30th April Gloucestershire

I'm staying at my mothers for this week definitely appreciating a resting up period. I rang the local doctors surgery for advice about who I should see in relation to my various aches and pains and was directed to a chiropracter. She gave me the once over and the good news is that I won't do any more damage by carrying on walking. The bad news is that when I get back I need to get a referral to an orthopaedic surgeon in relation to my big toe joint cos it's causing me to walk strangely putting undue pressure on the ankles and knees and so on and so forth. In the meantime it's Ibuprofen and ice packs. I've got a massage booked for Saturday for the shoulders.

I had a long chat with Pam (Parkinson) and Richard (Peters) yesterday to discuss plans for next week. I'm meeting up with them in Birmingham on Monday and we get an early flight out on Tuesday to Biarritz and if the onward transport fits we should be in St Jean for lunch. We're hoping to stay in a private refuge on Tuesday that provides a convivial communal evening meal and breakfast. They don't officially take bookings but if we or Mo can get there by 2pm to stake our claim we should be OK.

We have sensibly decided not to try to get to Roncevalles on Day 1 of the Spanish leg but to break the journey at Refuge Orisson. This is only 8 km but involves the steepest climb. That way we can leave leisurely late morning and let the early risers get their head start to Roncevalles. Orisson is already booked up but we can have a tent with matresses and all the extra covers we might need.

I've been checking out with phone provider how to update blog without running up huge bills. Seems I can type in notebook on phone offline and then copy and paste into blog when ready. Uses a fraction of MBs that way so I'll give it a whirl. Also need to turn off Data Roaming except when need access to Internet. Otherwise all sorts of Apps are accessing the Internet without asking me first. Voilà!