these trousers for at least five years ( clearly never having attempted to make them into shorts!) .. there was no way you could return them and get a refund 🙄🙄🙄

A lovely Pilgrim carrying his worldly goods with him quickly offered me scissors …and along with much laughter, my Camino buddy cut through the tethered fabric to make …shorts 👏👏👏

Okay I must now explain the rather suspect marks on my trousers….having had several rests on our upward journey , the first was on camomile 😘The second I was clearly struggling because I landed on a particularly prickly thistle , yet really couldn’t be bothered to move . The final stop, I sat down without looking properly and it was only when I got up , it was clear I had sat in something unsavoury !!! However I can assure you , it was just mud ( could have been smell free poo I suppose, but as in my entire life I have never come across such a thing , I doubt it!!!)

We continued on our way , following the instructions of the lovely lady from the Pilgrim Office , and arrived at our stop for the night safely, after a 10 hour walk including stops!