I found a contact in a group of Camino pilgrims, and they are meeting next Wednesday at the Spanish Club in Liverpool St - I'll certainly try to get there.
Their very sensible advice is:
- get the pilgrim passport in St Jean Pied de Port, it is easier and cheaper to do it there.
- don't try to walk over the Pyrenees from St Jean Pied de Port to Roncevalles in one day unless you are very fit. Apparently there are a lot of people who wreck their feet on the first day and can't continue for the rest of the Camino. It is better to stay at Orisson which is a village half way up the Pyrenees (ie only 6 Awaba Sts, not 12). It looks a spectacular place, from the website of the refuge there, so why rush through the Pyrenees? It is the only time in my life I will be there.
My suggestion is to find a bar in Orisson and then smugly watch the less well informed pilgrims dashing past and ruining their feet, while you sip a glass of wine!
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